Elbert Hubbard
A writer of the early 1900′s most famous for his "Message To Garcia" and his article about the Straus’s of Macy’s. The irony was three years after he wrote his tribute, he died when the Lusitania sunk. The sinking of the Lusitania was famous as it is credited with bringing the United States into the First World War.
You can find Elbert Hubbard’s Message To Garcia here.
ROBERT OWEN , JAMES OLIVER ,STEPHEN GIRARD, MAYER A. ROTHSCHILD,P HILIP D. ARMOUR.JOHN J. ASTOR, PETER COOPER, ANDREW CARNEGIE, GEORGE PEABODY, A. T. STEWART,H. H. ROGERS, and JAMES J. HILL
Here is part of his tribute to the Mr. and Mrs. Straus, the founders of Macy’s and passengers on The Titanic.
“ It is a night of a thousand stars. The date, Sunday April 14, 1912… The place, off Cape Race – that Cemetery of the Sea.
… As a lifeboat is being lowered, Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus come running with arms full of blankets, brought from their stateroom. They throw the bedding to the people in the boat.
“Help that woman in!” shouts an officer. Two sailors seize Mrs. Straus. She struggles, frees herself and proudly says, “Not I – I will not leave my husband.” Mr. Straus insists, quietly and gently, that she shall go. He will follow later. But Mrs. Straus is firm. “All these years we have traveled together, and shall we part now? No, our fate is one.”
She smiles a quiet smile, and pushes aside the hand of Major Butt, who has ordered the sailors to leave her alone. “We will help you – Mrs. Straus and I – come! It is the Law of the Sea – women and children first – come!” said Major Butt.
“No, major; you do not understand. I remain with my husband – we are one, no matter what comes – you do not understand!”
“See”, she cried, as if to change the subject, “there is a woman getting in the lifeboat with her baby; she has no wraps!” Mrs. Straus tears off her fur-lined robe and places it tenderly around the woman and the innocently sleeping babe…
One thing sure, there are just two respectable ways to die. One is of old age, and the other is by accident. All disease is indecent. Suicide is atrocious. But to pass out as did Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus is glorious. Few have such a privilege. Happy lovers, both. In life they were never separated, and in death they were not divided.
