, 1876-12-23
Two NanEeless NAcn.
From The " Y. Tribune.

our own State elections. The story
claims attention and bears its meaning,
although it concerns only two obscure
and nameless men. the one mechanic,
the other II druggists clerk The latter,
u lad Charley is the only name given,
WIS n few weeks ago prescription clerk
in Lippman's drug store in Savannah.
Not n place where any career of herolsm
is likely to open before n young fellow,
or where glory of any kind would await
him, "Charcy" apparently had no
thought of hcrosm or glory he only
put up prescriptions, as it was his bust.
ness to do. When the yellow fever
broke out, the owner and whole force Of
the shop left.-al but the book Keeper
and Charley, who quietly continued put.
ling up prescriptions At last the book.
keeper fled, and Lippman, by letter, or.
dered Charlie to close the shop, his
friends in Augusta urging him at the
same time to come to them. But he said,
Somebody must give medicine to these
people I'll not leave my work." and
went to the other drug store, Chy's, and
worked there day and night Clay took
the fever and died, Charley nursing him.
His cook took the fever, and young
friend, Symons. Charley nurscd them
both until they recovered, giving out at
the same time thousands OF prescriptions
daily He wrote to his mother, ~ have
not had time to take my clothes off for
weeks" After Symons was up Charley
took the fever. His friend. still weak
from illness, nursed him in his turn, tele.
graphing twenty times day to his
friends in Augusta, Charley improving"
with good care will pull through"
"Charley is worse" The last telegrams
were, II will stick to him to the last" II
will not sleep tonight" But he did
sleep. The next morning the two brave
lads were found together-dead.
About the same time the terrible cx.
plosion Of the Sable Iron Mills in Pitts.
burgb took place, and this is part of the
account given in the daily papers;
1.-THE assistant engineer was found
speechless, his hand grasping the throttle
of the engine with such force that it re-
quired two men to remove him. He
might have escaped in time to save him
self, but his idea was that he could avert
the catastrophe from the workmen by
turning off the steam. His terror was
extreme, and no wonder. He died an
hour later" The man whose terror was
extreme, and who yet stood at his post
when he might have escaped, was hero
with qualities beside which mere brute
courage is mean.
Why do we tell the story of these two
men of whom we are not able to preserve
even the names Simply because their
chance tor q noble death and great
deed in dying may come to any one Of
us. In old times knights buckled on
their armor and went out in public to
win renown; even the crown of martyr
dom was won by the help of the heroic
glow of lofty excitement, "a great crowd
OF Witnesses" tyrants, saints and angels
looking on. Nowadays. men and women
have their daily m0nOtonous work set
before them. 1t is plain, hard duty that
is called for, seldom feverish heroism.
We believe that in the pursuit of that
duty men are trained year by year tn
greater sacrifices that when lite is called
for, as in these two cases, it is quietly
offered, with no thought of fame or ap-
plausc, but simply as n matter OF course
Poets and romancers sing of Roman cour-
age and medieval chivalry, but we
should like American boys to look into
the secret of this plain matter.of-fact
duty and the doing of it. The young
knight, keeping vigil, praying all night
IN the lonely chapel in his white robes,
going out in the morning to receive his
sword and spurs, is always a most heroic
enviable figure in their eyes. But what
OF this druggist clerk, Charley, who had
not time to change his clothes, nursing
ms friend and poor negro through a
Ioathsome disease, hurrying from his bed
10 the shop to deal out medicines 10 the
plague'stricken city, and lying down,
worn out at last, to die2 There was no
nope Of accolade, no fame waiting for
MIN in the back room of the little drug