Again a sigh like a sob swept over the crowd, and again they turned back to the canopied gangplank. THE FIRST SURVIVORS Several minutes passed and then out of the first cabin gangway; tunneled by a somber awning, streamed the first survivors. A young woman, hatless, her light brown hair disordered and the leaden weight of crushing sorrow heavy upon eyes and sensitive mouth, was in the van. She stopped, perplexed, almost ready to drop with terror and exhaustion, and was caught by a customs official. "A survivor?" he questioned rapidly, and a nod of the head answering him, he demanded: "Your name." The answer given, he started to lead her toward that section of the pier where her friends would be waiting. When she stepped from the gangplank there was quiet on the pier. The answers of the woman could almost be heard by those fifty feet away, but as she staggered, rather than walked, toward the waiting throng outside the fence, a low wailing sound arose from the crowd. "Dorothy, Dorothy!" cried a man from the number. He broke through the double line of customs inspectors as though it was composed of wooden toys and caught the woman to his breast. She opened her lips inarticulately, weakly raised her arms and would have pitched forward upon her face had she not been supported. Her fair head fell weakly to one side as the man picked her up in his arms, and, with tears streaming down his face, stalked down the long avenue of the pier and down the long stairway to a waiting taxicab. The wailing of the crowd--its cadences, wild and weird--grew steadily louder and louder till they culminated in a mighty shriek, which swept the whole big pier as though at the direction of some master hand. RUMORS AFLOAT The arrival of the Carpathia was the signal for the most sensational rumors to circulate through the crowd on the pier. First, Mrs. John Jacob Astor was reported to have died at 8.06 o'clock, when the Carpathia was on her way up the harbor. Captain Smith and the first engineer were reported to have shot themselves when they found that the Titanic was doomed to sink. Afterward it was learned that Captain Smith and the engineer went down with their ship in perfect courage and coolness. Major Archibald Butt, President Taft's military aide, was said to have entered into an agreement with George D. Widener, Colonel John Jacob Astor and Isidor Straus to kill them first and then shoot himself before the boat sank. It was said that this agreement had been carried out. Later it was shown that, like many other men on the ship, they had gone down without the exhibition of a sign of fear. MRS. CORNELL SAFE