Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-10
COWARD OR HERO?

l COWARD OR HERO?
 EVERY MAN PROBABLY HAS THE ,n. 1 NATE CAPACITY TO BE ETHER. l And He is Quite Likely to Re the otb,r
 on Occasion. if Circumstances Faver.
 Heroes .Ars of Different Breed. ana
 Natures.
 An Indian lad at school recently produced m essay on the subject of courage. which had, as the young ladies say, "quite suc cess' in the way of circulation If that snck ing brave had lived from half century to a century ago he would not have written. though he might have acted, the sort of moral courage of which he speaks. Some people say that 1 have been in forty-two fights of one sort or another. At any rate, have been under fire at least on twenty diff ferent occasions, and my experience leads me to the belief that though any man has the in- nate capacity to be a hero, every man is moro or less of a coward, and most men moro rather than less at the start. Every old soldier despises shell fire; yet if any old soldier were to tell me that he did not feel awfuliy Ike either fainting or being sick at the first shell which burst actually near him, l would tell that man, if he were smaller than myself, and there was good reason to believe he had no revolver in his hip pocket, that he trifled- with facts. Nevertheless, be it said, have seen such a man daring to look calmly at shell bursting close on his sinis- ter hand and yet ducking at the ssiffling" of Q conical bullet, though if he knew enough to tell an oyster from a clam he must have been aware that when any one hears the tiff f-w" of bullet that bullet is far past him, and incapable of finding it's billet in him un- less it ricochets like a boomerang.
 The man who bolts today may tomorrow earn the Victoria cross in the English service or the cross of St. George in that of the czar. There are plenty of instances of men con- demned for cowsrdice who have faced the platoon that shot them without quiver of the lip or the flutter of pulse. Some peo- ple's courage is better on the start; lndigna- tion, impulse, revenge all play their part in this sort of courage. But the truer courage is calmly to face danger that is realized. Carey who deserted the Prince Imperial in Zululand in moment of panic, might have resolutely stormed breach ill a happier hour. Many man who proudly wears the bronze cross ''for valor" in the British army prob HDly WOnQeIS uoW buS tASpu dClol Seaulo uPOA him to earn it, | i Hearing some firing one day in central 1 Asia, I and three others who had been out for an afternoon ride jumped a little river into the camp and pelted away down its main street in the direction of tho shots. As we passed headquarters general officer begged us to stay with him and get the men turned out in the camp of the nearest line regiment, as he ''had feared surprise from the town all along" One of the party stopped be- cause he was on that generals particular staff, but the rest, unbuttoning their holsters, 1 galloped on. Five poor fanatics, carrying | rusty blades under their sheepskn coats, had, as chaplain observed, Sprayed themselves silly" in mosque and then had lost their few remaining wits through hasheesh, so they sought immortality and at least ended mor- tality. This was all there was of it, and the old general was vastly reserved that night. l Yet that same old general had been in the Crimean trenches and in the mutiny fight ing in India, and he showed he was no cow ard nine months later. Was he coward that day the Ghazis from the bazaar attacked the campg Why, certainly. But he was a coward on impulse and a hero on calcula- tion. ''Forty men to lead the sortie!" he said on one occasion; 'ten will be killed" Four hundred volunteered and thirty were killed But the general who was inspired months before, by the idea omne ignotum pro magnifico led that sortie all the same and did not gain the death he sought One of the bravest officers ever knew had been mor- tally wounded in the leg and was hoisted on to a camel. Presently he cried, ''Take me down, they are shooting at mel" So loss of blood and physical pain in this case turned a hero into coward.
 The beau sabreur is the popular ideal of a I l~~ Io,,1 nh7 Skobeleff the younger shone ill both phases | of the characte", but in his heart he cherished more the thought of his tenacity on the Green hills at Plevna than his dash into Khiva or his swim under fire across the Danube, or his planned movement to take the central redoubt on tao Tehataldja lines at Canstantinople On the other hand, Mehemet Bey, .sthe oap:ain," as the Turks called him, prided himself more on his successful das', up the slopes of Kizil Tepe in Armenia than on his heroic defense of Yahni against an apparently overwhelming force of Russians, or even upon his defense of one of 1 the forts at Ardahan, for which the generous Muscovites mentioned him with approval in l their dispatches, none the less readily, per haps, because he was Pole in the Ottoman service Yes; heroes are of different breeds and natures, but none the less heroes, what ever their manifestation of the heroic quality.
 It is a curious illustration of the absurdity, not of the special decorations for herois1n, but of the popular appreciation of them, that neither of the two most widely circulated of British annual books of reference takes the slightest notice either of the Humane society medals for life saving or of the Albert medal for heroism in civil life, while whole page is devoted to the Victoria Cross, Yet it was said by the great teacher ''greater love hath no man than this than man lay down his life for his friends" How much less can it be to lay down or desperately risk ones life for strangerA"Cu in New York 1 Times.
 1 Two Old Schoolfellows Meet.
 The first day of congress, Rayner, of Mary land, sat beside a rather rough looking con- gressman from the south, and he noted that this member looked at him rather scruti-