The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 16, 1899, Page 25

The steamer-Chilkat was struck by a storm while going out of Eureka harbor and turned turtie. lives to the heroic services of three women and a clergyman, who hastened to their assistance from the shore. AW 25 To 32 " PAGES Nehe “g)}\; e s part of the lighthouse Fecorc nt to Washington at the x{ session of Congress with a re- saving lals De likely receive Petersen, R. E. Hennig and at all deserve the n be no doubt, particu- y, who waded far surf and was beaten kers in the effort to wrecked lives who were they snatched thre 1. These h an. In the end bot and ten of those on saved wer small bo n t the But ved who ov their . bravery of three yple have just made happened on that h were rescued by the P. E. Petersen is pastor of the a Church of Eureka. statement about the amen m the wrec hilkat K| Stories of the Life-Savers. om 1 acquainte the station lookout to see the steamers rth Fork and Chilkat | cross out to se I saw the Chi turning apparently out of her cou e, and then heard Surfman Swanson say, | the say how many. that the acci Surfr g the alarm bell, he said ) the vy breaker and h stles, but could not pos Saw the ve: something wron upon 1 as ‘What will yo is something wrong?’ re st immediately ran down purpose, meeting the cepe way to the bell and reportin dent to him. nan McLean, who was nea ife-saving station ning of t 4th of April for ose of visit ne of the surf- g el | u and | T g r, heard the report and reached the look- hen on her beam ends, ordered it run out and ready himself started for the light- the lifeboat run out by the » started to launch her upon 1 of the keeper from the light- I then ran for the c soon after arrival I vy Mrs. McI ind Miss Shu little t r by Mrs. Henn ed the beach for some d ast of where we saw the 1 the breakers. :n to make its life preserve t comi in fi the boat s and a into “Mrs. Hennig then called our atten- + + « <+ + in San Francisco last week. ¢ men, to be held at Sal DO not think there is stronger movement in the organizing of here than there is else- women I am not sure but what the ew England States are in the M ‘husetts, for its size, the largest number of club women ny State. Pennsylvania has almost s many. The clubs are mostly in the hands of American women and are most flourishing where the population is not too largely foreign. | Indeed it is true that women, eclub women, and a woman not a club woman is almost an unknown accident now, are surely solving a great many prob- i lems. We are doing it, though, in such lead. ha a quiet way that no one knows much { about it. A woman earning her own living and | the wife of a millionaire may be going | about the same work together. Catholic | ant or Jewish women may be | all working together. Any one can see | the resuits. ’ | | SAN FRANCISCO, HEROISM OF THE THREE SUNDAY., APRIL 16, GBI S ‘kage and we all ran toward him. - 1 reached him first, by which time he was lying down, having ap- parently given up all efforts to help himself. 1 took hold of him and | dragged him some distance on his back in the water. The women ran to help me put him on his feet and in this po- sition we carried him to the shore. From cold and exhaustion he was un- | abie to use his legs. “By this time we discovered a second | man coming in on some wreckage and I immediately turned to meet him, leav- ing the women to conduct the first man y land. This man was a passenger | :d Mr. Mooser of Oakland. The cond man to whose assistance I was »w going was Peter Johnson, the first officér. He was very muchexhausted and when I reached him he had very We are all about alike, but when we stand behind our prejudices we never have an opportunity of knowing each other. The prejudices and sectarianism are taken down more in women'’s clubs than any place else. “I have heard the' argument made that women’s clubs interfere with church work. I have never found it so. I have always found the churches very kind to the women’s clubs. Many of the clubs, particularly in the smaller towns, were first originated right in church ety. Where the club ity work it invariably s 80 because there is the need of the work, and there is plenty of room for the.churches and the clubs to do all they desire.- Very rarely now does any oneadvance the idea that the club woman is not a good house woman because of her club interests. We all know about club men, but club women are just the reverse. We have rest in our homes and go to the club for stimulus. Any woman is a better wife, a better mother, a better sister for being a member of a live club s soon as the keeper. The | tion to a man apparently’ sitting on | little wreckage to support him. 'His | Johnson to the shore while M ing the condition of the | some wr head and shoulders only abo ater. I took he ned immediately were the |1 stance line and taken off his life 1n some « ove water Thén Miss Shumway assistance while | tinued with Mr. Mcoser, supporting and };:uming him above high water to the { dry sand. “Miss Shumway now joined us and | helped us for some distance, when she | discovered a third man coming in | through -the sur She immediatly struck out to h stance, saying, ‘You stay with this man. I'll go and help the other man out there." “Mrs. Hennig and myself took Mr. and being interested in club affairs. It broadens her and widens her sympa- thies, and that is what women need. But particularly in the West that is not what the clubs were formed for. They were formed for the good of the com- munity. I have been often touched by letters from small clubs out here in the dis- tricts away from the railroads. In dis- tricts which are settled by smali ranch- ers, where the man does the outside work and his wife does the work in the house, and they bring up their families to work with them. They are the typi- cal California country people, and they are the ones California will hear from some day. I have in mind one club just now be- cause I have heen corresponding with its president. It has fifteen members and all ranchers’ wives. Some have to g0 a good many miles to the club, but they feel that the club is a great deal to them. They take the smaller chil- dren to the club meeting and they dis- cuss all sorts of subjects. They recount their experiences in contrivances to save work in rearing children, in sew- ing, in butter making, in caring for fruit, raising chickens and vegetables. ‘They have the reports from mothers’ | way | above the conducted thelr | preserver. | returned to our | McLean con- | BRAVE CALIFORNIA - WHO DRAGGED THE EXHAUSTED MEN OUT OF THEKILLI THE W e i A a3 hum- waded out into the surf, which at this time very rough. e had our man on the beach just line and on turning aw M Shumway had been ed off her feet by wreckage. She istance of Fireman Hansen further out into the surf than we had ventured. “I ran to her assistance, and on reaching her found that she had taken hald of the man and was trying to keep | him from sliding off the wreckage on which he was lying. ; “I then took hold of the man with her and being soon joined by Mrs. Mc- Lean we altogether brought the half- drowned man to the shore. “Immediately upon the discovery of the first man Mrs. McLean had sent her little girl Alta to the station for brandy | meetings all over the world and know what other women are doing in the lines that interest them. Discussing such topics occupies one half of the time, the other half is given over to study. This particular club is studying ‘the history of the United States and reading Amerfcan litera- ture. It is almost the only social life those women have. Before the club was formed months and months would g0 by and those women would not be off their ranch nor have an idea beyond their daily routine work. , Such dead level monotony and grind drives the farmer’s wife crazy. We interest ourselves in everything which affects women. The servant girl problem, the girls in stores and their employers, the jails, the reformatories, all art and the appearance and con- dition of the city. I have been exceedingly interested in the California Club here in San Fran- cisco. It is sure to become a great fac- tor in the civie life here. I wish I had more time to become better acquainted with its workings, but I know what lines they are working on. They are going about their work very slowly and conservatively and very quietly, but so much the more surely. It is a large club already, although only a year T NOWLLIES N o TH T SRAORE Of the few sailors and passengers who escaped the disaster three of th G BREAKERS em owed thelr | and a line. Soon after all three men. | were landed I saw Mrs. McLean start | with Mr. Mooser across the sand hills | toward the life-saving station, a dis- tance of about a mile. *Miss Shumway and myself followed as soon as we had convinced ours s that no more men | were in sight as far as we could see. | “Thinking that the condition of the | two men remaining on the ‘beach re- | quired immediate attention, 1 assisted them on their feet and started also to lead them toward the life-saving sta- | tion. Being very large men and very weak, 1 had to support them nearly all the way and made but slow progress through the sandhills. | *“Not very far from the beach we met little Alta McLean returning with a bottle of brandy. I gave the men some. Although they objected to it at first, they were considerably revived by it. MR R e R R R R R R R R R R R R R e R R R R R R R R SRR R R S R e e ELLEN M. HENROTIN WRITES ABOUT THE WOMEN'S CLUBS OF CALIFORNIA. * + R e e A o S S S e e e e b S T B o s o o SR S R S o R e o e R R R R R R e llen Henrotin of Chieago, so wellknownas the organizer of tneWoman's which was held in conjunction with the World's Fair in Chicago, was is on her way to attend the Parllament of Wo- old, and has so many strong, workers. The work is so well organized that every separate worker has the in- fluence and moral support of the whole 600 members and so can accomplish Jjust so much the more. Influence? Well, when it is really understood that the women of the whole United States are organizing and educating themselves and standing as one woman for what we want, I think we can accomplish anything we set about. We will have to stick to our own natural life work. We do not want to do men’s work nor to interfere with them. We have our own work. and it has gone undone long enough. England, Germany, Russia, France, Holland, Italy, Australia, every coun- try in the Caucasian world has felt this woman’s club movement. The Red Cross was one of the first ‘women’s clubs to make itself felt. Flor- ence Nightingale began the work and see what it has grown to! ‘When women organize as we are do- ing and take in the homes of all the world 'we can do anything we set out to do. We have only begun to organ- ize and to realize our force for good. If, we keép within our own sphere of usefulness we can accomplish any- thing. active’ ““Once more we began our journey toward the station, and were soon met by Mrs. Nelson, wife of Surfman Nor- man Nelson, who had procured the. rope and was on her way to the beach. She joined us in helping.the men to- ward the station. “We finally reached , the .station, where we were met by Mrs. Phelps, who showed us into the kitchen, where active steps had been taken for the care of the ipwrecked men. We stayed at the station assisting: Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Swanson in taking the wet cloth- ing off the men and wrapping them im warm blankets, after which-Mrs. Mc- Lean and myself returned to the oceamn beach, where we learned from ~Mrs. ig that no more bodies had coma ore. . ! Mrs. McLean's statement is as fols lows: X “I+have heard read the Rev. Mra. Petersen’s statement and . concur with all he said up to the time I started@ with Mr. Mooser to the station. I soom daughter, - Alta, with tha of which I gave Mr. Mooser a drink. Although the brandy seemed to revive him somewhat he was very weak, staggering continually and fall< ing several times. The last time he fell it was only with the greatest of exer= tion on my part that I succeeded:in get« ting him on his feet. “Just outside the station gate I met Mrs. Swanson, wife of Surfman Swan- son. I asked her to take him into the station kitchen, and then I started back again to the beach. . .“When about. half way there I met Rev. Petersen, Miss Shumway and Mrs. Nelson with the other two shipwrecked men, I took Mrs. Nelson's place by First Officer Johnson's side, while Mrs. Nelson hurried to the beach with the rope. The rest of my experience is the same as related by Mr. Petersen in his statement. o e Miss Lillian Shumway and Mrs. R, E. Hennig signed statements that con cur with Rev. Mr. Petersen’s. R In the written report of D. E. Hughes, assistant engineer, in local charge of improvement work at the entrance to Humboldt Bay, he says: “Those who rescued the three men on North Spit ventured so far out that they seemed to me considerably knocked about by seas and wreckage.”