Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1888-10-11
A Soldier on Courage.

A Soldier on Courage.
london Standard.
In his famous Fortnightly article
IN courage, Lord Wolseley discusses
/ 4 subject which he may reasonably
De supposed to understand as well
IS any man alive; and he does SO in
4 manner that is not only interest
ng, but amusing and humorous as
we'll. Courage, whether active or
passive, may be divided into three
kinds-that which arises from pure
nserlsibility to danger; the inability
TO feel fear, which is characteristic of
men like Nelson; that which comes of
pure ignorance, such as may often be
seen in young soldiers, and was OBJ
served among the raw British levies
at Quartre Bras; and lastly, that
which springs from a sense of duty
Or q sense of honor overcoming and
~suppressing the emotion which the
individual feels at the proximity of
death, and enabling him to face it
with as much GOODNESS as one who
does not feel it at all. The difference
between the two is constitutional,
and many would say that the last
kind , courage-the courage of the
man who knows and appreciates the
peril and would shrink FROM it didnot
higher motives urge him forwards.
IN reality the more worthy ofrespect.
But if we can trust Lyrp Wolseley, it
is not this which makes soldiers
mount the deadly breach or charge
up to a battery of guns with light
hearts and desperate determination.
1t is the fiery and impetuous leader
who has never known fear, or the
eooly impassiye one who moves about
among a shower of bullets, regarding
them no more than if they were snow
fakes, who excites the enthusiasm of
his men. According to Lord Wolse-
ley, these different kinds of courage
manifest themselves in different man.
ners, and the soldier knows by in
stinct which of the two he is in pres
ence of. Between the officer whocon-
quers fear and the officer who has
none to conquer he never makes a.
mistake. He will respect the first;
but the second is the one in whose
company he viii rush on death.
We car easily understand that the
courage ola martyr at the stake or
the splendid calmness of the soldiers
who went down in their ranks with
the burning vessel, would have less
effect for active purposes than the
example of one who rushes sword in.
hand on overwhelming numbers, or
seems to court death by exposing
himselfrecklessly to fire. This was,
what Nelson did; and Lord Wolseley
gives some interesting examples OF
this kind of daring from his own OBJ
servation. He mentions Captain Sir
William Peel, of the royal navy as a
singular example of cool, deliberate
intrepidity. During the bombardment
OF Sebastopol he always walked just
behind his battery, where he was
more exposed to fire than the
men working the guns, and
where his presence made it inn
possible for any of the gunners to
finch. He was always courteous.
But under q heavy fire he became
more than usually urbane and gentle.
This the men always noticed. The
hotter the fire, they used to say, the
more polite" he became. AS an
instance of downright insensibilityto
danger, Lord Wolseley mentions Sir
Gerald Graham, who, when relieved
from duty in the trenches, used to
walk straight back to camp, exposed
to the Russian bullets for many hun
bred yards, because it was the short
est cut, and he was too lazy to go
round where he would have been
under shelter.
Illustrative of the different kinds OF
courage observable in difernt races,
Lord Wolseley tells us that at the
storming of Lucknow our troops
found themselves in presence Of q
gate house, from the upper stories OF
which a severe fire was kept upon
them. The only access to the upper
stories was by some very narrow
winding s~taircases, hardly admitting
one man at a time. The English
soldiers shrank for q moment from
what seemed certain death. But
the Sikhs rushed in, went up the
~staircases without a moments hesi-
~tation, and in five minutes had
thrown every rebel out of the win
dows. Yet the Sikhs would not have
stood up man to man against Eng
lish infantry. There is also the
courage peculiar to certain individ-
uals and certain races which arises
from contempt for death, and the be-
lief that it only leads to n better
and happier lie. This was Gordon's
courage. This was the courage OF
the ironsides. And this is the cour-
age of the Turks.