The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-03-17
FLAWS IN PHYSICAL COURAGE.
How Cowardice Sometimes Is Linked Queer
" to Bravery in Human Nature.
yrffar In pfttsburg DISPATCH.

Writer in Pittsburg Dispatch.
Courage. physical courage, is seldom
found in man without flaw. 1t was not
long ago that l heard of gallant soldier,
who undoubtedly made splendid name
for himself by acts of great bravery In the
late war, and who yet was nearly scared to
death by the Eruption of harmless neces-
sary cat from its hiding place under the
soldiers bed. He told the story himself,
and confessed most candldly that ne was
frightened by the feline intruder.
A clergyman who had pluck enough to
swim across dangerous river when he was
a youth and since then has shown his brave
spirit by ministering to the poor par1shon-
ers during the cholera epidemic of 1S49.
think, in London, and in numberless other
great ways, is periodically made perfect
coward whenever the not very formidable
wasp or yellow jecket flies anywhere near
him. This person is remarkably fond OF
fishing for trout with the artistic NY. and l
have known him to put up his rod and
desert pool where the fish were rising on
all sides, just greedy for surface food and
asking to be caught, because a wasp or two
persisted in lowering over his creel.
Allegheny county boasts a brave little
woman. possessed of culture, gentleness and
all the sweetest of womanly traits, who is
eminently unlike the majority of her sex in
that she can break glass balls with rifle
at ten yards, and has been known to make
things very lively for burglars with re-
NOlNtT, WHO YET uaS CuStOIdTy 1tulluiuC
dread of the smallest mouse, and who will
faint at the sight of a pin scratch,
L remember how q ghost story was laugh
ably interrupted in It's telling, and in way
which bears upon this topic of courage.
Three or four newspaper men were match
ing tales of horror in a lofty bedroom at
the Lochiel Hotel in Harrisburg dur
ing the session of 1856. There
were four of us there, L remember
now. One of them was a stout, sanguine
fa11nxv he, xyn,lI ,ofh no faI of Goo
ing anything in particular. He told the
last story, and the most blOOd-curdling of
course. 1t was 2 o'clock in the morning,
and an empty bottle stood on the bureau,
as a reminder of what had been. What an
awful yarn it was our sanguine leviathan
told. Every hair in my head was in revolt,
/ know, and the silence was terrific when
the tale came to a thrilling wind-up. The
next biggest man in the party was the only
one brave enough to speak. Said he, husk-
while: ''DOyoumeanto say that you weren't
a bit scared. Georgef"
Not a scare" replied the sanguine
George, but ere the words were out of his
dOOr-quite in keeping with The Raven
and that knocking evermore-and that
valiant companion and hobnobber with
ghosts turned two shades paler than the
sheets on his bed.
whats thatf" he involuntarily cried.
Its me with the other BOTTLE" said the
bell-bOy, and there was startling roar of
laughter.
One of the most unpleasant scares a
friend of mine has ever experienced Oc-
CURED recently during a railway journey
by night. will let her tell it in her own
words:
Just before fell asleep, while 1 was on
the brink of dreamland, and when / was
still dimly conscious that my husband was
snoring .melOdiously, i! saw the curtains OF
our berth or rather felt them move That
walked me little and strained my eyes to
watch the. pale streak Of low lamp
light which marked the dividing
line of the curtains. They slowly
parted and 1 saw. a hand come in,
and then an arm. The hand unbuttoned
all the clasps of the curtains. and then
saw it stretch out toward the netting where
some of my husbands clothes were. The
whole thing struck me then as rather
humorous, and proceeding in that view
i reached Tor one of my. shoes under
the bed, but, by chance, took hold of one OF
my husbands. l gripped the shoe tightly,
and, sitting up, dealt as savage blow as
could to the arm in sight. The blow didn't
fall quite true, but an exclamation of pain
and a hurried scuffiing of feet down the
aisle told me that the owner of the arm
didn't want any more boot. He didn't get
any booty except from my hand"
''Who was the theft" asked.
That's the strange part. Though
walked my husband at once, and he in
vestigated all he could. we never found out
the rascal. / suspected a cOlOred porter
but couldn't prove it,"