The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 31, 1901, Page 3

THE SUNDAY CALL. AN overboard!” sor- B The cry struck every heart as it was the deck of the oed down "he epot where the ma But the tide was strong and ed to make no progress The deck ing out for the oard!” electric e bell” the bouse. » wh h rings oom and e engin 1 say that surprises looking at the water ling man? e ropes are called all sorts 8 0 alictons sin 1o Eolon Fo e whole affair ¥y the signal is given. wer the boat,” commands the cap pver the water. already unfastened and At this signal As it is going down to the P In. The second mat m and directs the deckhands, eir places at the oars and pull the waves and tide will Ives with *“du * when they bring back a I body and “duty done” when they bring back an onscious b : to e feel awful st a hat. he continued. ring life if it is there. then dut of him: press his sides pour brandy down him tion, and sometimes we' n we ring up and send Hospital.” risk their lives for the seldom thanked by s we are cursed,” says one a record in saving lives. 2 the pler after a woman fought me like a tigress trying to keep her from sherman says that you fish out you get besides what you get off the dead erson $500 a year is expended from the d county funds for the return of »s from the bay. S es these fishers of men stay out in their boats all night searching for their ghastly prize—the corpse of a suicide of a Tew a They shoot in and out tnd underneath the piers, then out into the moonlight and down with the tide. When the corpse is found it is hooked into with long spears and drawn toward the boat. Then the boatman sends the corpse to the morgue. The corpse arrives at the morgue al- of those who “Even uite sure the person is 1l the stereotyped & barrel to get the water we raise his arms and to restore breathing. We going to marry thed ;¢ pp, —— MAN G THE POATY ways with empty pockets. No questions are asked. What would be the use? The corpse is left at the morgue for a day or two, then, if it is unclaimeq, it is buried in the potter’s plat and the un- known suigide is forgotten. what point of view does the rescued suicide take of life, what are the thoughts of the “man overboard”? Only those who back from the watery grave can tell us. An old German who was rescued says: “It's a most lonely feeling—and the fer- ry-boat so far awav, and it's a poor way for a good swimmer to try to die.” After his plunge the German immediate- ly struck out for the beat. But he says he felt as though he had weights on his feet. His heavy shoes and clothes became water-soaked, and he was picked up by the ferry going the other way, which got to him first. He was taken to the County Hospital, and next morning he wanted to know if the account of his attempted suicide was and have come (Continued from Page Two.) i . nearer Holden was able to call in English to them, and he says he almost swooned with delight to hear his own tongue | spoken In reply. None of the kanakas, | who sat open mouthed and wondering near him in the proa, understood a word { "Come nearer. I am a poor castaway | sallor and I want you to save me from | these savages,” he shouted, when he knew | he could be aeard. | *“We don’t want to be speared by those devils in the canoe with you,” one of the sailors returned. Holden urged the saflors to come a little | nearer and make a sudden demonstration | against, the savages, while he could escape to the sailors’ boat, but the sallors did not want to risk their lives against the pois- oned spears, besides all saflors knew tha frightful fate that befell Captain James Cook and his crew on the shore of the Sandwich Islands. The ship signaled the yawl to return. Holden saw the signal. His heart beat fast and his brain whirled. He realized it was then or never. He was doomed to a lifetime of barbarism and slavery on a lcnely island if he let another minute MY ,“"\ ({1 il TIME. 25 SECORDS in the paper, “because,” he sald, *I want her to read it.” A drunk who jumped overboard was in- stantly sobered. He sald when he Jooked back at the ferry he wanted to come back and live some more. “And it's terrible cold, and the boat is so slow and you can get so tired!” he complaincd. Verily, one of the effects of drink is to make the entire universe center around the drunk! But one young woman who was rescued is grateful to her rescuers. “She jumped from the ferry-boat and was golng under for the third and last time when we got her. I shall never forget her screams,” savs the second mate, whose duty it is to take the body in over the stern of the lifeboat. “A woman suicide always screams,” he says, “and the suicide scream is different from anything you ever heard. Sometimes I hear it in my dreams, It is terrible!” Years of experience have trained the TooRNG T THE JSUICIDE. -.. "TIME 50 JECONDS TROM MINUTE OF [TANNING THE RopE/ K Kl DRFgR r%. e "SE‘& JRESS Ty FIRST AMERICAN WHO LIVED IN TRE RAWATIAN 1SLANDS. go unimproved. The kanakas were rest- less and had lald down their spears and taken up their paddles to go back to shore, “For God's sake save me, save me!” he cried to the sallors. “Swim to us and we will,”” one of them replied. “But Holden. “Dive and swim under water out of spear range,” came the reply. It was an awfully desperate moment. Holden looked eagerly across the water. It was a full 500 yards to the rowboat. He glanced about him at the seven kana- kas In the proa. Each of them was in- tently watching the strange white men in the rowboat. He took in the situation at a glance. If he could swim under water until out of range of the spears he was safe, but that was an extraordinary task. Besides, the naked fellows in tha proa were as ready to dive in after him, look at their spears,” called and they were as fine swimmers as he. The decision was made as quick as a flash. “Hold up. I'll risk it anyhow,” he called to the sailors. He threw his head back, and quickly drawing air deep into his chest, he inhaled for the mightiest effort to save his life. A kanaka saw Holden's movements and knev; what they meant if the English words had fallen on dull ears. The kanaka shouted and rose to grasp Holden. He was a hair's breadth too late. Holden had his foot upon the gunwale of the proa, and in a twinkling he had plunged beneath the surface of the water. Several kanakas wildly hurled their willowy spears after him, but they were too excited. Several others began paddling after him, but a gun fired at them from the rowboat of the sailors ter- rified the savages so that they dared not £o nearer. Meanwhile Holden was still under ‘water. The sailors got up and scanned the water for his earliest appearance above the surface. The kanakas in the proa stood gazing about, with spears poised in their powerful right hands, ready to trapsfix the swimmer the instant his head became visible. Still the white man was under water. The sailors were sure he had gone down to a grave in the ocean. They had seen wonderful feats of subma- rine swimming, but never anything like this. They did not know the supremacy of this mighty physical effort of the stranger who had called to them. They did not realize that this was a perform- ance that meant life or death, escape or lifeiong captivity among savages, a resto- ration to home, mother and all that is dear and blessed in life, or servitude In its vilest form. It was a time when all the physical force that young Holden could summon in his behalf must do its great- est work. 7 So on and on he swam beneath the water. At last, when he could not hold his coward. I am. It's easler to die. T &S S0 tired.” No name was signed. She was a cripple. That was all that * was known about her. She came under the great army of the “Unknown.” A young woman who was rescued says that as she saak into an unconscious ¢ov« dition in the bottom of the lifebcat sha dreamed that she was 3oing to a punisb- ment so severe and soul-trying that the life which she had volutarily given up was a heaven in compar:son. This life on ! a thouwsand years remots and her punishment was to work through the ages to what she had voluntafiiy thrown away and then to solve the pus= zle instead of s ng it. She beileves that Is the punishment meted out to sale | cides. earth seem now.” she says. “my interest in life is keen. I male every situation and incident count “The trials of lif; are trivial, mountains. s—ihey sink into jm= )ne stares death in the made from mole-t significance when ace. The second r suthor is looked upon as am He keeps a record n the bay. »us to stoo & over the pages Feb. ¢ deck, hat as Wm. Gactic; body lost. jumped from lawer —1dentifleq’ by 1897, man starboard side, ster ) VZa LOWERING T BOAT—TIME 10 SEconDS —_— & crew and the wharfmen to size up a would-be suicide at sight. The woman who comes on board in a erying and nervous condition is watchel from the time she leaves till the time sha lands. Perhaps the wharfhand first; then he says to “Watch her!"” A drunken man usually tdlks about what he is going to do and then he can be watched and headed off Then, again, so varled are the forras of hugan nature that the man with sul- cidal intentions In his heart is no differert sometimes in outward appearances frora the ordinary commuter. One old fellow once paced the deck leisurely and emoked his pipe; then he went over to the side of the boat and put his foot on the rail and grasped the post for support. “You'ra not going overboard, old man, are you?’ asked the deckhand. “No,” sald the old fellow. “That would be a shame. Better struggle along with life. Don’t you think so?"* “Yes,” sald the deckhand, and as he turned he heard a sarcastic laugh and then a splash. The poor old man’s strug- gles with life were over. He jumped from the forward deck and was probably hit by the wheel and instantly killed, for his body was never found. “Good-by, ladics,” called a stole, as he jumped from the upper forward deck. “It's up to you.” It was afterward found that he was dis- appointed in love. He had set his heart on a woman and this was the eve of her marriage with another man. Like Adam, he lald the blame on the woman. And the woman sald he was brave. This little note was left by a young woman who had jumped overboafd: “You who read this will think I am a notices her the deckhanl, SR GO0 P55 5 L o Mg a0 MR Tk B St SR A s s o e ‘breath another second, even If he escaped by doing so, and when his brain seemed on fire from the long imprisonment under water, he came to the surface of the ocean. It was a marvelous feat, He was out of range of the greatest spearman in the Sandwich Islands. For a few minutes he paddled slowly about until he could breathe. Then he yelled to the sailors in the rowboat. They pulled toward him and he was hauled, exhausted and almost fainting into the boat. The kanakas in the proa, seeing this, paddled swiftly back to shore. Half dead with excitement at his deliv- erance and exhaustion from his supreme effort in diving, young Holden was carried on board the ship, which proved to be the Britannia, in the English merchant ser- wvice. Holden was shorn of his locks and ‘whiskers and became a pet of the fore- castle. His stories of his adventures on the strange island of the Sandwich group always had an audience. It was on Oc- tober 20, 1834, that he was taken aboard the Britannia. It was the first calandar day or month he had known in his five and a half years among the kanakas. He there to New York. He reached New Bedford early in the summer of 1835, “This fellow hed a pistol on a pas- senger who tried to stcp him. “‘Let me alone,” said, ‘and you needn’t try to find me, for I don’t even want to see a human being again.’ “He got his w He was probably laden with weights to keep him down, for he never came to the surface. “Now, there is the strangest cass on record,” sald the mats, pointing to an entry which read: ‘Feb. 17, 1897—Manuel Garcla ped from the bow of the boat. t was the 10:45 trip from San co. Think of it! He must have der the boat without being hit by the wheels. He said he remembered pass- ing through a great roar. We picked him up abe a mile back. He was almost done for and very much frightened. “Suicldietus,” declared the mate, “is a mania—a disease—a germ that gets Into the air once in a while and always multi- plies—they come in crops.” The mate is right. Two or threa months are filled with suicide records in bis log book, and then a stretch of months and no suicide occurs. “Oct. 21, 'S. On 11:45 p. m. trip from San Francisco Mis. Mamle Taylor jumped from the port side. Identifled by hat and purse left on board.” A few davs later: “Oct. 28, '88. Woman jumped from up- per starboard deck, aft. Rescued. She re- fused to give her name. It was the 10:30 p. m. trip from Oakland. She jumped as the boat was nearing the slip on the San Francisco side.” “Women stand a better chance of being rescued than men,” sald the mate. “Thelr clothes act as balloons to keep them up for a few moments, and at such times every moment counts. “Besides, they scream, and If it 1s dark we can locate them. Now this girl was like a bell buoy and although it was & dark night we got her. Her silk skivt was inflated and she sat on the water, screame ing. “She apologized right away for ecausing us so much trouble and then began to cry and sob and say how she couldn’t stend the disgrace of it all and Fred had promised to marry her and he had gone to the Klondike. “An old German who used to play the zither comes next in the suicide book— but he was stopped in time. “After he finished playing he satd to his friends, “Well, I guess I go throw me onto the bay.’ He was climbing over- board when he was pulled back. “Within a few days another musiclam, barytone, did something similar. “He had a beautiful volce and had just finished singing ‘Rocked In the Cradle of the Deep." He went out and jumped over. It was dark and we didn't even see his body.” Then comes an account in the mate's book of a young man who reached over the rafling after his straw hat that had blown off and he fell over and lost his life. Next, two girls who had been drinking sald “What's the use?” and they stepped over and were lost. The next record Is of a little miss just starting in on her teens whose whole lfe was blackened because she couldn’t wear her best clothes. So she put on her old clothes and walked off the aft deck of the ferry-boat just as it was leaving the Oak- land pler. She was rescued, scolded and sent home. “Now that girl,” sald the mate pointing to the next entry “tried sulcide five times. She tried the gas routs, carbolic aeld, chloroform and twice on the bay, but she was a good sw.mmer and kept up until wo reached her. “She jumped from the starboard deck att, while the boat was passing Goat Isiand. That’s where the majority of sui- cides make their death leap,” he sald as he closed his suicide book and uncolled the rope on the forward deck, stretching It across to keep the crowd back whila the boat landed, ISABEL FRASER,