The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-04-11

INC IoracO OF tne ArgOnauCS, Whlcl
stood in this locality. A gigantic frag
ment Of cornice and IN inscription re
lating to Germanicus, regarding whom
inscriptions are very rare, have beer
found.-London Times.
The Courage OF Women.
1t is common to think and not un
common to speak of women as the
timid sex, and they are likely to affort
men good deal of amusement and moi
q little gallant disesteem by reason ol
their supposed timidity. Men like te
think OF them as precious towards, and
often say that fearlessness is mas.
culine virtue which it would be unfor.
tunate and unattractive for woman to
possess. They unquestionably enjoy
her susceptibility to fright, for it often
yields them an opportunity to act as
her protector at very small expense of
spirit. They cannot be with her very
long or very much without finding oc-
casion to show their superiority of
nerve by presenting bold front to a
staggering drunkard, or by striking
from her garments whirring insect
that has alighted thereon. The timid-
est man seems Drawer generally than
the bravest woman, so that he who is
not whit hero may by contrast ap-
pear to be such in her presence--one of
the many causes, perhaps, of his fond
ness for her society.
A woman is accustomed to think of
herself as timorous, just as man is to
think of himself as valiant. She has
no shame in her avowal of fear, and is
rather inclined than otherwise to ex-
aggerate her fear, imagining, from
what men have told her, that her fem
inineness and loveliness depend some
what on its degree, at least on its ex-
hibition. She is so easily and constant
ly alarmed at tribes that she expects to
be beside herself when some great
danger threatens. And when it threat
ems, she is apt to be surprisingly calm
and self-collected. Startled by q beetle,
frightened by COW, ready to swoon at
sight of blood, she despises death when
1t menaces those she loves, and under
its very shadow is as composed as need
be. She seldom believes herself free
from fear, even though she be the en-
bodiment of heroism, and refers to the
scenes through which she has so nobly
passed as shocking and terrible. Look
ing back, her Imagination is far more
excited by the retrospect than her mind
was by the experience, and she wonders
how she could have lived through it all.
Indeed, her timidity is almost always
before and after the actual danger,
which, confronted face to face, is shorn
of most of its power to terrify. Her
nerves and her imagination are so much
more sensitive, sympathetic and active
than mans that she is scared by an
ticipation of, and at distance from,
peril rather than by peril itself.
With man it is generally different.
His nerves, sensibilities and imagina-
ton are usually tame compared with
hers. He is stronger, better disci-
plined, more experienced; he is not
constitutionally timid; he has, from his
very sex, far less cause to fear; he is
taught from his earliest consciousness
that faint-heartedness of any kind is
unmanly, discreditable, even disgrace
believes that he possesses it, and If he
have any suspicion to the contrary, he
would never acknowledge it, for con-
fession of cowardice is confession of
ignominy. Nevertheless, in the pres
ence of imminent danger, at the APP
proach of death, he not infrequently
shames his pretensions and his sex,
and reveals shudding ignorance of
himself Neither his will nor his pride
will serve him; his nerves prove weak
on supreme trial, and he palpably
covers before calamity. He falls far
below woman. While she remains
steady and tranquil, he is unsettled
and pusillanimous. Such instances
may be deemed exceptional, though
they are not uncommon. 1t may be
said that woman, as a rule, is more
afraid of remote and possible than of
near and real danger, while the con-
verse is true of man, as continual ex-
amples bear witness.
A just distinction between the sexes
may be that man is the Drawer, woman
the more courageous of the two. Cour-
age is the higher quality, since it is
mental and moral instead of physical,
as bravery is prone to be. Bravery
is Indifferent to danger through apa-
thy or through temperament; courage
sees and feels all the danger, and may
exaggerate it, yet conquers apprehen-
sion, preparing and prepared by sort
of spiritual exaltation and by wholly
determined purpose to meet the worst
that may come. The former is often
an accident of blood; the latter is a
capacity of the soul, the evidence of la
tent if not of conspicuous heroism.
Woman always sees so much more
peril than there actually is, that, if
man should see what she sees, he would
rarely stand firm. If he were one-quar-
ter as afraid as she is, his intrepidity
and achievement would be far more sell
dom sung.
A distinguished trait of women in
general is fortitude, which is the better
and nobler-yea, the essential-part of
courage. Man has comparatively a
slender stock. He shrinks from and
complains bitterly of pain that they
bear without murmur, with perfect
resignation, without a thought of doing
aught save their duty. He is peevish,
undignified, unjust, well-nigh intolera-
BILE during sickness which they will
bear with sweetness, even with grace.
Reverse of fortune, calamity, affliction,
anguish of body and of mind, the ruin
of their last hope. they will sustain with
equanimity, when 1.-THE of their suf-
fering will drive him to loud outcry, to
vicious courses or to suicide. They
will shiver and shrek when the first