The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-10-05
Charles Reade's New Hero and
Martyr.

THERE is an old man in Glasgow
who has saved more than forty lives
in the Clyde, many of them with
great peril to his own. Death
has lately removed a French hero, who
was his rival, and James Lambert
now stands alone in Europe. The
Frenchman saved more lives than |
Lambert, but then he did most of his
good work with a boat and saving
gear. The Scot had nothing but his |
own active body, his rare power of
suspending the breath. and his lion
heart. Two Of his feats far surpass
anything recorded of his French COM
petitor; he was upset in boat with
many companions, seized and dragged
to the bottom, yet contrived to save
them nearly all; and on another occa-
sion, when the ice had broken under
man, and the tide had sucked him
under to distance of several yards,
James Lambert dived under the ice
and CROPPED for the man till he was
nearly breathless, and dragged him
back to the hole. and all but died in
saving him. Here the chances were
nine to one against his ever finding
that small aperture again and coming
out alive. Superior in daring to his
one European rival, he has yet another
title to the sympathy of mankind: he
is blind; and not by any irrelevant
accident, but in consequence of his
heroism and his goodness. As this
matter was Inadvertently mis-stated
the other day in the course of the
trial "Reade VS.. Outram & Co.. l
will be the more exact. He was
working at furnace one wintry day,
and perspiring freely. The cry got up
that man was drowning. He flung
himself, all heated as he was, into icy
water, and when he came out he lost
his sight for time on the very bank.
His sight returned but ever after that
day he was subject to similar seizures.
They became more frequent and the
intervals of sight more rare, until the
darkness settled down and the light re-
tired forever.
The meaning of the word "martyr'
is-a man who is punished for great
virtue by great calamity. Every
martyr in FoX's book, or Buffers, or
the "Acta Sanctorum," or the "Vit9
Patrum Occidentis," comes under that
definition; but not more so than James
Lambert; and the hero who risks his
life in saving is just as much a hero as
he who risks his life in killing his fell
low-creatures. Therefore do not force
nor pervert words, but weigh them
well, when | call James Lambert what
he is-a hero and martyr. That is a
great deal to say of any one man: for
all of us who are really men or women,
and not, as Lambert once said to me,
mere broOm-beSomS in the name O
men," admire a hero and pity a mar
tyr, alive or dead.
So, then, the Frenchman l have
mentioned had one great title to SYM
pathy, whereas Lambert has two; and
this is how France treated her heroic
son: He lived at the public expense,
but free as air. The public benefactor
was not locked up and hidden from the
public. His breast was emblazoned
with medals, and among them shone
the great National order the Cross of
the Legion Of Honor, which many dis
tinguiShed nOblemen and gentlemen
have sighed for in vain; and when he
walked abroad every gentleman in the
country dotted his hat to him. Thus
does France treat great saver of hui
man lives. James Lambert lives at
the public expense, but not as that
Frenchman lived. 1t grieves my heart
to say it; but the truth is, James
Lambert lives unhappily. He is
in an almshouse, which partakes of the
character Of prison. 1t is a gloomy,
austere place, and that class of in
mates to which he belongs are not al
lowed to cross the threshold upon their
own business, except once in fort
night. But to ardent spirits loss of
liberty is misery. Meanly clad, poor
ly fed, well imprisoned, and little re-
spected-Such is the condition of
James Lambert in Glasgow, his native
city. Yet he is the great man in that
city, and probably the only man now
living in it whose name will ring in
history a hundred years hence-the
greatest saver of lives in Europe: a
man whose name is even now honored
in India and Australia, in the United
States and Canada, and, indeed, from
the rising to the setting sun, thanks to
his own merit, the power of the pen,
and the circulation of the press-a
true hero, and true martyr, glorious
by his deeds and sacred by his calami-
ty. Shall this great public benefactor,
afflicted by Heaven, end his days in
obscure mhappiness, when men can
help it? Shall he be left in the hands
of local charity which despises those
it benefits, and lets them see it? Shall
he be hidden from the public when
such men are the greatest human Or
namentS in the streets of any city? /
propose, on the contrary, that we en-
deavor to rise to the intellectual and
moral level of France in this case. Let
the public deal direct with this public
benefactor, and in manner credita-
bic to the public. Let us do our own
duty for once, and take him into our
own hands.
l ask the nobility, gentry and COM
monalty of Scotland to enable me to
buy this man a small Government
annuity of fifteen shillings per week.
The whole sum required for this is, l
believe, t4o0. But nothing like that
sum is now asked by me. l raised
subscription for the purpose in En-
gland some time ago, and there is more
than 5000 lying at my bankers Herris
& Co., 1G st. James street, under an
account entitled the Lambert Fund"
Moreover the Court of Session has just
awarded Inc a sum of damages in a
case which has got mixed with this,
and whatever balance may come to me
after payment of the costs will be
transferred to the Lambert Fund. and