Others
express the deepest indignation that 210 sailors were rescued,
the testimony shows that most of these sailors were in the
welter of ice and water into which they had been thrown from
the ship's deck when she sank; they were human beings and
so were picked up and saved.
"WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST"
The one alleviating circumstance in the otherwise immitigable
tragedy is the fact that so many of the men stood aside
really with out the necessity for the order, "Women and
children first," and insisted that the weaker sex should first
have places in the boats.
There were men whose word of command swayed boards
of directors, governed institutions, disposed of millions. They
were accustomed merely to pronounce a wish to have it gratified.
Thousands "posted at their bidding"; the complexion
of the market altered hue when they nodded; they bought
what they wanted, and for one of the humblest fishing smacks
or a dory they could have given the price that was paid to
build and launch the ship that has become the most imposing
mausoleum that ever housed the bones of men since the
Pyramids rose from the desert sands.
But these men stood aside--one can see them!--and gave
place not merely to the delicate and the refined, but to the
scared Czech woman from the steerage, with her baby at her
breast; the Croatian with a toddler by her side, coming
through the very gate of Death and out of the mouth of Hell
to the imagined Eden of America.
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