Mrs.
ELBERT GREEN HUBBARD (ALICE MOORE), Saloon Class Passenger
image: Cleveland
Plain Dealer,
Saturday 8 May 1915.
Alice Moore, 53, was born in Wales, New York, United States on 7 June
1861 to Welcome Moore and Melinda Bush. She was educated at Emerson
College, Boston, Massachusetts and became a teacher at East Aurora Academy
in East Aurora, New York. In East Aurora she met Elbert Hubbard, and although the man was already
married they carried on an affair resulting in a daughter, Miriam, born in
1894.
A forthright feminist, Alice exemplified the "New Woman." in her
lifetime she wrote six books. Elbert, bored with his "commonplace"
wife Bertha, divorced his wife in 1903 to marry Alice in 1904. An ugly
scandal ensued and so Elbert carved another motto over the Roycrofters Inn,
"They Will Talk Anyway."
Accompanying her husband on the Lusitania, Elbert and Alice were
in cabin B-70. Her husband made this remark about the German warning
that appeared in the papers that morning:
"Speaking from a strictly personal point of view, I would not mind if
they did sink the ship. It might be a good thing for me. I would
drown with her, and that's about the only way I could succeed in my ambition
to get into the Hall of Fame. I'd be a regular hero and go right
to the bottom."
On Friday, 7 May, Elbert and Alice Hubbard were by the port side
saloon class entrance, chatting with Charles
Lauriat. Earlier in the voyage, Elbert Hubbard had lent Charles
a copy of "Who Lifted the Lid Off Hell?" Elbert asked, "Do you
really think I'll be a welcome visitor in Germany?"
Hubbard had barely finished speaking when they felt a
muffled impact, and "the good ship trembled for a moment under the
force of the blow." They turned to see where the sound was coming
from and saw a "smoke and cinders flying up in the air on the starboard
side." A second explosion soon followed.
Lauriat suggested to the Hubbards that they go back to
their portside B Deck cabin and retrieve their lifebelts. Alice
Hubbard could not swim and seemed to be too stunned at what had happened
to move. To Lauriat's surprise, the Hubbards did nothing. Elbert
"stayed by the rail affectionately holding his arm around his wife's
waist."
"Stay here if you wish," Lauriat told them, "I'll fetch
some life-jackets for you."
Lauriat went below to fetch lifebelts for the Hubbards and himself,
but when he came back he found that the Hubbards were gone. Lauriat
searched for the couple over a dozen times and could not believe that they
had just vanished into thin air. Archie Donald saw the Hubbards
refuse a place in the lifeboats. Elbert remarked, "What is to be,
is to be."
Ernest Cowper, holding Helen Smith, passed Elbert and Alice Hubbard. Elbert
said, "Well, Jack, they have got us. They are a damn sight worse than I ever
thought they were.”
Cowper asked, "What are you going to do?"
Elbert shook his head. Alice just smiled and replied, "There does
not seem to be anything to do."
Cowper was then taken by surprise when he saw Elbert and Alice retreat
into a room on the Boat Deck and close the door behind them. Cowper
surmised that the Hubbards planned to die together and did not want to be
parted in the water. In his writings, Elbert had once philosophized,
"We are here now, some day we shall go. And when we go we would like
to go gracefully."
Flags flew half-mast in East Aurora, where Elbert's son Bert assured
the Roycrofters, "My father's not dead, nor Alice Hubbard. The news
they are is false. They must have been saved."
Bert then called his newspaper friend Arthur Brisbane to inquire of
further news, but the news was not encouraging. Charles Hill thought
that he had seen Elbert and Alice in his lifeboat, either #14 or #16, which
subequently dumped much of its complement into the sea. Barber Lott
Gadd, also in the same boat, disagreed.
True to his word, Elbert Hubbard and his wife became regular heroes
and went down with the Lusitania. Their bodies, if recovered,
were never identified.
Contributors:
Judith Tavares
References:
Hickey, Des and Gus Smith. Seven Days to Disaster.
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981.
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage of
the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956.
Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy.
Berkeley Books, 2002.
Who's Who in America, 1897-1942, page 600
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