LOSS OF THE ARCTIC. IT was autumn. Hundreds had wended their way from pilgrimages;-from Rome and its treasures of dead art, and its glory of living nature; from the sides of the Switzer's mountains, and from the capitals of various nations, all of them saying in their hearts, we will wait for the September gales to have done with their equinoc tial fury, and then we will embark; we will slide across the appeased ocean, and in the gorgeous month of Octo ber we will greet our longed-for native land, and our heart-loved homes. The And so the throng streamed along from Berlin, from Paris, from the Orient, converging upon London, still hastening toward the welcome ship, and narrowing every day the circle of engagements and preparations. They crowded aboard. Never had the Arctic borne such a host of passengers, nor passengers so nearly related to so many of us. The hour was come. at Greenwich. The signal-ball fell It was noon also at Liverpool. anchors were weighed; the great hull swayed to the current; the national colors streamed abroad, as if themselves instinct with life and national sympathy. The bell strikes; the wheels revolve; the signal-gun beats its echoes in upon every structure along the shore, and the Arctic glides joyfully forth from the Mersey, and turns her prow to the winding channel, and begins her homeward run. The pilot stood at the wheel, and men saw him. Death sat upon the prow, and no eye beheld him. Whoever stood at the wheel in all the voyage, Death was the pilot that steered the craft, and none knew it. He neither revealed his presence nor whispered his errand. And so hope was effulgent, and lithe gayety disported itself, and joy was with every guest. Amid all the inconveniences of the voyage, there was still that which hushed every murmur,-"Home is not far away." every morning it was still one night nearer home! Eight And days had passed. They beheld that distant bank of mist that forever haunts the vast shallows of Newfoundland. Boldly they made it; and plunging in, its pliant wreaths 28* The wrapped them about. They shall never emerge. last sunlight has flashed from that deck. The last voyage is done to ship and passengers. At noon there came noiselessly stealing from the north that fated instrument of destruction. In that mysterious shroud, that vast atmosphere of mist, both steamers were holding their way with rushing prow and roaring wheels, but invisible. At a league's distance, unconscious; and at nearer approach, unwarned; within hail, and bearing right toward each other, unseen, unfelt, till in a moment more, emerging from the gray mists, the ill-omened Vesta dealt her deadly stroke to the Arctic. The death-blow was scarcely felt along the mighty hull. She neither reeled Neither commander nor officers deemed nor shivered. that they had suffered harm. Prompt upon humanity, the brave Luce (let his name be ever spoken with admiration and respect) ordered away his boat with the first. officer to inquire if the stranger had suffered harm. As Gourley went over the ship's side, oh, that some good angel had called to the brave commander in the words of Paul on a like occasion, "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." They departed, and with them the hope of the ship, for now the waters gaining upon the hold, and rising upon the fires, revealed the mortal blow. Oh, had now that stein, brave mate, Gourley, been on deck, whom the sailors were wont to mind,-had he stood to execute sufficiently the commander's will,-we may believe that we should not have had to blush for the cowardice and recreancy of the crew, nor weep for the untimely dead. But, apparently, each subordinate officer lost all presence of mind, then courage, and so honor. In a wild scramble, that ignoble mob of firemen, engineers, waiters, and crew, rushed for the boats, and abandoned the helpless women, children, and men, to the mercy of the deep! Four hours there were from the catastrophe of collision to the catastrophe of SINKING! Oh, what a burial was here! Not as when one is borne from his home, among weeping throngs, and gently carried to the green fields, and laid peacefully beneath the turf and flowers. No priest stood to pronounce a burial-ser vice. It was an ocean grave. The mists alone shrouded the burial-place. No spade prepared the grave, nor sexton filled up the hollowed earth. Down, down they sank, and the quick returning waters smoothed out every ripple, and left the sea as if it had not been. Henry Ward Beecher. THE IRISH PICKET. I'm shtandin' in the mud, Biddy, Me gun is at a "shouldher arms. An' whin I'm afther shpakin' out, This Southern climate's quare, Biddy, Wid Winter absent all the year, Ye mind the hot place down below? I'd draw comparisons-but then The only moon I see, Biddy, An' that's forminst the very cloud. The watchfires glame along the hill, An' whin the sintry passes them It's dead for shlape I am, Biddy, It's ye I'd like to see, Biddy, Says you, "Och, Biddy, darlint," thin says I, An' how's the pigs, and ducks, Biddy? That looked so innosint and shwate I'm sure you're aisy with the pig, An' fade him wid the best, because Whin I come home agin, Biddy, We'll have a parlor, bed-room, hall, With kitchen, pig-pen, pratey-patch, But, murther! there's a baste, Biddy, An' well I know the crathur's there, Now, Misther Rebel, say yer prayers, Here goes!--begorra, Biddy, dear, I've broke his oogly jaw! Orpheus C. Kerr (R. II. Newell). AT THE MORGUE. Deal gently, Preacher, So mute and cold! One lieth yonder, Her charms for gold. Come nigh and study The hair, whose sable The Morgue hath paid her Lies all confessed. (Was there no ring hers?) For this she yielded Life's strong endearment, What her despair! For one so fair? Father above us, Save those who love us! Read what her hand wrote, Just ere she died: "No friend, no dear one, Hath helped or hindered; I have no kindred, In the world wide." No stay was given Of earth or heaven, How she had striven Unto this last! Honor was left her: Ere man bereft her Of this one jewel, Her spirit passed. Spotless and pure, |