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-A Barrage of Fear and Greed-[/FONT]
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or[/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]The Uninterrupted Presidency of James A.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Garfield[/FONT][/FONT]

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Prolepsis [/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]June 11[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]th[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif], 1880 [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Long Island Sound [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]11:30 P.M. [/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, serif] [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]The pilot of the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]SS Stonington[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] grimaced as the passenger steamer churned through the waters of the sound, the thick fog making it damned hard to see more than a dozen yards or so in front of the ship. The vessel had left Stonington barely an hour or so ago, and this fog was impeding the progress of the ship enough to make the travel time even slower and more dangerous. He once again sounded the whistle of the ship, making certain that any other vessels were warned of the approach of the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Stonington. [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]But the damned fog played not only merry hell with visual aides, but also auditory, as it seemed to cut everything down in range. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Off in the distance, he thought he saw a brief flash of light, most likely from the Cornfield Point Lightship. Well, at least there was a marker of something out there, even if it was dim as a firebug in this weather and this time of night. Steeling himself, he gripped the wheel a bit tighter in his hands and gazed out in the fog from the wheelhouse, hoping against hope that the fog would lessen. His knuckles grew a bit whiter when the lookout shouted of lights from a large steamer ahead. [/FONT]
“[FONT=Palatino, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Dear God in heaven.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]...” he said more for his sake than anyone else's, before he began to ring for his own ship to stop engines. But to his horror, God seemed not to respond to his utterance, as the shape of the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Stoningtons[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] sister ship, the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]SS Narragansett [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]loomed out of the fog, whistles and bells sounding out from her as well. With a sickening rending of metal and timber as well as a tremendous impact of force, the pilot saw the bow of the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Stonington[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] collide into the starboard side of the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Narragansett [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]forward of the wheelhouse and penetrate almost halfway through the other vessel. With a shudder, the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Stonington[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] was pushed back a good twenty feet or more from her stricken sister ship, which now was filled with the sound of the yells of crew and passengers alike as the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Narragansett[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] began to take on water, he side cracked like an eggshell. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Then, to the horror of those on the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Narragansett [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]a fire broke out. Passengers who had been woken from their slumber by the collision, now fled on decks clad in little more than nightwear and life preservers, if that, and began to fling themselves into the sea. As the smoke on the stricken steamer began to increase, crewmen on both ships discovered that the ships lifeboats were unfit for use, with either the rain drain plugs or oars and oarlocks missing. More people were still flinging themselves into the sea as the flames from the fire aboard the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Narragansett[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] began to spread and burn even more intensely. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]It was fortunate for the survivors of the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Narragansett[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] that in the midst of disaster, providence would appear in the forms of the Norwich Line vessel [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]City of New York, [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]and the Providence Line vessel [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Massachusetts.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] Had it not been for them, a worse disaster would have been the most likely result, though the loss of over sixty men, women, and children on the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Narragansett [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]would be the main focus of the inquiry into the disaster.[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]When a partial list of the lost was printed up in an edition of the Fitchburg Sentinel in Massachusetts following the disaster, a lone name was printed under those lost from the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Stonington[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif], that of a 38 year old down on his luck lawyer by the name of Charles J. Guiteau....[/FONT][/FONT] [1]
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Depiction of the Wreck of S.S. Narragansett during the collision with its sister ship the S.S. Stonington.[/FONT]
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[1] The little POD for this piece. Historically, Guiteau was aboard the Stonington, and was on deck during the disaster, however he attributed his survival to the Lord (making an already unstable belief in his purpose in life moreso). Here, Guiteau is either too close to the edge or the crash is just a little more violent, sending him overboard into the dark waters. Since this technically happens after the events of Chapter One, this is a Prolepsis to that, and then a Prologue to everything that follows.