 Are Atheists Wicked by George W. Foote? One of the most effective arts of priestcraft has been the misrepresentation and slander of heretics. To give the unbeliever a bad name is to prejudice believers against all communication with him. By this means a two-fold object is achieved. First, the faithful are protected from the contagion of skepticism. Secondly, the notion is propagated that there is something essentially immoral involved in or attendant upon unorthodox opinions, and thus the prevalent religious ideas of the age become associated with the very preservation and stability of the moral order of human society. This piece of trickery cannot, of course, be played upon the students of civilization who, as Mill remarked, are aware that many of the most valuable contributions to human improvement have been the work of men who knew and rejected the Christian faith. But it easily imposes on the multitude, and it will never be abandoned until it ceases to be profitable. Sometimes it takes the form of idle stories about the deathbeds of free thinkers, who are represented as deploring their ill-spent life and bewailing the impossibility of recalling the wicked opinions they have put into circulation. At other times it takes the form of exhibiting their failings without the slightest reference to their virtues, as the sum and substance of their character. When these methods are not sufficient, recourses had to insinuation. Particular skeptics are spared, perhaps, but free thinkers are depicted like the poor in Tennyson's northern farmer as bad in the lump. It is broadly hinted that it is a moral defect which prevents them from embracing the popular creed, that they reject what they do not wish to believe, that they hate the restraints of religion and therefore reject its principles, that their unbelief, in short, is only a cloak for sensual indulgence or an excuse for evading irksome obligations. We are so accustomed to this monstrous theory of skepticism in religious circles that it did not astonish us or give us the least surprise to read the following paragraph in the Christian Commonwealth. Free Life and No Compulsory Virtue was the title of a placard born by a pamphlet seller of the public highway a few days ago. What the contents of the pamphlets were we do not know, but the title is a suggestive sign of the times and a rather more than usually plain statement of what a good deal of modern doubt amounts to. Lord Tennyson was severely taken to task a few years ago for making the atheist a villain in his promise of May, but he was about right. Much of the doubt of the day is only an outcome of the desire to discredit and throw off the restraints of religion and moral law in the name of freedom wrongly used. Free love, free life, free divorce, free Sundays. In the majority of cases are but synonyms for license. Those who hold the Darwinian doctrine of descent from a kind of ape may yet see it proved by a reversion to the beast if men succeed in getting all the false and pernicious freedom they want. Now in reply to this paragraph we have first to observe that our contemporary takes Lord Tennyson's name in vain. The villain of the promise of May is certainly an agnostic, but are not the villains of many other plays, Christians? Lord Tennyson does not make the Rascals wickedness the logical result of his principles, indeed, although our contemporary seems ignorant of the fact he disclaimed any such intention. A press announcement was circulated by his eldest son on his behalf that the Rascal was meant to be a sentimentalist and a ne'er-do-well, who whatever his opinions would have come to a bad end. When the Commonwealth therefore talks of Lord Tennyson as about right, it shows in a rather vulgar way the danger of incomplete information. Were we to copy its manners we might use a swifter phrase. That atheists in the name of freedom throw off the restraints of moral law is a statement which we defy the Commonwealth to prove, or in the slightest degree to support, and we will even go to the length of suggesting how it might undertake the task. Terpitude of character must betray itself. Moral corruption can no more be hidden than physical corruption. Wickedness will out, like murder or smallpox. A man's wife discovers it. His children shun him instead of clinging about his knees. His neighbors and a acquaintances eye him with suspicion or dislike. His evil nature pulsates through an ever-widening circle of detection, and in time his bad passions are written upon the features in the infallible lines of mouth and eyes and face. How easily, then, it should be to pick out these atheists. The most evil-looking men should belong to that persuasion. But do they? We invite our contemporary to a trial. Let it inquire the religious opinions of a dozen or two and see if there is an atheist among them. Again, a certain amount of evil disposition must produce a certain percentage of criminal conduct. Accordingly, the jails should contain a large proportion of atheists. But do they? Statistics prove they do not. When the present writer was imprisoned for blasphemy and was asked his religion, he answered, none, to the wide-eyed astonishment of the official who put the question. Atheists were scarce in the establishment. Catholics were there, and red tickets were on their cell doors. Protestants were there, and white tickets marked their apartments. Jews were there, and provision was made for their special observances. But the atheist was a Raraevis, the very phoenix of Halloway jail. Let us turn to another method of investigation. During the last ten years, four members have been expelled from the House of Commons. One of them was not expelled in the full sense of the word. He was, however, thrust by brute force from the precincts of the House. His name was Charles Bradlaw, and he was an atheist. But what was his crime? Simply this, he differed from his fellow members as to his competence to take the parliamentary oath and the ultimate event proved that he was right, and they were wrong. Now what were the crimes of the three other members who were completely and absolutely expelled? Captain Verne was found guilty of procuration for seduction. Mr. Hastings was found guilty of embezzlement, and Mr. D. Cobain was pronounced guilty of evading justice while charged with unnatural offenses. Mr. Jabez Spencer Balfour might also have been expelled if he had not accepted the Chiltern Hundreds. Now, all these real delinquents were Christians, and even ostentatious Christians. Compare them with Charles Bradlaw, the atheist, and say which side has the greatest cause for shame and humiliation. Are atheists conspicuous in the divorce court? Is it not Christian reputations that are smirched in that inquisition? Do atheists or any species of unbelievers appear frequently before the public as promoters of bubble companies and systematic robbers of orphans and widows? Is it not generally found in the case of great business collapses that the responsible persons are Christians? Is it not a fact that their profession of Christianity is usually in proportion to the depth of their rascality? Not long since the Bishop of Chester, backed up by Mr. Wa, of this society for the prevention of cruelty to children, a publicly declared that the worst ill-users of little ones were artisan secularists. He was challenged to give evidence of the assertion, but he preferred to maintain what is called a dignified silence. Mr. Wa was challenged to produce proofs from the society's archives, and he also declined. It is enough to affirm infamy against free thinkers. Proof is unnecessary, or rather it is unobtainable. Singularly there have been several striking cases of brutal treatment of children since Mr. Wa and Bishop Jane committed themselves to this indefensible assertion, and in no instance was the culprit a secularist, though some of them, including Mrs. Montagu, were devout Christians. There are other methods of inquiry into the wickedness of atheists, but we have indicated enough to set the commonwealth at work, and we invite it to begin forthwith. And while it is getting ready, we beg to observe that theologians have always described freedom as license, whereas it is nothing of the kind. Freedom is the golden mean between license and slavery. The breaking of arbitrary fetters forged by ignorance and intolerance does not mean a fall into loose living. The heretic in religion, while resenting outside control by his very perception of the vast and far-reaching consequences of human action, is often chained to the most timid sanctities of life. With respect to the Darwinian theory of descent from a kind of ape, we have a word for our contemporary. The annual meeting of the British Association was held at Oxford in 1860. Darwin's dissent of man had recently been published, and the air was full of controversy. Bishop Wilbur Force, in the course of a derisive speech, turned to Professor Huxley and asked whether it was on the mother's or father's side that his grandfather had been an ape. Huxley replied that man had no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for a grandfather. If there is an ancestor, he continued, whom I should feel shame in recalling it would be a man, one who meddled with scientific questions he did not understand, only to obscure them by aimless rhetoric and indulgence in eloquent digressions and appeals to religious prejudice. This rebuke was administered thirty-three years ago, but it is still worth remembering, and perhaps the Commonwealth may find in it something applicable to itself. And of are Atheists Wicked by George W. Foote. Chapter 1 The Assassination of President McKinley On Friday, September 6, 1901, the blackest Friday in American history, the American people were shocked and stunned by the news that their beloved President, William McKinley, had been shot down by a cowardly assassin while attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. It was like a flash of lightning from a clear sky. The people were stunned into momentary silence. The sign of grief was on the face of every loyal American, and the hearts of the people beat as one in sympathy for the stricken chief. The horror of the tragic event grew when it was learned that the assassin was an anarchist and not an insane man, as was first supposed. Then came the full realization that the murderous bullet of the assassin was aimed not only at the foremost citizen of the Republic, but that the red thing called anarchy had raised its bloodstain hand against government, against all peaceable authority and law. It was a blow struck at all the institutions of society that men hold dear and sacred. With that wonderful self-control that distinguishes the American people, loyal citizens restrained the rising passion in their breasts, and their suppressed rage was further held in check by the word of hope which followed that the President was yet alive. Alas! It was but a hope, destined to linger but a few days. The scene of the assassination was the temple of music at the exposition grounds. The day previous was President's day at the exposition, and President McKinley had delivered what many believed to be the greatest speech of his life. Praises for his wisdom and statesmanship were ringing around the world. On the fateful day the President attended the exposition as a visitor, and in the afternoon held a reception in the temple of music. The reception to the President was one to which the general public had been invited. President John G. Milburn of the exposition had introduced the President to the great crowd in the temple, and men, women, and children came forward for a personal greeting. Among those in line was Leon Sholdose whose right hand was wrapped in a handkerchief. Folded in the handkerchief was a thirty-two caliber self-acting revolver holding five bullets. A little girl was led up by her father, and the President shook hands with her. As she passed along to the right, the President looked after her smilingly, and waved his hand in pleasant adieu. Next in line came a boyish-featured man about twenty-six years old, preceded by a short Italian who leaned backwards against the bandage hand of his follower. The officers who attended the President noted this man, their attention being first attracted by the Italian, whose dark shaggy brows and black mustache caused the professional protectors to regard him with suspicion. The man with the bandage hand in an innocent face received no attention from the detectives beyond the mental observation that his right hand was apparently injured, and that he would present his left hand to the President. The Italian stood before the palm bower. He held the President's right hand so long that the officers stepped forward to break the clasp, and make room for the man with the bandage hand, who extended the left hand toward the President's right. The fatal shots. The President smiled and presented his right hand in a position to meet the left of the approaching man, hardly a foot of space intervened between the bodies of the two men. Before their hands met, two pistol shots rang out, and the President turned slightly to the left and reeled. The bandage on the hand of the tall, innocent-looking young man had concealed a revolver. He had fired through the bandage without removing any portion of the handkerchief. The first bullet entered too high for the purpose of the assassin, who had fired again as soon as his finger could move the trigger. On receiving the first shot, President McKinley lifted himself on his toes with something of a gasp. His movement caused the second shot to enter just below the navel. With the second shot, the President doubled slightly forward and then sank back. Secret Service Detective Geary caught the President in his arms, and President Milburn helped to support him. Asks if he is shot. When the President fell into the arms of Detective Geary, he coolly asked, Am I shot? Geary unbuttoned the President's vest, and seeing blood replied, I fear you are, Mr. President. It had all happened in an instant. Almost before the noise of the second shot sounded, a negro waiter, James F. Parker, leaped upon the assassin, striking him a terrific blow, and crushing him to the floor. Soldiers of the United States Artillery, detailed at the reception, sprang upon them, and he was surrounded by a squad of Exposition Police and Secret Service Detectives. Detective Gallagher seized Shogo's hand, tore away the handkerchief, and took the revolver. The artillerymen, seeing the revolver in Gallagher's hand, rushed at the assassin and handled him rather roughly. Meanwhile Detective Ireland and the negro held the assassin, endeavouring to shield him from the attacks of the infuriated artillerymen and the blows of Beliezmann's clubs. Supported by Detective Geary and President of the Exposition Milburn, and surrounded by Secretary George B. Cordelieu, and half a dozen Exposition officials, the President was assisted to a chair. His face was white, but he made no outcry. When the second shot struck the President, he sank back, with one hand holding his abdomen, the other fumbling in his breast. His eyes were open, and he was clearly conscious of all that had transpired. He looked up into President Milburn's face, and gasped, Cordelieu, the name of his private secretary. The President's secretary bent over him. Cordelieu said to the President, My wife, be careful about her. Don't let her know. Moved by a paroxym, he writhed to the left, and his eyes fell upon the prostate form of the assassin, Shogo's, lying on the floor bloody and helpless beneath the blows of the guard. The President raised his right hand, read with his own blood, and placed it on the shoulder of his secretary. Let no one hurt him, he gasped, and sank back in the chair, while the guards carried Shogo's out of his sight. The ambulance from the Exposition hospital was summoned immediately, and the President, still conscious, sank upon the stretcher. Very Cordelieu and Mr. Milburn rode with him in the ambulance, and in nine minutes after the shooting the President was awaiting the arrival of surgeons, who had been summoned from all sections of the city, and by special train from Niagara Falls. The President continued conscious, and conversed with Mr. Cordelieu and Mr. Milburn on his way to the hospital. I am sorry, he said, to have been the cause of trouble to the Exposition. Three thoughts had found expression with the President. First, that the news should be kept from his wife. Second, that the would-be assassin should not be harmed. And third, regret that the tragedy might have hurt the Exposition. The news that the President had been shot past, across the Exposition grounds with almost incredible speed, and the crowd around the temple grew until it counted fifty thousand persons. This big crowd followed the ambulance respectfully to the hospital, the other eager to find the assassin and punish him. Certain it is that if officials had not used remarkable diligence in taking Shogo's out of the way of the crowd, he would have been mobbed and beaten to death. Shogo's had been carried into a side room at the northwest corner of the temple. There he was searched, but nothing was found upon him, except a letter related to lodging. The officers washed the blood from his face and asked him who he was and why he had tried to kill the President. He made no answer at first, but finally gave the name of Neiman. He offered no explanation of the deed except that he was an anarchist and had done his duty. A detail of Exposition guards was sent for a company of soldiers. A carriage was summoned. South of the temple a space had been roped off. The crowd tore out the iron stanchion holding the ropes and carried the ropes to a flagpole standing nearby on the Esplanade. Lynch him cried a hundred voices, and a start was made for one of the entrances to the temple. Soldiers and police beat back the crowd. Guards and people were wrangling, shouting, and fighting. In this confusion Shogo, still bleeding, his clothes torn and scarcely able to walk, was let out by Captain James F. Valali, Chief of the Exposition detectives. Commandant Robinson and a squad of secret servicemen. Shogos was thrown into a carriage and three detectives jumped in with him. Captain Valali jumped on the driver's seat and lashed the horses into a gallop. Six doctors were at the President's side within thirty seconds after his arrival at the hospital. Among them the President's family physician, Dr. P. M. Rixie, Dr. Roswell Park, a surgeon of national reputation, was summoned from Niagara Falls, where he was performing an operation, and Dr. Herman Minter arrived soon after. The surgeons consulted and hesitated about performing an operation. The President reassured them by expressing his confidence, but no decision was reached when Dr. Mann of the Exposition Hospital staff arrived. After another consultation Dr. Mann informed the President that an operation was necessary. All right, replied the President, go ahead, do whatever is proper. The anesthetic administered was ether, and for two and a half hours the President was under the influence of this. The wound in the breast proved to be only a flesh wound. The bullet struck a button and was somewhat deflected. It entered the middle of the breast above the breastbone, but did not penetrate far. When the President was undressed for the operation the bullet fell from his clothing upon the table. The second and serious wound was a bullet hole in the abdomen, about five inches below the left nipple, and about an inch and a half to the lift of the median line. The bullet which caused the wound penetrated both the interior and posterior walls of the stomach, going completely through that organ. It was also found, as a consequence of the perforation of the stomach fluid had circulated about the abdominal cavity. Further examination disclosed that the hole made by the entrance of the bullet was small and clean cut, while that on the other side of the stomach was large and ragged. A five inch incision was made and through that aperture the physicians were enabled to turn the organ about so as to suture the larger bullet hole. After that had been so the abdominal cavity was washed with the salt solution. The operation performed on President McKinley at the emergency hospital, left no need for a second operation to follow it almost immediately. Dr. Mann, who performed the operation, applied for his assistant, Dr. Herman Minter. His second assistant was Dr. John Parminter. His third assistant was Dr. Lee of St. Louis, who happened to be on the exposition grounds at the time of the tragedy, and placed his services at the disposal of the President. Dr. Nelson W. Wilson noted the time of the operation and took notes. Dr. Eugene Wasden of the Marine Hospital gave the anesthetic. Dr. Rixie arrived at the latter part of the operation and held the light. Dr. Park arrived at the close of the operation. It was Dr. Mann who wielded the knife. The operation lasted almost an hour. A cut about five inches long was made. It was found necessary to turn up the stomach of the President in order to trace the course of the bullet. The bullet's opening in the front wall of the stomach was small and it was carefully closed with sutures, after which a search was made for the hole in the back wall of the stomach. This hole, where the bullet went out of the stomach, was larger than the hole in the front wall of the stomach. In fact, it was a wound over an inch in diameter, jagged, and ragged. It was sewed up in three layers. This wound was larger than the wound where the bullet entered the stomach because the bullet, in its course, forced tissues through ahead of it. In turning up the stomach, an act that was absolutely necessary and was performed by Dr. Mann with rear skill, the danger was that some of the contents of the stomach might go into the abdominal cavity and as a result cause perinatitis. It so happened that there was little in the President's stomach at the time of the operation. Moreover, subsequent developments tended to show that this feature of the operation was successful and that none of the contents of the stomach entered the abdominal cavity. If any of the contents had entered the cavity, the probability is that perinatitis would have set in. The weapon used by the assassin proved to be a five-barreled double-action revolver of thirty-two caliber. Every chamber contained a bullet and three remained in the weapon after the shooting. It was at first reported that the weapon was a derringer, but this proved to be incorrect. Many of the accounts of the assassination vary in detail, which is quite natural under the excitement of the moment and the fact that no two persons see and hear alike. One account, even by an eyewitness, which differs in some respects from the one with which this chapter begins as follows. It was about four o'clock near the close of the reception in the Temple of Music, and the President, in his customary cordial manner, was reaching forward with a pleasant smile to take the hands of the good-natured crowd that was pushing forward. A six-foot colored man, who proved to be a waiter in the plaza, named James F. Parker, had just shaken hands with the President, and was smiling all over with enjoyment. When suddenly behind him pressed forward this light figure of a smooth-faced but muscular young man, whose eyes were wild and glaring, whose head was drooping, and who seemed to me to have sprung up from the floor, as I had not observed him before. The President took no special notice of him, but simply stooped over to shake his hand without looking, apparently, at the individual. Their palms hardly touched before I heard two shots in quick succession. A hush and quiet instantly followed. The President straightened up for a moment and stepped back five or six feet. Secretary Cortell, you, who had been standing at his side, burst into tears and exclaimed, Your shot! The President murmured, Oh no, it cannot be, but Secretary Cortell you and Mr. Milburn had torn open the President's vest and the tell-tale blood flowing from the wound in the abdomen revealed the fearful truth. The President had dropped into a chair and now turned deathly pale. Meanwhile, the other wound in the breast had been uncovered, and both Mr. Milburn and Secretary Cortell you were in tears. The President, seeing their emotion, put up his hand and gently murmured that he was all right, or some reassuring words, and appeared to fade away. The secret servicemen, Foster and Ireland, at once bound and seized the assassin before the smoke had cleared away, and in fact before the sound of the second shot was heard. The negro, Parker, also turned instantly and confronted Shulgos, whose right hand was being tightly held behind him by the detectives and whose face was thrust forward. Parker, with his clenched fists, smashed the assassin three times squarely in the face, and was apparently wild to kill the creature while all the crowd of artillerymen, policemen, and others also sat upon the object of their wrath. The women in the vast audience were hysterical and the men were little less than crazy. The transformation from the scene of smiles and gladness of a moment before to the wild rushing mighty roar of an infuriated crowd was simply awful. The police and military at once set about the task of clearing the building, which they accomplished with amazing celerity and good judgment, considering the fact that a crowd of fifty thousand at the outside was pressing into the entrance. A third narrative is still somewhat different. The narrator recites that the President, after he had been shot, was calm, seemed to grow taller, and had a look of half-reproach and half-indignation in his eyes as he turned and started toward a chair unassisted. Then Secretary Cortellu and Mr. Milburn went to his help. Secret Service Agent S. R. Ireland and George F. Foster had grappled with the assassin. The quicker than both was a gigantic negro, James F. Parker, a waiter in the restaurant in the plaza, who had been standing behind Shogos, awaiting an opportunity and joyous expectation to shake the President's hand. He stood there six feet four inches tall with two hundred and fifty pounds of muscular enthusiasm, grinning happily until he heard the pistol shots. With one quick shift of his clenched fist he knocked the pistol from the assassin's hand. With another he spun the man around like a top, and with a third he broke Shogos's nose. A fourth split the assassin's lip and knocked out several teeth, and when the officers tore him away from Parker, the latter crying like a baby exclaimed, O, for only ten seconds more. End of Chapter 1 of the Complete Life of William McKinley by Marshall Everett. Read by Gerald Hawkins. Santa Clara, California. The Books of the Ceylon Balam, The Prophetic and Historic Records of the Mayas of Yucatan by Daniel G. Brin Preparatory note. The substance of the present pamphlet was presented as an address to the numismatic and antiquarian Society of Philadelphia at its meeting in January 1882, and was printed in the pen monthly, March 1882. As the subject is one quite new in the field of American archaeology and linguistics, it is believed that a republication in the present form will be welcomed by students of these branches. The Books of Ceylon Balam Civilization in ancient America rose to its highest level among the Mayas of Yucatan. Not to speak of the architectural monuments which still remain to attest this, we have the evidence of the earliest missionaries to the fact that they alone of all the natives of the New World possessed a literature written in letters and characters, preserved in volumes neatly bound, the paper manufactured from the bark of a tree and sized with a durable white varnish. A few of these books still remain preserved to us by accident in the great European libraries, but most of them were destroyed by the monks. Their contents were found to relate chiefly to the pagan ritual, to traditions of the heathen times, to astrological superstitions and the like. Hence they were considered deleterious and were burned wherever discovered. This annihilation of their sacred books affected the natives most keenly, as we are pointedly informed by Bishop Landa himself one of the most ruthless of vandals in this respect. But already some of the more intelligent had learned the Spanish alphabet and the missionaries had added a sufficient number of signs to it, to express with tolerable accuracy the phonetics of the Maya tongue. Relying on their memories and no doubt aided by some manuscripts secretly preserved, many natives set to work to write out in this new alphabet the contents of their ancient records. Much was added which had been brought in by the Europeans and much omitted which had become unintelligent or obsolete since the conquest, while of course the different writers varying in skill and knowledge produced works of very various merit. Nevertheless each of these books bore the same name in whatever village it was written or by whatever hand it always was and to-day still is called the Book of Chilan Balam. To distinguish them apart the name of the village where a copy was found or written is added. Probably in the last century almost every village had one which was treasured with superstitious veneration. But the opposition of the Padres to this kind of literature, the decay of ancient sympathies and especially the long war of races which since 1847 has desolated so much of the Peninsula have destroyed most of them. They remain, however, either portions or descriptions of not less than 16 of these curious records. They are known from the names of the villages respectively as the Book of Chilan Balam of Nabila of Chimayo of Kaowa of Mani of Akskutskab of Iksal of Tihasuko of Tiksikokab, etc. They are being the names of various native towns in the Peninsula. When I added that not a single one of these had ever been printed or even entirely translated into any European tongue it will be evident to every archaeologist and linguist what a rich and unexplored mind of information about this interesting people they may present. It is my intention in this article merely to touch upon a few salient points to illustrate this, leaving a thorough discussion of their origin and contents to the future editor who will bring them to the knowledge of the learned world. Turning first to the meaning of the name Chilan Balam it is not difficult to find its derivation. Chilan says Bishop Landa, the second Bishop of Yucatan, whose description of the native customs is an invaluable source to us. Quote was the name of their priests whose duty it was to teach the sciences, to appoint holy days to treat the sick, to offer sacrifices, and especially to utter the oracles of the gods. They were so highly honoured by the people that usually they were carried on litters on the shoulders of Devotees. Strictly speaking, in Maya, Chilan means interpreter, mouthpiece, from chij, the mouth, and in this ordinary sense frequently occurs in other writings. The word Balam, literal, tiger, was also applied to a class of priests and is still in use among the natives of Yucatan as the designation of the protective spirits of fields and towns, as I have shown at length in a recent study of the world as it occurs in the native myths of Guatemala. Chilan Balam, therefore, is not a proper name, but a title, and in ancient times designated the priest who announced the will of the gods and explained the sacred oracles. This accounts for the universality of the name and the sacredness of its associations. The dates of the books which have come down to us are various. One of them, the Book of Chilan Balam of Money, was undoubtedly composed not later than 1595, as is proved by internal evidence. Various passages in the works of Lambda, Luzana, Sanchez Aguilar, and Cagaludo, all early historians of Yucatan, prove that many of these native manuscripts existed in the 16th century. Several rescripts date from the 17th century, most from the latter half of the 18th. The names of the writers are generally not given, probably because the books, as we have them, are all copies of older manuscripts, with merely the occasional addition of current items of note by the copies, as, for instance, a malignant epidemic, which prevailed in the peninsula in 1673, is mentioned as a present occurrence by the copyist of the Book of Chilan Balam of Nabula. I come now to the contents of these curious works. What they contain may conveniently be classified under four headings. Astrological and prophetic matters. Ancient chronology and history. Medical recipes and directions. Later history and Christian teachings. The last mentioned consists of translations of the Doctrina, Bible stories, narratives of events after the conquest, etc., which I shall dismiss as of least interest. The astrology appears partly to be reminiscences of that of their ancient heathendom, partly that borrowed from the European Almanacs of the century 1550 to 1650. These, as is well known, were crowned with predictions and divinations. A careful analysis, based on comparison with the Spanish Almanacs of that time, would doubtless reveal how much was taken from them, and it would be fair to presume that the remainder was a survival of ancient native theories, but there are not wanting actual prophecies of a much more striking character. These were attributed to the ancient priests and to a date long preceding the advent of Christianity. Some of them have been printed in translations in the Historias of Lesana and Cagoludo, and some of the originals were published by the late Abbey Breser de Borborg in the second volume of the reports of the Mission Scientifique au Mexique et Don Larmique Central. Their authenticity has been met with considerable skepticism by weights, and others, particularly as they seem to predict the arrival of the Christians from the east and the introduction of the worship of the cross. It appears to me that this incredulity is uncalled for. It is known that at the close of each of the larger divisions of time the so-called Cattons, a chalan or inspired diviner, uttered a prediction of the character of the year or epoch, which was about to begin. Like other would-be prophets he had doubtless learned that it is wiser to predict evil than good, inasmuch as the probabilities of evil in this worried world of ours outweigh those of good. And when the evil comes his words are remembered to his credit, while, if per chance, his gloomy forecasts are not realized, no one will bear him a grudge that he has been at fault. The temper of this people was, moreover, gloomy, and it suited them to hear of threatened danger and destruction by foreign foes, but alas, for them, the worst that the boating words of the oracle foretold was as nothing to the dire event which overtook them. The destruction of their nation, their temples, and their freedom, meet the iron heel of the Spanish conqueror. As the wide character says, As to the supposed reference to the cross and its worship, it may be remarked that the native word translated cross by the missionaries simply means a piece of wood set up right, and may well have had a different and special signification in the old days. By way of a specimen of these prophecies, I quote from the book of Céline Balaam of Chumayel, saying at once that for the translation I have depended on a comparison of the Spanish version of Lesana, who was blindly prejudiced, and that in French of the Abbey, Bressard de Beauberg, who knew next to nothing about Maya, with the original, it will be easily understood, therefore, that it is rather a paraphrase than a literal rendering. The original is in short aphoristic sentences, and was no doubt chanted with a rude rhythm. What time the sun shall brightest shine, cheerful will be the eyes of the king, for ages yet shall be unscribed, then shall come the holy priest, the holy god, with grief I speak, what now I see. Watch well the road ye dwellers in Itza, the master of the earth shall come to us, thus prophesies Nahau, Petch, the Seer, and the days of the fourth age at the time of its beginning. Such are the obscure and ominous words of the ancient Oracle. If the date is authentic, it would be about 1480, the fourth age in the Maya system of computing time, between a period of either twenty or twenty-four years at the close of the fifteenth century. It is, however, of little importance whether these are accurate copies of the ancient prophecies. They remain at least faithful imitations of them, composed in the same spirit and form which the native priests were want to employ. A number are given much longer than the above, and containing various curious references to ancient usages. Another value they have in common with all the rest of the text of these books, and it is one which will be properly appreciated by any student of languages. They are, by common consent of all competent authorities, the genuine productions of native minds cast in idiomatic forms of the native tongue by those born to its use. No matter how fluent a foreigner becomes in a language not his own, he can never use it as he does one who has been familiar with it from childhood. This general maxim is tenfold true when we apply to a European learning and American language. The flow of thought as exhibited in these two linguistic families is in such different directions that no amount of practice can render one equally accurate in both. Hence the importance of studying a tongue as it is employed by natives, and hence the very high estimate I place on these books of Ceylon Balam as linguistic material, an estimate much increased by the great rarity of independent compositions in their own tongues by members of the native races of this continent. I now approach what I consider the peculiar value of these records, apart from the linguistic mold in which they are cast, and that is the light they throw upon the chronological system in ancient history of the Mayas. To a limited extent, this has already been brought before the public. The late Don Pio Perez gave to Mr. Stevens, when in Yucatan, an essay on the method of computing time among the ancient Mayas, and also a brief synopsis of Maya history, apparently going back to the third or fourth century of the Christian era. Both were published by Mr. Stevens in the appendix to his travels in Yucatan, and have appeared repeatedly since in English, Spanish, and French. They have, up to the present, constituted almost our sole sources of information on these interesting points. Don Pio Perez was rather vague as to whence he derived his knowledge. He refers to ancient manuscripts, old authorities, and the like, but as the abbe, impressor de bober, justly compliance, he rarely quotes their words, and gives no descriptions as to what they were, or how he gained access to them. In fact, the whole of Señor Perez's information was derived from these books of Chila Balam, and without wishing it all to detract from his reputation as an antiquary and a Maya scholar, I am obliged to say that he has dealt with them as scholars so often do with their authorities, that is, having framed his theories, he quoted what he found in their favor, and neglected to refer to what he observed was against them. Thus, it is a cardinal question in Yucatecan archaeology as to whether the epoch or age by which the great cycle, the Aho Katun, was reckoned, embraced twenty or twenty-four years. Contrary to all the Spanish authorities, Perez declared for twenty-four years supporting himself by the manuscripts. It is true there are three of the books of the Chila Balam, those of Mani, Ka'awa, and Akskutskab, which are distinctly in favor of twenty-four years, but on the other hand there are four or five others which are clearly for the period of twenty years, and of these Don Perez said nothing. Although copies of more than one of them were in his library, so of the epochs or Katuns of Maya history, there are three or more copies in these books which he does not seem to have compared with the one who furnished Stevens. His labor will have to be repeated according to the methods of modern criticism, and with the additional material obtained since he wrote. Another valuable feature in these records is the hence the furnish of the hieroglyphic system of the Mayas. Almost our only authority here to work has been the essay of Alanda. It has suffered somewhat in credit because we had no means of verifying the statements and comparing the characters he gives. Dr. Valente has even gone so far as to attack some of his assertions as fabrications. This is an amount of skepticism which exceeds both justice and probability. The chronological portions of the books of the Chilan Balam re-partly written with the ancient signs of the days, months and epochs, and the furnishess, also delineations of the wheels which the natives used for computing time. The former are so important to the student of Maya hieroglyphics that I have added photographic reproductions of them to this paper, giving also representations of those of Alanda for comparison. It will be observed that the signs of the days are distinctly similar in the majority of cases, but that those of the months are hardly alike. The hieroglyphs of the days taken from the Codex Trojanum, an ancient Maya book written before the conquest, probably about 1400, are also added to illustrate the variations which occurred in the hands of different scribes. Those from the books of Chilan Balam are copied from a manuscript known to Maya scholars as the Codex Pérez of Undoubted Authenticity and Antiquity. The result of the comparison I thus institute is a triumphant refutation of the doubts and slurs which have been cast on Bishop Lenda's work and vindicated for a very high degree of accuracy. The hieroglyphics for the months are quite complicated, and in the books of Chilan Balam are rudely drawn. But for all that, two or three of them are evidently identical with those in the calendar preserved by Lenda. Some years ago Professor de Rosny expressed himself in great doubt as to the fidelity in the tracing of these hieroglyphs of the months, principally because he could not find them in the two Codexes at his command. As he observes, they are composite signs, and this goes to explain the discrepancy, for it may be regarded as established that the Maya script permitted the use of several signs for the same sound, and the sculptor or scribe was not obliged to represent the same word always by the same figure. In close relation to the chronology is the system of enumeration and the arithmetical signs. These are discussed with considerable fullness, especially in the book of Chilan Balam of Ka'oa. The numerals are represented by exactly the same figures as we find in the Maya manuscripts of the libraries of Dresden, Peth, Paris, and Madrid. That is, by points or dots up to five, and the fives by single straight lines, which may be indiscriminately drawn vertically or horizontally. The same book contains a table of simplification in Spanish and Maya, which settles some disputed points in the use of the Vigesimal system by the Mayas. A curious chapter in several of the books, especially those of Ka'oa and Mani, is that on the Thirteen Ahua, Catoons or Epics of the Greater Cycle of the Mayas, this cycle embraces thirteen periods, which, as I have before remarked, are computed by some at twenty years each, each of these Catoons was presided over by a chief or king. That being the meaning of the word Ahau, the books above mentioned give both the name and the portrait, drawn and colored by the rude hand of the native artist of each of these kings, and they suggest several interesting analogies. They are, in the first place, identical with those on an ancient native painting, an engraving of which is given by Father Cagaludo in his history of Yucatan, and explained by him as the representation of an occurrence which took place after the Spaniards arrived in Peninsula. Evidently, the native in whose hands the worthy father founded, fearing that he partook of the fanaticism which had led the missionaries to the destruction of so many records of the nation, deceived him as to its purport, and gave him an explanation which imported to the scroll the character of a harmless history. The one exception is the last or thirteenth chief. Cagaludo appends to this the name of an Indian who probably did fall a victim to his friendship to the Spaniards. This name, as a sort of guarantee for the rest of his story, the native scribe inserted in place of the genuine one. The peculiarity of the figure is that it has an arrow or dagger driven into its eye. Not only is this mentioned by Cagaludo's informant, but it is represented in the paintings in both books of Ceylon Balaam as above noted, and also by a fortunate coincidence in one of the calendar pages of the Codex Troano, Plate 23, in a remarkable cartouche which, from a wholly independent course of reasoning, was some time since identified by my esteemed correspondent Professor Cyrus Thomas of Illinois as a cartouche of one of the Ahokatons and probably of the last of them. It gives me much pleasure to add such conclusive proof of the sagacity of his supposition. The first column on the right is from Landa. The second is from the Codex Troano. The remaining four are from the book of Ceylon Balaam of Kaua. There is other evidence to show that the engraving in Cagaludo is a relic of the purist ancient Maya symbolism. One of the most interesting which have been preserved to us, but to enter upon its explanation in this connection would be too far from my present topic. A favorite theme was the cure of diseases. Bishop Landa explains that the Celains as sorcerers and doctors and adds that one of the prominent duties was to diagnose diseases and point out their appropriate remedies. As we might expect, therefore, considerable prominence is given to the description of symptoms and suggestions for their alleviation. Bleeding and the administration of preparations of native plants are the usual prescriptions. But there are others which have probably been borrowed from some domestic medicine book of European origin. The late Don Pio Perez gave a great deal of attention to collecting these native recipes and his manuscripts were carefully examined by Dr. Berend who combined all the necessary knowledge, botanical, linguistic and medical, and who has left a large manuscript titled Recitarios de endios, which presents the subject fully. He considers the scientific value of these remedies to be next to nothing and the language in which they are recorded to be distinctly inferior to that of the remainder of the books of the Celan Balam. Hence, he believes that this portion of the ancient records was supplanted some time in the last century by medical notions introduced from European sources. In fact, is the statement of the copyists of the books themselves as these recipes are sometimes found in a separate volume entitled The Book of the Jew, a Libro del Julio who this alleged Jewish physician was, who left so widespread and durable a renown among the Yucatecan natives none of the archaeologists have been able to find out. The language and style of most of these books are elliptical and obscure. The Maya language has naturally undergone considerable alterations since they were written. Therefore, even to competent readers of ordinary Maya they are not readily understood. Fortunately, however, there are in existence excellent dictionaries of the Maya of the 16th and 17th centuries, which, where they published, would be sufficient for this purpose. A few persons in Yucatán have appreciated the desirability of collecting and preserving these works. Don Pio Perez was the first to do so, and of living Yucatecan scholars particular mention should be made of the Reverend Canon Don Crescentio Carrillo E. Ancona who has written a good and I believe the only description of them, which is yet appeared in print. They attracted the earnest attention of a pluralist and ethnologist, the late Dr. C. Herman Berrant, and at a great expenditure of time and labor he visited various parts of Yucatán and with remarkable skill made facsimile copies of the most important and complete specimens, which he could anywhere find. This invaluable and unique collection has come into my hands since his death, and it is this which has prompted me to make and contents to those interested in such subjects. Read before the Pneumostatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia at his 24th annual meeting, January 5th, 1882. End of The Books of Chilan Balam The Prophetic and Historic Records of the Mayas of Yucatán by Daniel G. Brennan Equal Opportunity in Education by Mikhail Bakunin This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The first topic for consideration today is this. Will it be feasible for the working masses to know complete emancipation as long as the education available to those masses that bestowed upon the bourgeois, or, in more general terms, as long as there exists any class, be it numerous or otherwise, which by virtue of birth is entitled to a superior education and a more complete instruction? Does not the question answer itself? Is it not self-evident that of any two persons endowed by nature with roughly one will have the edge, the one whose mind will have been broadened by learning, and who, having better grasped the interrelationships of natural and social phenomena what we might term the laws of nature and of society will, the more readily and more fully grasp the nature of his surroundings and that this one will feel, let us say, a greater liberty and, in practical terms, greater aptitude and capability than his fellow. It is natural that he who knows more will dominate him who knows less, and were this disparity of education and education in learning the only one to exist between two classes would not all the others swiftly follow until the world of men itself, in its present circumstances, that is, until it was again divided into a mass of slaves and a tiny number of rulers, the former laboring way as they do today, to the advantage of the latter. Now we see why the bourgeois socialists demand only a little education for the people, a soup-son more than they currently receive, whereas we socialist democrats demand on the people's behalf complete and integral education an education as full as the power of intellect today permits. So that henceforth there may not be any class over the workers by virtue of superior education and therefore able to dominate and exploit them. The bourgeois socialists want to see the retention of the class system each class they contend fulfilling a specific social function, one specializing say in learning and the other in manual labor. We on the other hand seek the final and the utter abolition of classes. We seek a unification of society and a quality of social and economic provision for every individual on this earth. The bourgeois socialists, whilst retaining the historic basis of the society of today would like to see them become less stark, less harsh, and more simplified. Whereas we should like to see their destruction from which it follows that there can be no true circumpromise let alone any coalition between the bourgeois socialists and us socialist democrats. But I have heard it said and this is the argument most frequently raised against us and an argument which the dogmatists of every shade regard as irrefutable it is impossible that the whole of mankind should devote itself to learning, for we should all die of starvation. Consequently, while some study others must labor so that they can produce what we need to live, not just producing for their own needs, but also for those men who devote themselves exclusively to intellectual pursuits. Aside from expanding the horizons of human knowledge the discoveries of these intellectuals improve the condition of all human beings, without exception when applied to industry, agriculture, and generally to political and social life. Agreed? And do not their artistic creations enhance the lives of every one of us? No, not at all. And the greatest reproach which we can level against science and the arts is precisely that they do not distribute their favors and do not exercise their influence, except on a tiny fragment of society to the exclusion, and thus to the detriment of the vast majority. Today one might say of the advances of science and of the arts just what is already and so properly been said of the prodigious progress of industry trade, credit, and in a word of the wealth of society in the most civilized countries of the modern world. The wealth is quite exclusive and the tendency is for it to become more so each day as it becomes concentrated into an ever shrinking number of hands, shunning the lower echelons of the middle class and the petty bourgeoisie depressing them into the proletariat so that the growth of this wealth is the direct cause behind the growing misery of the laboring masses. Thus the outcome is the gulf which yawns between the privileged contented minority and millions of workers who earn their keep by the strength of their arm yawns ever wider and that the happier the contented who exploit the people's labor become the more unhappy the workers become. One has only to look at the fabulous opulence of the aristocratic financier, commercial, and industrial clique in England and compare it with the miserable condition of the workers of the same country. One has only to re-read the so naive and heart-rending letter, lately penned by an intelligent and upright goldsmith of London, one Walter Duggan, who has voluntarily taken poison along with his wife and their six children simply as a means of escape from the degradations of poverty and the torments of hunger, and one will find oneself obliged to concede that the much vaunted civilization means in material terms to the people only oppression and ruination and the same holds true for the modern advances of science and the arts. Huge strides indeed it is true but the greater the advances the more they foster intellectual servitude and thus in material terms foster misery and inferiority as the lot of the people. For these advances merely widen the gulf which already separates the people's level of understanding from the levels of the privileged classes. From the point of view of natural capacity the intelligence of the former is today obviously less stunted, less exercised, less sophisticated, and less corrupted by the need to defend unjust interests and is consequently naturally of greater potency than the brain power of the bourgeoisie but then again the brain power of the bourgeois does have at its disposal the complete arsenal of science filled with weapons that are indeed formidable. It is very often the case that a highly intelligent worker is obliged to hold his tongue when confronted by a learned fool who defeats him, not by dint of intellect, of which he has none, but by dint of his education. An education denied the working man but granted the fool because while the fool was able to develop his foolishness scientifically in schools, the working man's laborers were clothing, housing, feeding him and supplying his every need, his teachers and his books, everything necessary to his education. Even within the bourgeois class, as we know only too well, the degree of learning imparted to each individual is not the same. There too there is a scale which is determined not by the potential of the individual, but by the amount of wealth of the social stratum to which he belongs by birth. For example the instruction made available to the children of the lower petty bourgeoisie whilst itself scarcely superior to that which workers manage to obtain for themselves is next to nothing by comparison with the education that society makes readily available to the upper and middle bourgeoisie. What then do we find? The petty bourgeoisie whose only attachment to the middle class is through a ridiculous vanity on the one hand and it's dependent on the big capitalists on the other finds itself most often in circumstances even more miserable and even more humiliating than those which afflict the proletariat. So when we talk of privileged classes, we never have in mind this poor petty bourgeoisie which if it did have a little more spirit and gumption would not delay in joining forces with us to combat the big and medium bourgeoisie who crush it today no less than they crush the proletariat. And should society's current economic trends continue in the same direction for a further 10 years which we do however regard as impossible we may yet see the bulk of the medium bourgeoisie tumble first of all into the current circumstances of the petty bourgeoisie only to slip a little later into the proletariat. As a result of course of this inevitable concentration of ownership into an even smaller number of hands, the ineluctable consequences of which would be to partition society once and for all into a tiny, overwhelmingly opulent, educated, ruling minority, and a vast majority of impoverished, ignorant, enslaved proletarians. There is one fact which should make an impression upon every person of conscience upon all who have at heart a concern for human dignity and justice. That is for the liberty of each individual amid and through a setting of equality for all. That is the fact that of all the intelligentsia all of the great applications of science to the purpose of industry, trade, and to the life of society in general have thus far profited no one save the privileged classes and the power of the state that timeless champion of all political and social iniquity. Never, not once have they brought any benefit to the masses of people. We need only list the machines and every working man and honest advocate of the emancipation of labor would accept the justice of what we say. By what power do the privileged classes maintain themselves today with all their excellent smugness and iniquitous pleasures in defiance of the all too legitimate outrage felt by the masses of the people? Is it by some power inherent in their persons? No. It is solely through the power of the state in whose apparatus today their offspring hold always every key position and even every lower and middle range position accepting that of soldier and worker. And in this day and age what is it that constitutes the principle underlying the power of the state? Why, it is science. Yes, science. Science of government science of administration and financial science the science of fleecing the flocks of the people without their bleeding too loudly and when they start to bleed the science of urging silence patience and obedience upon them by means of a scientifically organized force the science of deceiving and dividing the masses of the people and keeping them alays in a solitary ignorance lest they ever become able by helping one another and pulling their efforts to conjure up a power capable of overturning states and above all military science with all its tried and tested weaponry these formidable instruments of destruction which work wonders and lastly the science of genius which has conjured up steamships, railways and telegraphy which by turning every government into a hundred armed, a thousand armed bryorius by giving it the power to be, act and arrest there at once has brought about the most formidable political centralization the world has ever witnessed who then will deny that with that exception all of the advances made by science have thus far brought nothing save a boosting of the wealth of the privileged classes and of the power of the state to the detriment of the well-being and liberty of the masses of the people of the proletariat but we will hear the objection do not the masses of the people profit by this also are they not much more civilized in the society of ours than they were in the societies of bygone centuries we shall reply to that with an observation borrowed from the noted German socialists Lassalle in measuring the progress made by the working masses in terms of their political and social emancipation one should not compare their intellectual state in this century with what it may have been in centuries gone by instead one ought to consider whether by comparison with some given time the gap which existed between the working masses and the privileged classes having been noted the masses have progressed to the same extent as those privileged classes for if the progress made by both has been roughly equivalent the intellectual gap which separates the masses from the privileged in today's world will be the same as it ever was but if the proletariat has progressed further and more rapidly than the privileged then the gap must necessarily have narrowed but if, on the other hand the workers rate of progress has been slower and consequently less than that of a representative of the ruling classes over the same period then that gap will have grown the gulf which separates them will have increased in the man of privilege grown more powerful and the workers' circumstances more abject more slave-like than at the date one chose as the point of departure if the two of us set off from two different points at the same time and you have a lead of 100 paces over me and you move at a rate of 60 paces per minute and I had only 30 paces per minute then after one hour the distance which separates us will not be just over 100 paces but just over 1900 paces that example gives us a roughly accurate notion of the respective advances made by the bourgeoisie and the proletariat thus far the bourgeoisie has raced along the track of civilization at a quicker rate than the proletariat not because they are intellectually more powerful than the latter indeed one might properly argue the contrary case but because the political and economic organization of society has been such that hitherto the bourgeoisie alone have enjoyed access to learning and science only for them and the proletariat has found itself doomed to a forced ignorance so that if the proletariat has nevertheless made progress and there is no denying it has then that progress was made not thanks to society but rather in spite of it to sum up in society as presently constituted the advances of science have been at the root of the relative ignorance of the proletariat just as the progress of industry and commerce have been at the root of it's relative impoverishment thus intellectual progress and material progress have contributed in equal measure towards the exacerbation of the slavery of the proletariat meaning what? meaning that we have a duty to reject and resist that bourgeoisie science is we have a duty to reject and resist bourgeois wealth and reject and resist them in this sense that in destroying the social order which turns it into the preserve of one or of several classes we must lay claim to it as the common inheritance of all the world end of equal opportunity in education by Mikhail Bakunin read by Nolafidion in the presence and under the shadow of this catastrophe of the sea which overwhelmed my feelings too deeply for expression in words I can only say that the white star officers and employees will do everything humanly possible to alleviate the sufferings and sorrow of relations and friends of those who perished the Titanic was the last word in shipbuilding every regulation prescribed by the British Board of Trade had been strict with the British government that the British Board of Trade had been strictly complied with the master, officers and crew were the most experienced and skillful in the British service I am informed that a committee of the United States Senate has been appointed to investigate the circumstances of the accident I heartily welcome a most complete and exhaustive inquiry and any aid which I and my associates and our builders and navigators can render is at the service of the public and the government both in the United States and in Great Britain under these circumstances I must defer making any further statement at this hour Mr Ismay said informally before giving out his statement that he left the ship in the last boat one of the collapsible boats on the starboard side I do not know the speed at which the Titanic was going said Mr Ismay and reply to a question she hit the iceberg at a glancing blow Mr Ismay went to his rooms at the Ritz Carlton Hotel asked to tell the circumstances in which he left the Titanic Mr Ismay said that a boat was lowered in which most of the passengers were women and that when the officers in charge called for more women and there was no response he took a place in the boat he declared that apparently there were no other passengers in that part of the vessel asked how long he had remained in the ship after the collision he said, when pressed for an answer that he thought he remained about an hour or an hour and a quarter or perhaps longer soon after the collision he visited the bridge where he found Captain Smith had already arrived he further stated that he believed that the ice had struck the vessel between the bow and the bridge he described the method of loading and lowering the boats but his testimony in regard to what happened after he left the ship was told and that of other level-headed survivors and I have therefore used it to strengthen the following narratives in the compilation of which no facts have been used unless supported by at least two witnesses the ascertained facts all accounts agree that the night, though moonless was starry that the atmosphere was unusually clear and the sea absolutely calm when the disaster occurred nearly all accounts agree the Titanic was going at a great pace though on this important point a final judgment may well be reserved pending official details there is substantial agreement too that Captain Smith was not on duty at the time of the accident his place being taken by the first officer the majority of the survivors note with surprise the slightness of the shock a fact which corroborates apparently the well substantiated report that the Titanic did not strike when the iceberg head on as to the nature of the iceberg there is serious divergence of opinion several survivors talk of the deck being littered with splinters of ice which would point to a big berg this theory is supported by accounts according to which some passengers saw a berg as the vessel passed it after the impact if it was really a big berg it would appear that the Titanic must have been struck by a submerged ledge incompetent quarters in New York an alternative theory is propounded that the ice was what is called a blue berg growler a mass that is to say of nearly submerged ice of a semi-transparent nature this it is felt might in conjunction with the smoothness of the water and the height above water of the lookout in the crow's nest under the officers on the bridge account for the fact that the obstruction apparently was not detected until the vessel was within a quarter of a mile of it though it is said that the smooth sea and the atmospheric conditions which existed it would have been possible for a big berg to have been practically invisible at a short distance the fact that the Titanic had certainly part of the starboard side below the waterline and possibly part of the bottom ripped out would fit of course either theory it must be remembered however that all this is only speculation and will remain so pending an authoritative statement of some kind or other belief in the ship the shock caused practically no alarm among the passengers though one of the surviving stokers is reported to have said that water immediately poured into the fire room it was not till the engine stopped a moment later that any disquiet was felt even then there was absolutely no panic that any rate among the first class passengers the belief in the unsinkability of the Titanic was firmly rooted and an idea was apparently current but an iceberg had been merely grazed the only alarming feature was the roar of the exhausts as the boilers were emptied of steam the fires too were apparently drawn the stokers responding to orders with the utmost bravery the order all passengers on deck with life-belts on came about half an hour after the collision sailors almost simultaneously began to prepare the boats even then signs of real alarm were conspicuously absent if as alleged in some quarters the first boats to leave the ship carried more than their normal complement of the crew this was probably due to the fact that passengers could not be brought to leave the ship it is said that some people even went back to bed the electric light meanwhile was acting perfectly and continued to do so until the end when the boats on deck B were prepared the order was given all men stand back to B deck the men stood back on the deck at any rate without any sign of panic ten minutes later when it was seen that no women were left at least on one side of deck B a few men jumped from the starboard deck A to the boats below Mr Ismay it will be remembered alluded to some such situation in his testimony and in this other accounts agree substantially nowhere is there anything but praise for the splendid discipline of the officers and crew nor can any words express the admiration which is commanded by practically all the multitudinous accounts dealing with the conduct of the passengers both men and women when magnificent courage and sang-fra were the rule it is almost invidious to mention names but some examples of what I mean will be given later the sinking of the vessel the accounts of the sinking of the vessel differ one trustworthy witness tells me Mr Ismay had no explosion and from his position in a boat two miles away he could not see anything to lead him to believe that the vessel broke in two it seemed to him that she sank vertically by her bows after a period of sickening suspense during which those who were left on board had to cling prone to the decks Mr Ismay and various other level-headed people also deny that they heard any explosion but nevertheless the story is widely current that the boilers blew up and the ship divided survivors' stories Mr Beasley's graphic account the scene when the vessel went down New York April the 18th 1145 p.m the following account of the disaster is given by Mr Beasley who till lately was a master at Dalic College the voyage from Queenstown was quiet and successful we had met with very fine weather the sea was calm and the wind was the south-westerly the whole way the temperature was very cold particularly on the last day in fact after dinner on Sunday evening it was almost too cold to be on the deck at all I had been in my berth about ten minutes when at about a quarter past ten I felt a slight jar then soon afterwards there was a second shock but it was not sufficiently large to cause any alarm the engines however stopped immediately afterwards at first I thought the ship had lost a propeller I went up on deck in my dressing-gown and I found only a few people there who had come up in the same way to inquire why we had stopped but there was no sort of anxiety in the mind of any one we saw through the smoking-room window that a game of cards was going on then I went in to ask if they knew anything they had noticed the jar a little more and looking through the window had seen a huge iceberg go by close to the side of the boat I thought that we had just grazed it with a glancing blow and they had been to see if any damage had been done none of us of course had any conception that she had been pierced below by part of a submerged iceberg the game of cards was resumed and without any thought of disaster I retired to my cabin to read until we started again I never saw any of the players all the onlookers again a little later hearing people going upstairs I went out again to ask myself why the engines had stopped no doubt many of them had been awakened from their sleep by the sudden stopping of the vibration to which they had become accustomed during those four days we had been on board going up on the deck again I saw that there was an unmistakable list downwards from the stern to the bows but knowing nothing of what happened I concluded that some of the front compartments had filled and had weighed her down again I went down to my cabin when I put on some warmer clothing as I dressed I heard the order shouted all the passengers on deck with lifebelts on we all walked up slowly with the lifebelts tied on over our clothing but even then we presumed that this was merely a wise precaution the captain was taking and that we should return in a short time to go to bed there was a total absence of any panic or expression of alarm I suppose this must be accounted for by the exceeding calmness of the night and the absence of any signs of an accident the ship was absolutely still and except for the gentle tilt downwards which I do not think one person in ten would have noticed at the time there were no visible signs of the approaching disaster she lay just as if waiting for the order to go on again when some trifling matter had been adjusted but in a few moments we saw the covers being lifted from the boats and the crews allotted to them standing by and uncoiling the ropes which were to lower them we then began to realize that it was a more serious matter than we had at first supposed my first thought was to go down to get more clothing and some money but seeing people pouring up the stairs I decided that it was better to cause no confusion to people coming up by attempting to get to my cabin preparations for leaving presently we heard the order all men stand back away from the boats all ladies retired to the next deck below which was the smoking room or B-deck the men all stood away and waited in absolute silence some leaning against the end railings of the deck others pacing slowly up and down the boats were then swung out and lowered from A-deck when they were level with B-deck where all the women were connected the women got in quietly with the exception of some who refused to leave their husbands in some cases they were torn from their husbands and pushed into the boats but in many instances they were allowed to remain since there was no one to insist that they should go looking over the side one saw the boats from Aft already in the water slipping quietly away into the darkness presently the boats near me were lowered with much creaking as the new ropes slipped through the pulleys and blocks down the ninety feet which separated them from the water an officer in uniform came up as one boat went down and shouted out when you're off load row round panion ladder and stand by with other boats for orders aye aye sir came up the reply but I do not think any boat was able to obey the order for when they were afloat and had their oars at work the condition of the rapidly settling line there was much more apparent in common prudence the sailors saw that they could do nothing but row away from the sinking ship and so save at any rate some lives they no doubt anticipated that the suction from such an enormous vessel would be more than usually dangerous to the crowded boat which was mostly filled with women no trace of disorder all this time there was no trace of any disorder there was no panic or rush to the boats and there were no scenes of women sobbing hysterically such as one generally pictures happening at such times everyone seemed to realize so slowly that there was imminent danger that when it was realized that we might all be presently in the sea with nothing but our life belts to support us until we were picked up by passing steamers it was extraordinary how calm everyone was how completely self-controlled we were as one by one the boats filled with women and children were lowered and rowed away into the night presently word went round among us that men were to be put in boats on the starboard side I was on the port side most of the men walked across the deck to see if this was true I remained where I was and shortly afterwards I heard the call any more ladies looking over the side of the ship I saw boat number 13 swinging level with B-deck it was half full of women again the call was repeated any more ladies I saw non-coming then one of the crew looked up and said any ladies on your deck sir no I replied then you'd better jump said he and fell into the bottom of the boat as they cried lower away as the boat began to descend two ladies were pushed hurriedly through the crowd on B-deck and a baby ten months old was passed down after them then down we bent the crew shouting out directions to those lowering us level, aft, stern, both together until we were some ten feet from the water here occurred the only anxious moment we had during the whole of our experience from the time of our leaving the deck to our reaching the Carpathia a lifeboat in danger immediately below our boat was the exhaust of the condensers and a huge stream of water was pouring all the time from the ship's side just above the water line it was plain that we ought to be smart away from it if we were to escape swamping when we touched the water we had no officers on board and no petty officer or member of the crew to take charge so one of the stokers shouted someone find the pin which releases the boat from the ropes and pull it up no one knew where it was we felt as well as we could on the floor and along the sides but found nothing it was difficult to move among so many people we had sixty or seventy on board down we went and presently we floated with our ropes still holding us and the stream of water from the exhaust washing us away from the side of the vessel while the swell of the sea urged us back against the side again the resultant of all these forces was that we were carried parallel to the ship's side and directly under boat number fourteen which had filled rapidly with men and was coming down on us in a way that threatened to submerge our boat stop lowering fourteen our crew shouted and the crew of number fourteen now only twenty feet above cried out the same the distance to the top however was some seventy feet and the creaking of the pulleys must have deadened all sound to those above for down she came fifteen feet ten feet five feet and a stoker and I reached up and touched the bottom of the swinging boat above our heads the next drop would have brought her on our heads just before she dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes with his knife open in his hand one, I heard him say, and then two as the knife cut through the pulley rope the next moment the exhaust stream carried us clear while boat number fourteen dropped into the water taking the space we had occupied a moment before our gunnels were almost touching we drifted away easily and when our oars were got out we headed directly away from the ship the crew seemed to me to be mostly cooks they sat in their white jackets, two to an oar, with a stoker at the tiller there was a certain amount of shouting from one end of the boat to the other and the discussion as to which way we should go was finally decided by our electing as captain the stoker who was steering and by all agreeing to obey his orders he set to work at once to get in touch with the other boats calling upon them and getting as close to them as seemed wise so that when search boats came in the morning to look for us there would be more chance that that all would be rescued the sinking of the vessel it was now one o'clock in the morning the starlit night was beautiful but as there was no moon it was not very light the sea was as calm as a pond there was just a gentle heave as the boat dipped up and down in the swell it was an ideal night except for the bitter cold in the distance the Titanic looked enormous her length and her great bulk were outlined in black against the starry sky every porthole and saloon was blazing with light it was impossible to think that anything could be wrong with such a leviathan were it not for that ominous tilt downwards in the boughs where the water was by now up to the lowest row of portholes at about two o'clock we observed her settling very rapidly with the boughs and the bridge completely under water she slowly tilted straight on end with the stern vertically upwards and as she did so the lights in the cabins and the saloons which had not flickered for a moment since we left died out flashed once more and then went out altogether at the same time the machinery roared down through the vessel with a groaning rattle that could have been heard for miles it was the weirdest sound surely that could have been heard in the middle of the ocean it was not yet quite the end to our amazement she remained in that upright position for a time which I estimate as five minutes it was certainly for some minutes that we watched at least 150 feet of the Titanic towering up above the level of the sea looming black against the sky then with a quiet slanting dive she disappeared beneath the waters our eyes had looked for the last time on the gigantic vessel in which we set out from Southampton then there fell on our ears the most appalling noise that human being ever heard the cries of hundreds of our fellow beings struggling in the icy water crying for help with a cry that we knew could not be answered we longed to return to pick up some of those who were swimming but this would have meant the swamping of our boat and the loss of all of us Reuter Mr. Lawrence Beasley went to Dalic College as a science master in 1904 after having had two years experience in teaching at works with grammar school he was educated first at Derby School where he took a scholarship afterwards at Keyes College Cambridge of which he was a scholar and prize-man he took a first class in the natural science tripos in 1903 an officer's adventures sucked down with the Titanic Colonel Gracie of the United States Army jumped from the topmost deck of the Titanic when she sank and was sucked down with her on reaching the surface again he swam until he found a cork raft and then helped to rescue others he gives the exact time of the sinking of the Titanic as 222 a.m. which was the hour at which his watch was stopped by his leap into the sea he said after sinking with the ship it appeared to me as if I was propelled by some great force through the water this might have been occasioned by explosions under the water and I remembered fearful stories of people being boiled to death the second officer has told me that he has had a similar experience I thought of those at home as if my spirit might go to them to say goodbye forever again and again I prayed for deliverance although I felt sure that the end had come I had the greatest difficulty in holding my breath until I came to the surface I knew that once I inhaled the water would suffocate me when I got under water I struck out with all my strength for the surface I got to the air again after a time which seemed to me to be unending there was nothing in sight save the ocean dotted with ice and strewn with large masses of wreckage dying men and women all about me were groaning and crying piteously no more room on the raft the second officer and Mr. J. B. Thayer Jr. who were swimming near me told me that just before my head appeared above the water one of the Titanic's funnels separated and fell apart near me scattering the bodies in the water I saw wreckage everywhere and all that came within reach I clung to at last by moving from one piece of wreckage to another I reached the raft soon the raft became so full that it seemed as if she would sink if more came on board her the crew for self-preservation had therefore to refuse to permit any others to climb on board this was the most pathetic and horrible scene of all the piteous cries of those around us ring in my ears and I shall remember them to my dying day hold on to what you have old boy we shouted to each man who tried to get on board one more of you would sink us all many of those whom we refused answered as they went to their death good luck God bless you all the time we were buoyed up and sustained by the hope of rescue we saw lights in all directions particularly frequent was some green lights which as we learned later were rockets fired in the air by one of the Titanic's boats so we passed the night with the waves washing over and burying the raft deep in water we prayed through all the weary night and there was never a moment when our prayers did not rise above the waves men who seemed long ago to have forgotten how to address their creator we called the prayers of their childhood and murmured them over and over again together we said the Lord's Prayer again and again Reuter on board the Carpathia how the passengers were received a passenger on board the Carpathia made the following statement I was awakened at twelve thirty in the morning by a commotion on the decks which seemed unusual there was no excitement however as the ship was still moving I paid but little attention to the disturbance and went to sleep again about three o'clock I was again awakened and I noticed that the Carpathia had stopped I went up onto the deck and found that our vessel had changed her course the lifeboats had been sighted and began to arrive one by one there were sixteen of them in all the transfer of the passengers was soon being carried out it was a pitiable sight ropes were tied round the waist of the adults to help them in climbing up the rope ladders the little children and babies were hoisted onto our deck in bags some of the boats were crowded but a few were not half full this I could not understand some of the people were in evening dress while others were in their nightclothes or wrapped in blankets they were all hurried into the saloon at once for hot breakfast of which they were in great need as they had been in open boats for four or five hours in the most biting air I have ever experienced there were husbands without their wives wives without their husbands parents without their children and children without their parents but there was no demonstration and not a sob was heard they spoke scarcely a word and seemed to be stunned by the shock of their experiences one of the women and three of the others taken from the lifeboats died soon after reaching our deck and their bodies were lowered into the sea at five o'clock in the afternoon the rescued had no clothing other than that which they were wearing and a relief committee was formed our passengers contributing enough to meet their immediate needs the survivors were so close to the sinking steamer that they feared that the lifeboats would be sucked down into the vortex on our way back to New York we steamed along the edge of the ice field which stretched as far as the eye could see to the north there was no blue water to be seen at all at one time I counted thirteen icebergs one of the Carpathias stewards in an account of how the first boatload of passengers was rescued said just as it was about half day we came upon a boat with eighteen men in it but no women it was not more than a third filled all the men were able to climb up a Jacobs ladder which we threw over the port side between 8.15 and 8.30 we got the last two boats crowded to the gunnel almost all the occupants of which were women after we had got the last load on board the Californian came alongside the captains arranged that we should make straight for New York while the Californian looked round for more boats we circled round and round and saw all kinds of wreckage while we were pulling in the boatloads the women were quiet enough but when it seemed sure that we should not find any more persons alive then Bedlam came I hope never to go through it again the way those women took on for the folk they had lost was awful we could not do anything to quiet them until they cried themselves out the refusal of the operators on board the Carpathia to answer questions concerning the disaster is now explained it was due to the physical exhaustion of both the men they sent a large number of personal messages from survivors to friends ashore and received replies from the latter this work was deemed to be more important than the answering of questions from the shore the rescue by the Carpathia John Coole of Nebraska said it was almost four o'clock in the morning dawn was just breaking when the Carpathia's passengers were awakened by the excitement occasion by coming upon a fleet of life-saving boats at that hour the whole sea was one mass of white and ice the work of getting the passengers over the side of the Carpathia was attended with the most heart-rending scenes the babies were crying many of the women were hysterical while the men were stolid and speechless some of the women were barefooted and without any headgear the impression of those saved was that the Titanic had run across the projecting shelf of the iceberg which was probably buried in the water and that the entire bottom of the Titanic had been torn off shortly afterwards she doubled up in the middle and went down most of the passengers did not believe that the boat was going to sink according to their stories it was fully half an hour before a lifeboat was launched from the vessel in fact some of the passengers keenly questioned the wisdom of Captain Smith's orders that they should leave the big ship Dr. J. F. Kemp the Carpathia's physician says that their wireless operator happened by chance to have delayed turning in on Sunday night for ten minutes thus it was that he was at his post and got the Titanic's call for help had he gone to rest as usual there would have been no survivors Dr. Kemp describes the iceberg which sank the Titanic as being 400 feet long and 90 feet high the Carpathia cruise twice through the ice field in the vicinity of the spot and picked up the bodies of three men and a baby these bodies were committed to the deep on Monday evening among the congregation at the funeral service were 30 widows 20 of whom were under 23 years of age most of them being brides of only a few weeks or months End of The Sinking of the Titanic