Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1874 — A Scottish Hero. [ARTICLE]

A Scottish Hero.

Charles Reade lias discovered in the poorer portions of Glasgow a veritable hero and martyr. The story of his wondrous life is fold by him in the New York Tribune. His name is James Lambert. He was a factory operative in his younger days, with a penchant amounting almost to a mania for saving the lives of drowning people, “singly and in battalions.” For most men it would be hazardous to attempt the rescue of one man, so terrible and unreasonable is the clutch of the victim; but with James the rescue of one person was an easy task. Aside ironi the frequency with which the rescues were effected, there was one exploit which has very few equals, and for which, as a literal fact, Mr. Read not only vouches, but oflers to produce abundant proof. It is as follows: Many of the factory hands lived on one side of the Clyde and worked on the other, crossing by ferry. One cold evening the boat was overloaded and sank in the middle of the river, James Lambert be ing one of the passengers. His reputation as a rescuer impelled his companions to make a rush for him, and those who couldn’t get hold of him clung to those who clung to him. Now began the most remarkable feat in its line of which there is any record. The story told in the Scotch dialect by Lambert himself to Mr. Reade runs thus: “ Birr, when yeve twa feet i’ the grave, your mind works hard. I didna struggle, for it was nae marr use than to wrastle wi’ a kirk. I just stranchened myself oot like a corp, and let them tak me doon to the bottom o’ the Clyde; and there I stude upright, an’w T aited; for I kenned the puir sals would droon afore me, and I saw just ae wee, wee chance to save them yet. Ye shall understand, sirr, that when folk are drooning they dinna settle dOon till the wafer fills their lungs and drives the air oot. At first they waver up and doon at sartain intervals. Aweel, sir, I waited for that, on the grund. I was the only one grunded, ye’ll obsairve. A slight upward movement commenced. I took advantage and gied a vi’lent spang wi’ my feet against the bottom, anti wi’my choosing my time, up we a’ caine. My arms were grippit, but I could strike oot wi’ my feet, and before ever we raached the surface I lashed oot like a deevil for the'quay. Aweel, sirr, wi’ all I could do, we didna wend abune a yard, or maybe a yard and a liauf, and doon they carried me like leed. I stranchened myself as we sank, and I grunded. The lave were a’ roond me like a sou. I bides my time and when they are inclining upward I strikes fra the grund; an’ this time, mair slanting toward the quay. That helpit us, and in a dozen violent strokes we maybe gained twa yards this time. Then doon like leed. Plays the same game again, up and doon again. And noo, sirr, there was something that turned sur against us; but then there was something for us, to balance it. It was against us that they had all swallowed their pint o’ water by this time, and were na sae buoyant; it was for us that the water was shallower now, maybe not more than twa feet ower heed.- Noo this twa feet wad droon us as weel as twenty; but wi’ nae mair nor twa feet abune us I could spring up fra the grun by mere force; for the grun gies ye an awfu’ power for a foot or twa. Sae noo I’m nae suner doon than up again, and still creeping for the quay, and the w ater aye, -a w T ee bit shallower. The next news is, I gat sair spent, and that was bad; but,. toJbalance that, some folk on the quay gat rapes and boat-hooks, and pickit oft. one or twa that was the nearest ; and now ilka time I cam’ up they pickit onsoff, and that lightened my burden; and. bymby I drave a couple into shallow water JiyseT, wi’ my feet. When I was in seven feet water ntysel’, and fewer folk hauding me doon, I got to be maister, and shovit ane and pu’d anitker in, tilFwe landed the whole saxteen or seventeen.” This seems almost incredible, but it is not a sheer impossibility. One can see that such an exploit would be performed by a very stong and long-winded man, perfectly self-poised and w : ith a genius for doingthe right thing in an emergency. The hero is now very poor and stone blind. His blindness resulted exposure in his favorite amusement, for such it might almost be called. But for Reside he would have been whelmed ia oblivion.