Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1891-11-14
COWARD OR HERO7
EVERY MAN PROBABLY HAS THE IN
NATE CAPACITY TO BE EITHER,

Natures.
An Indian lad NJ school recently produced
an essay on the subject Of courage, which
had. as the young ladies say, quite a sue.
cess In the way of circulation. IL that suck.
ing brave had lived from half a century 10
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 | have been ia 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 mo
10 the belief that though any man has the in
nate capacity 10 lie a hero, every man is
more or less Of n coward, and most men more
rather than less at the start Every old
soldier despises shell fire; yet IL any old
soldier were to tell me that he did not feel
awfully like either fainting or being sick at
the first shell which burst actually near him
| i would tell that man, IL he were smaller
than myself, and there was good reason 10
believe he had no revolver in his hip pocket.
| that he triiled with facts Nevertheless. be
| II said, have seen such man daring to look
calmly at a shell bursting close ON his SIMS
ter hand, and yet ducking at the ''sifiiingn of
a conicai bullet, though II he knew enough
to tell an oyster from a clam he must have
been aware that when any one hears the "f-f-
| f-wn OF a bullet that bullet is far past him,
and incapable Of finding its billet in him I'm
less 1t rieochets like boomerang.
The man who bolts today may tomorrow
earn the Victoria cross in this English service
or the cross Of st. George in that Of the ear.
There are plenty of instances OF men con
demned for cowardicc who have faced the
platoon that shot them without culver Of
the lin tFt hsa nnI of
pies courage is better ON the start; indigna-
ton, impulse, revenge all play their part in
this sort Of courage. But the truer courage
Is calmly 20 face a danger that is realized.
Carey, who deserted the Prince Imperial in
Zulnland in moment of panic, might have
resolutcly storIned "a breach in a happier hour.
Many "a man who proudly wears the bronze
cross "for valorn in the British army prob
ably wonders how the inspiration came upon
him to earn il.
Hearing some firing one day in central
Asia, 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 the 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 "A surprise from the town
all along" One OF the party stopped boz
cause he was on that generals particular
staff, but the rest, unbuttoning their holsters,
galloped ON. Five poor fanatics, carrying
rusty blades under their sheepskin coats, had,
as a chaplain observed, prayed themselves
silly" in mosque and then had lost their few
remaining wits through hasheesh, 30 they
sought immortality and ut least ended NOR
tality This was all there was of IL, and the
old general was vastly reserved that night
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 campi Why, certainly. But he was a
coward ON impulse and hero ON calcutta
ton. Forty men TO lead the sortieln he
said ON one occasion; stem will be killed"
Four hundred volunteered and thirty were
killed. But the general who was inspired
months before, by the idea omne ignotum
pro magnitico led that sortie all the same and
did not gain the death he sought. One OF the
bravest officers ever knew had been NOR
tally wounded in the leg and was hoisted on
10 camel. Presently he cried, Take mo
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
hero, but is he the finest hero after aIli
Skobeleff the younger shone In both phases
of the character, but In his heart he
cherished more the Thought OF his tenacity
on the GrI-an hills at Plevna than his dash
into Khiva, or his swim under fire across the