Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-03-20
Heroism, as Lately Shown.
Whene'er noble deed is wrought
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought.
The heart springs up in glad surprise.

Whene er is spoken a noble thought.
The heart springs up in glad surprise .
Our souls to higher leve rise
CARLYLE tells us: 'Heroism is the d.
vine relation which in all times unites
great man to other men," The late
overwhelming disaster to the CITY of
Columbus, amid the terrors of intense
frost and raging sea, fighting for
their prey, where SO many, fleeing the
rigors of northern winter to a more
genial cline, met their sudden and
fearful fate-shows amid its horrors
and gloom one CLEAN of light in the
heroism of Lieut.. Rhodes in his per-
sistent efforts to save the last two liv-
ing souls clinging to life amid the froz-
en- ropes of the doomed vessel. Yet
this is only one among many deeds of
noble undergraduates in an age called
exceptionally selfish and practical.
Who, that read it, can forget the
description of the expression in the
face of the man entrapped in the
Brooklyn tunnel, death sweeping tow
ard him in the wild waters, as he cried
to those without Ito save themselves"
No frantic, forgetful effort to escape
himself with the flood, realizing in
that instant all that awaited him, that
hero thought not of his own, but the
safety of others. At the time one of
the papers said, 'In the old world he
would have been buried with great
honor, with the medal for vaIor' on
his breast" In the new world he lives
in many hearts. Let us hope and be-
lieve that those who saw that noble
look Of resignation and self-abnega-
ton, thought the glass that divided
them from him and terrible death,
were raised by it, and their gratitude
to a height from which they never fell.
Nor have we forgotten the brave cap
tain of the Sewanhaka, as he labored
on the burning deck, amid smoke and
flame unconscious of self, and physical
pain, until all were safe! His humble
answer to those who sought him were
he lay (blinded and bandaged) in a
hospital, to express their sense of his
heroism was: Il did simply my plain
duty" Who remembers his name
even? These are some of the many no.
BILE acts brought to our eyes, in the
daily chronicle of the worlds doinos.
There are many less conspicuous, a
poor miner gives or perils his life to
save that of another to whom life is as
hard and work-a-day, and Ito us) APP
parently bald. This divine spark is
confined to no class. We read, admire
and perhaps forget them, though they
are worthy to be written in letters of
gold. They are written in the book of
life, and our lives are elevated and
enriched, we have some reflected cred
it, that those of our kind have in SUI
preme moments of their lives, ''that
little CLEAN of time, between two eter-
mites" borne themselves in an exalted
way. The door of such deeds, may
have seemed plain and commonplace,
of no heroic mold to our eyes. But
there has sprung up in him at the tit
ting time, and place, spontaneously,
simultaneously noble forgetfulness
of peril to self, in the high desire to
rescue from it another, even stranger,
which flames into heroism.-Spr1ng-
field Republican.