“IN GOD’S HANDS”
“When I last saw my father, he said, ‘Well, boy, we are in God’s hands’; and I said, ‘Yes, father.’ In a second I was parted from all forever. They were all standing together, my father and my mother and my sister Jessie.
“I must say that all, or nearly all, the men behaved like men and all the women like women.”
“Was there great panic?” he was asked.
“No,” he replied. “It was surprising how little panic there was. They were all so gritty. You saw men and their wives being saved together, or standing to die together. Many did not part. And the Salvationists stood up and sang ‘God be with you till we meet again,’ as long as they could. I did see one man in the water try to push into a life-boat [!-- original location of hymn --] ahead of a woman, but another struck him in the face and sent him back. I did hear, too, that there were other cases of this kind, but not many, and I didn’t see them. The only real panic was among the foreigners. Most of the others were very calm.”