Kept Busy Helping Survivors on to Their Destinations in Comfort
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FORTY LEAVE ST. VINCENT'S
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Individuals, as Well as Organized Committee, Give Much-Needed Personal Aid
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The task that was shouldered by the Women's Relief Committee of supplying some of the immediate needs of the Titanic's survivors took long forward strides yesterday, so that the corridors and wards of St. Vincent's Hospital were astir with the distribution of warm clothes. Before nightfall many of the shipwrecked were moving on to their destinations.
It was the idea of the committee of women, organized on Tuesday evening by Mrs. Nelson H. Henry, wife of the Surveyor of the Port, that there should be hands extended to these people and particularly women's hands when the Carpathia came in, but the relief they offered was only for immediate needs, and the larger funds collected by Mayor Gaynor and others will take up the work of more permanent benevolence for those who lost so much when the big ship sank.
On Friday evening, it was announced that the committee had received plenty for all the work that it could do, but this had to be repeated yesterday, for the morning's mail brought in a flood of contributions to the amount of more than $1,700. Four of the benefit performances offered have been accepted, but the committee will ask all others to extend the offers to the Red Cross as a contribution from the Women's Relief Committee.
The committee's work in its rooms on the sixth floor of the Metropolitan Life Building is divided into two departments. One takes care of the receiving and distributing of clothes, and the other is devoted to the questions of immediate relief, of money, transportation, temporary homes, and arrangements for employment later.
All this was rapidly being reduced to a catalogue yesterday, so that when word comes from St. Vincent's or other hospitals and homes where survivors were taken, accompanied by the certificate of assent from the Commissioners of Immigration, the committee knows just what is wanted, just what size clothes, just where the people want to go, and just how much it is going to cost. It is the hope and the purpose of the committee to offer help for the first four weeks after the shipwreck. Clothing, a railroad ticket, perhaps, and a little money is bestowed in each case along with a deal of comforting.
Prominent Women Work Hard
But all this is no simple undertaking, and the offices yesterday were jammed all day. Women of prominence could be seen moving about from task to task. Miss Anne Morgan was always busy, Mrs. August Belmont and Mrs. Eugene Kelly were helping with this case and that, Mrs. Edward Hewitt was a tower of strength, and Mrs. Henry Dimock was tireless as her bundles of clothing arrived, stack on stack, and her motor car carried her from one errand to another.
Representatives from different houses that had opened their doors to survivors would appear with the names and conditions of those who were ready to move on. A priest from the Swedish Home was there to arrange for clothing and money for thirteen charges. A big man from the Salvation Army arrived with the list of those under his care. He had been down to arrange for the transportation of Mrs. Emily Goldsmith and her little son, who must move on to Detroit without the husband and father who sailed with them from Southampton.
These was one moment when the women paused to shake their heads sadly, for an application had come in for an outfit for a young girl who lost her brother in the wreck. And the man who brought the requisition asked that the dresses be not black, for the girl would not give up hope.
Of the 106 Titanic people who were taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, fully forty resumed their journey yesterday. The middle of this week should see all but a few on their way. A dazed girl is to sail back to Finland on Wednesday. Her brother, her uncle, and the man she was to marry were lost. A slender little Swedish woman hovers over her two babies, patting their hair and smoothing down the new dresses that came from the committee of women. She had one terrible moment when she started down the rope to the already lowered lifeboat and knew that she could carry only the smaller child. The three-year-old girl she could not carry, but the little girl clung terrified to the mother's skirt and did not release the hold till all three were in the lifeboat
Cardinal Farley Visits Survivors
Toward evening Cardinal Farley arrived. He sat in one of the reception rooms, and the survivors were led to him for a word or cheer and his blessing.
The Rev. Philip J. Magrath, Director of the Catholic Seamen's Mission, has asked THE TIMES to make this announcement:
"Through your paper I beg leave to ask the Chairmen of the various relief committees a remembrance of the wives and little ones of the men in the hold of the Titanic who sacrificed their lives in their endeavors to draw the fires and thus prevent the ship from blowing up. I would be pleased to meet any of the committee and tell how any assistance they might decide to render would reach the needy."
Individuals, as well as organized committees, saw work before them and did it. Mrs. George F. Stott, who lives at the Hotel Chelsea, was energetic in behalf of a destitute couple from the second cabin of the Titanic who wandered into that hotel on the evening the Carpathia came to port. They are Edward Beane of Rochester and his bride from Norwich, England, not the only bridal couple that sailed on the biggest ship afloat, but probably the only newly wedded ones who were not separated for all time by the disaster. All that they had in the world went down with the ship, and they had saved six years for the wedding, which took place in Norwich a month ago.
Beane is a bricklayer, and Ethel, his wife, was maid in a Norwich household. Between them they had stored away $500, and sixty-five wedding presents were lost with the money. Beane stood back at the cry of, "No, only women!" when his bride was placed in one of the lifeboats. But as he stood back manfully he saw that boat pull off and it was only half filled. And he jumped into the sea and swam for that boat, and Ethel Beane's arms pulled him in.
Mrs. Stott paid their fare to Rochester and sent to the Women's Relief Committee for clothing. In a moment a box was being packed. Meanwhile Mrs. Stott took Beane to the White Star offices.
"The man we saw there wanted him to take $20 and go on, but I wouldn't hear of it," Mrs. Stott said, when questioned about her experiences later. "He said that Mr. Beane seemed pretty well fixed and wanted to know who I was anyway. He said these benevolent societies had been giving the line a lot of bother, but I stuck to my point, and we are going to file a claim."
The purser's receipt for $300 of Beane's money, she said, was lost with the ship.
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FORTY LEAVE ST. VINCENT'S
---
Individuals, as Well as Organized Committee, Give Much-Needed Personal Aid
---
The task that was shouldered by the Women's Relief Committee of supplying some of the immediate needs of the Titanic's survivors took long forward strides yesterday, so that the corridors and wards of St. Vincent's Hospital were astir with the distribution of warm clothes. Before nightfall many of the shipwrecked were moving on to their destinations.
It was the idea of the committee of women, organized on Tuesday evening by Mrs. Nelson H. Henry, wife of the Surveyor of the Port, that there should be hands extended to these people and particularly women's hands when the Carpathia came in, but the relief they offered was only for immediate needs, and the larger funds collected by Mayor Gaynor and others will take up the work of more permanent benevolence for those who lost so much when the big ship sank.
On Friday evening, it was announced that the committee had received plenty for all the work that it could do, but this had to be repeated yesterday, for the morning's mail brought in a flood of contributions to the amount of more than $1,700. Four of the benefit performances offered have been accepted, but the committee will ask all others to extend the offers to the Red Cross as a contribution from the Women's Relief Committee.
The committee's work in its rooms on the sixth floor of the Metropolitan Life Building is divided into two departments. One takes care of the receiving and distributing of clothes, and the other is devoted to the questions of immediate relief, of money, transportation, temporary homes, and arrangements for employment later.
All this was rapidly being reduced to a catalogue yesterday, so that when word comes from St. Vincent's or other hospitals and homes where survivors were taken, accompanied by the certificate of assent from the Commissioners of Immigration, the committee knows just what is wanted, just what size clothes, just where the people want to go, and just how much it is going to cost. It is the hope and the purpose of the committee to offer help for the first four weeks after the shipwreck. Clothing, a railroad ticket, perhaps, and a little money is bestowed in each case along with a deal of comforting.
Prominent Women Work Hard
But all this is no simple undertaking, and the offices yesterday were jammed all day. Women of prominence could be seen moving about from task to task. Miss Anne Morgan was always busy, Mrs. August Belmont and Mrs. Eugene Kelly were helping with this case and that, Mrs. Edward Hewitt was a tower of strength, and Mrs. Henry Dimock was tireless as her bundles of clothing arrived, stack on stack, and her motor car carried her from one errand to another.
Representatives from different houses that had opened their doors to survivors would appear with the names and conditions of those who were ready to move on. A priest from the Swedish Home was there to arrange for clothing and money for thirteen charges. A big man from the Salvation Army arrived with the list of those under his care. He had been down to arrange for the transportation of Mrs. Emily Goldsmith and her little son, who must move on to Detroit without the husband and father who sailed with them from Southampton.
These was one moment when the women paused to shake their heads sadly, for an application had come in for an outfit for a young girl who lost her brother in the wreck. And the man who brought the requisition asked that the dresses be not black, for the girl would not give up hope.
Of the 106 Titanic people who were taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, fully forty resumed their journey yesterday. The middle of this week should see all but a few on their way. A dazed girl is to sail back to Finland on Wednesday. Her brother, her uncle, and the man she was to marry were lost. A slender little Swedish woman hovers over her two babies, patting their hair and smoothing down the new dresses that came from the committee of women. She had one terrible moment when she started down the rope to the already lowered lifeboat and knew that she could carry only the smaller child. The three-year-old girl she could not carry, but the little girl clung terrified to the mother's skirt and did not release the hold till all three were in the lifeboat
Cardinal Farley Visits Survivors
Toward evening Cardinal Farley arrived. He sat in one of the reception rooms, and the survivors were led to him for a word or cheer and his blessing.
The Rev. Philip J. Magrath, Director of the Catholic Seamen's Mission, has asked THE TIMES to make this announcement:
"Through your paper I beg leave to ask the Chairmen of the various relief committees a remembrance of the wives and little ones of the men in the hold of the Titanic who sacrificed their lives in their endeavors to draw the fires and thus prevent the ship from blowing up. I would be pleased to meet any of the committee and tell how any assistance they might decide to render would reach the needy."
Individuals, as well as organized committees, saw work before them and did it. Mrs. George F. Stott, who lives at the Hotel Chelsea, was energetic in behalf of a destitute couple from the second cabin of the Titanic who wandered into that hotel on the evening the Carpathia came to port. They are Edward Beane of Rochester and his bride from Norwich, England, not the only bridal couple that sailed on the biggest ship afloat, but probably the only newly wedded ones who were not separated for all time by the disaster. All that they had in the world went down with the ship, and they had saved six years for the wedding, which took place in Norwich a month ago.
Beane is a bricklayer, and Ethel, his wife, was maid in a Norwich household. Between them they had stored away $500, and sixty-five wedding presents were lost with the money. Beane stood back at the cry of, "No, only women!" when his bride was placed in one of the lifeboats. But as he stood back manfully he saw that boat pull off and it was only half filled. And he jumped into the sea and swam for that boat, and Ethel Beane's arms pulled him in.
Mrs. Stott paid their fare to Rochester and sent to the Women's Relief Committee for clothing. In a moment a box was being packed. Meanwhile Mrs. Stott took Beane to the White Star offices.
"The man we saw there wanted him to take $20 and go on, but I wouldn't hear of it," Mrs. Stott said, when questioned about her experiences later. "He said that Mr. Beane seemed pretty well fixed and wanted to know who I was anyway. He said these benevolent societies had been giving the line a lot of bother, but I stuck to my point, and we are going to file a claim."
The purser's receipt for $300 of Beane's money, she said, was lost with the ship.
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