Hubbard's Death

In "The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard," there is a moving essay about the USS Titanic, the luxury cruise liner which hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage. More than a thousand people died when the ship went down in icy Atlantic waters. A number of Hubbard's close friends and acquaintances were on this ship and lost their lives.

Example of Roycroft Vase Hubbard describes a poignant scene that took place as the Titanic was going down. Women and children were loaded into lifeboats while their husbands remained helplessly on deck. Hubbard writes that two sailors tried to push Mrs. Isador Straus into a lifeboat. She resisted, saying, "Not I -- I will not leave my husband. All these years we've traveled together, and shall we part now? No, our fate is one."

Hubbard wrote, "Mr. and Mrs. Straus, I envy you that legacy of love and loyalty left to your children and grandchildren. The calm courage that was yours all your long and useful career was your possession in death. You knew how to do three great things -- you knew how to live, how to love and how to die.

"One thing is sure, there are just two respectable ways to die. One is of old age, and the other is by accident. All disease is indecent. Suicide is atrocious. But to pass out as did Mr. and Mrs. Isador Straus is glorious. Few have such a privilege. Happy lovers, both. In life they were never separated and in death they are not divided."

Several years later, Elbert Hubbard and his wife were passengers on the cruise ship Lusitania when it was torpedoed by the Germans off the coast of Ireland. Like the Strauses, the Hubbards died together, along with 1196 others.

From Father to Son

After Elbert's tragic death, the Roycroft Press and the Copper Shop were sustained by Elbert Hubbard's son, Bert, but Roycroft eventually fell victim to the great depression and went bankrupt in 1938. Today the Hubbard legacy lives on, and the Roycroft Inn is a headquarters for the Elbert Hubbard Arts & Crafts Museum, where educational seminars are regularly held.