A Brave Man's Gentleness

1900

The Army and Navy Journal gives a touching incident, which shows how gentle a nature may exist beneath the sternness which at times reckons not the life of men while in the pursuit of victory.

The late Commander James W. Carlin was in command of the Vandalia at Apia, Samoa, during the terrible storm of March 16, 1889.

One evening, some years afterward, on retiring to his room while visiting his sister, he found a mouse that had fallen into a basin of water, and was struggling for his life.

"There was agony and defiance in that little fellow's eye," said the commander, speaking of it the next day. "As I gazed on that helpless little creature I thought of that terrible night on the Vandalia, and going to the open window, I gently emptied the contents of the basin. I didn't dry him with my towel, but I saved his life," the commander added. — Youth's Companion.