ELBERT HUBBARD
Life is just one damned thing after another - Elbert Hubbard
The above quotation is one that I have often used. It was written by Albert Hubbard, a writer, publisher and philosopher. Even though he had died many years before I was born, I learned about him and of some of his quotations, from my grandfather.
In 1912, the famed passenger liner the Titanic was sunk after hitting an iceberg. Albert Hubbard subsequently wrote of the disaster, and he wrote the story of Ida Straus, who as a woman who was supposed to be placed on a lifeboat in precedence to the men, but she refused to board the lifeboat: "Not I — I will not leave my husband. All these years we've traveled together, and shall we part now? No, our fate is one."
Albert Hubbard then added his own stirring commentary:
"Mr. and Mrs. Straus, I envy you that legacy of love and loyalty left to your children and grandchildren. The calm courage that was yours all your long and useful career was your possession in death. You knew how to do three great things — you knew how to live, how to love and how to die."
"One thing is 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. Isador Straus is glorious. Few have such a privilege. Happy lovers, both. In life they were never separated and in death they are not divided."
And as Paul Harvey used to say - "NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY"
Just a little more than three years after the sinking of the Titanic, Mr. and Mrs Hubbard boarded the Lusitania in New York City. On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine "Unterseeboot 20".
In a letter to their son, Elbert Hubbard II, dated March 12, 1916, a survivor of the sinking, Mr. Ernest Cowper, wrote:
"I can not say specifically where your father and Mrs. Hubbard were when the torpedoes hit, but I can tell you just what happened after that. They emerged from their room, which was on the port side of the vessel, and came on to the boat-deck."
"Neither appeared perturbed in the least. Your father and Mrs. Hubbard linked arms — the fashion in which they always walked the deck — and stood apparently wondering what to do. I passed him with a baby which I was taking to a lifeboat when he said, "Well, Jack, they have got us. They are a damn sight worse than I ever thought they were."
"They did not move very far away from where they originally stood. As I moved to the other side of the ship, in preparation for a jump when the right moment came, I called to him, "What are you going to do?" and he just shook his head, while Mrs. Hubbard smiled and said, "There does not seem to be anything to do."
"The expression seemed to produce action on the part of your father, for then he did one of the most dramatic things I ever saw done. He simply turned with Mrs. Hubbard and entered a room on the top deck, the door of which was open, and closed it behind him."
"It was apparent that his idea was that they should die together, and not risk being parted on going into the water."
