hipped, and the boat headed away into the darkness. And then, and
not till then, those in the boat realized that something was seriously
wrong with the _Titanic_. Instead of the trim level appearance which she
presented on the picture postcards or photographs, she had an ungraceful
slant downwards to the bows--a heavy helpless appearance like some
wounded monster that is being overcome by the waters. And even while
they looked, they could see that the bow was sinking lower.

After the first boat had got away, there was less difficulty about the
others. The order, "Women and children first," was rigidly enforced by
the officers; but it was necessary to have men in the boats to handle
them, and a number of stewards, and many grimy figures of stokers who
had mysteriously appeared from below were put into them to man them.
Once the tide of people began to set into the boats and away from the
ship, there came a certain anxiety to join them and not to be left
behind. Here and there indeed there was over-anxiety, which had to be
roughly checked. One band of Italians from the steerage, who had good
reason to know that something was wrong, tried to rush one of the boats,
and had to be kept back by force, an officer firing a couple of shots
with his pistol; they desisted, and were hauled back ignominiously by
the legs. In their place some of the crew and the passengers who were
helping lifted in a number of Italian women limp with fright.

And still everyone was walking about and saying that the ship was
unsinkable. There was a certain subdued excitement, natural to those who
feel that they are taking part in a rather thrilling adventure which
will give them importance in the eyes of people at home when they relate
it. There was as yet no call for heroism, because, among the
first-class passengers certainly, the majority believed that the safest
as well as the most comfortable place was the ship. But it was painful
for husbands and wives to be separated, and the wives sent out to brave
the discomforts of the open boats while the husbands remained on the dry
and comfortable ship.

The steerage people knew better and feared more. Life had not taught
them, as it had taught some of those first-class passengers, that the
world was an organization specially designed for their comfort and
security; they had not come to believe that the crude and ugly and
elementary catastrophes of fate would not attack them. On the contrary,
most of t