Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-09-28
True Courage and Genuine HerOism.

True Courage and Genuine HerOism.
The Chicago Ulll Journal, of late date
has the following:
Men everywhere admire heroes, and hero
ism is a quality of mind and not of meat.
Children are apt to think that mighty war
rioIs must be gigantic, and "the child is often
father to the man, for their parents are apt
to think so too. And yet every body knows
that when we talk of great soldiers, as often
as otherwise, we mean little men. The pur-
pose that springs from consciousness of
strength is not courage; the desperation that
intense fear sometimes begets is not courage;
for man in corner will fight tooth and
nall when give him clear field and he
win show you the twinkle of clean pair of
heels. Neither can you be quite sure of
mans courage because he marches straight on
till be sees "the whites of the enemy's eyes,"
and then blazes away like devil. The tes-
timony of the old soldier who planted the
flag on the enemys works in the teeth of
such storm as never blew out of Heaven,
is in point He was ready to run any minute,
all the while he was winning glory" as
they call it, but there was something in that
shoulder to shoulder he could not resist
Comrades ITO the right Of him." comrades
'to the left of him. what could he do but
move on, and so he went, lived to show "how
how fields were won" and to be named a
hero; and yet no man knew so well as he
how little he deserved it. There is some
thing too, from all accounts, In the smell
guDpoWder; in the roll of drums and the
Shrek Of fiies, and the rattle of musketry.
And when men begin to fall, and the surging
columns close up and press nearer, there is
something, they say, in it all, that makes
tigers of men that did not happen to be born
lions.
The old truth, 'those who know nothing,
fear nothing has perhaps helped many a
man 70 wake up and find himself famous"
Noise, too, is a wonderful strengthener
the boy whistles to keep his courage up; the
weaker a mans cause, the louder his argu-
ment meh in heavy boots with resounding
tread are braver than the same men in their
stockings.
Strip man of all these helps to heroism;
give him forlorn hope but a good cause,
and If there is any thing of the sort in him,
il will come out. He may deal ruder blow
If he has fed well, but he will not deal a
braVer one; for true heroism triumphs over
fast and frailty. When a mans gun is
rammed home with ideas as has been said of
the patriots of the American Revolution,
and as will be said of every other revolution
that succeeds, then indeed your dull neigh
Dor oYer the way may prove to have been a
hero iDldisguise.
That il requires, many a time, more true
courage TO live than to die, is no new truth;
towards not seldom ''their quietus make
with bare bodkin." Men have died before
now because they lacked the resolution TO
live; friends could do nothing science could
do nothing and so they were borne out as
burdens that should have walked out upright
men, as God made them for neither Love
nor Science could create the stout soul we
call heroism, beneath the ribs of DEATH"
To a man who can sit down in the dark
with peril, and patiently and brayely wait
until morning, to see what the light can do
for him, there is nothing in 'villainous salt
peter 70 be afraid Of Look at those men
who could hardly bear TO watch the long
Arctic night out read again the wise efforts
Of Kane TO keep their courage ''at the stick
ing-Place, and you will understand precisely
what we mean.