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yond any exhibition of temper or impatience. St. Paul's vestry voiced the feelings of all who knew him when they said:

We feel that we cannot too strongly express our admiration for the abounding courtesy, the rare nobleness, and the exalted Christian character of our departed brother, and our high appreciation of the great service, which for many years he rendered to this parish, and to the general church, by wise counsels, generous gifts, abundant labors, and a truly Christian character.

Resolved, That we believe our beloved brother to have carried into all the manifold activities and relations of his eventful life, a lofty integrity, and a

chivalrous honor, and a Christ-like desire to be considerate and helpful toward every human being.

Modest, brave, generous, true to his convictions and yet just to those who differed; positive, yet gentle and just; seeking to do his duty as one who expected to render an account therefor -he lived a pure and noble life, and has left a heritage in a good name that is loved by all, and will live in memory long after his mortal frame has been returned to the dust from which it came. J. H. KENNEDY.

THE LIFE-SAVING SERVICE OF THE LAKES.-THE RELATION OF CAPTAIN DOBBINS THERETO.

THERE is much of interest to the historian, the poet, and even the romancer, to be found in the present and past of the great lakes that lie along our northern boundary. History and biography run back into tradition, and through it all there lies a thread of endeavor, of heroism and achievement that well illustrates the American character, and shows that knightly deeds are not altogether fictions of the past. The men who first made their way, in rude and unwieldy craft, before the uses of steampower were known, across these unknown waters, finding their own paths, and ever on the outlook for unseen dangers, were the advance-couriers of the civilization that came by slower marches along the shores. Many are the stories that Ontario and Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior might tell, could their silent majesties be endowed with speech.

Thrilling would be their tales of the missionaries, the traders, the hunters and the light adventurers who rode over their waters before this republic had a name or had asked a place among the nations of the earth. Every harbor, outlet and island could voice strange stories of peril by day and night, of storms, and wrecks, of losses and brave deeds, of rescues, and the contentions of men in their warfares against native and other

men.

In no department of lake-life, perhaps, could more of interest and excitement be discovered than in the United States Life-saving service, that has now SO many well-equipped and well-manned stations about these coasts. The history of that giant combination of rescue from the waves would read with thrilling interest, and there is no branch of the public service that so well illustrates

the humanity of the present age. Its growth was slow, and it has been only within a few years that any adequate amount of attention has been given by the government to this work. I quote from a recent article in Harper's magazine:

The American Life-saving service under its present elaborate system of relief is ten years old. Its development covers nearly a century. The initiatory

movement was the organization by a few benevolent persons of the Massachusetts Humane society in 1786. In attempting to alleviate the miseries of shipwreck on the Massachusetts coast, small huts were built; and in 1807 the first life-boat station was established at Cohasset. The society depended upon voluntary crews, but so much was accomplished of value that some pecuniary aid was re

ceived, as time wore on, from both state and general governments. The magnificent work of the coast survey, begun in earnest in 1832, absorbed the resources of congress for a decade and a half, during which period nothing was attempted in the way of life-saving except through voluntary societies. A few public vessels were, indeed, authorized in 1837 to cruise near the coast for the assistance of vessels

in distress, but it was through the movement in aid of commerce, which extended to the light-house sys

tem.

In 1847 five thousand dollars were appropri

ated by congress toward furnishing light-houses on the Atlantic, with the facilities for aiding shipwrecked mariners. The money, after remaining in the treasury two years unused, was permitted to be expended by the Massachusetts society upon Cape Cod. In the summer of 1848, the Hon. William A. Newell, then a member of the house of representatives from New Jersey, incited by some terrible shipwreck on the coast of that state, induced congress to appropriate ten thousand dollars for providing surf boats and other appliances for the protection of life and property from shipwreck on the coast between Sandy Hook and Little Egg harbor.

At the next session of congress a still larger appropriation was obtained, and twenty-two station houses were erected on the coasts of New Jersey and Long Island. Although no one was paid to man them, yet, they became of such

great service, through the labors of volunteer crews, that congress was induced to extend and make more effective the system by appropriations from time to time, but "the absence of drilled and disciplined crews, of general regulations and of energetic central administration, rendered the record of the institution unsatisfactory, and its benefits checkered by the saddest failures." The new era began, about 1871, and, its growth has been steady, until the magnificent service of to-day has been reached.

That advance has been an evolution, one thing making way for a better as invention and experience were brought into play. It is not the purpose of this sketch to follow all these lines of improvement, but to illustrate one, and that is the invention and growth of the Dobbins' life-boat that has played so grand a part in the life-saving service, and that has been a great factor in the making of that service what it is. But before speaking of the boat, it is but proper to glance at the life of the man by whose experience and brains it was created.

Captain David Porter Dobbins came of a maratime stock, and was the son of one of the most prominent and active men to be found in the early history of these lakes. His father, Daniel Dobbins of Erie, Pennsylvania, was born on the banks of the "Blue Juniata," at Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, on July 5, 1776, and came to Erie county of the same state with a party of surveyors, under the auspices of Judah Colt, esq., and assisted Thomas

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