The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-07-31
TWO SAMPLES OF HERo1sM.


The young man who is elected Har--
wards first marshal must have t1rst stood
the test of four years constant fellow
shin with the 800 men of his class; he
must have been watched by them in the
dormitory, at work in the classroom and
at play on the ball-feld-which some one
has said is the best place to test the gen.
tleman-and must not have been found
wanting. Generally the right man is
elected; occasionally he is not. This
year the right man was elected.
A regrettabIy large number Of people
do not know that young gentleman
named Arthur Cumnock was captain OF
the football eleven at Harvard last year,
and that his eleven defeated the eleven
of Yale. and that Yale, in her turn,
.crushingly defeated Princeton. The cas-
nal visitor at class day understood it bet
ter when he was told that Arthur Cum
mock had done more than win cham
pionship, and that it was not as the cap
tain of the team that he was cheered
with a heartiness and a loneliness of feel
ing that very few men hear, but because
he had taught lesson in the four years
of his college life of manliness and
strength and fineness of character which
had brought new tone into the lie OF
great university that was not there when
he came, and that will remain there now
that he has gone.
This wear the seniors cheered all the
men or bodies of men they best loved,
from Henry L. Higginson, who gave the
athletic field in memory of the Harvard
men who fell in battle, down to the var
sity eleven, who train upon it to win the
lesser victories of to-day.
And when this was done, Capt. Arthur
Cumnock, who had led the cheering up
to this point, stepped back and looked
conscious, for it would not do for him to
give the time for the next cheer. But the
little yell0w-haired president of the jun
ior clasI who had bided his time in i'm
nee, leaped to his feet and threw
his shoulders, and swelled out his
and shouted: Sand now three
for Arthur Cumnockr' And the
Iniors rose up from the turf as
I though they had been shot from a trap,
and worked their elbows and yelled, and
before they had fallen back breathless,
the sophomores and the freshmen ami
alumni had followed with volley of
cheers like the salute of field battery,
and the Boston people and the visitors
from New York and from all over the
West were waving cir hats and hand
kerchiefs, and beating their gloved hands
and cheering too, and Arthur Cumnock
was looking very red and embarrassed
and handsome.
When Arthur Cumnock came to Har-
ward the fast set had marked 1T, in the
eyes of the outside world, either wrong
fully or rightfully, for its own. The pre-,
vailing tone was Harvard pesslmlsm, ana
the manly thing, so the incoming fresh
men were told, and the chief end of man
was, to drink and gamble politely, and
wire-pull for the societies, and cut reel
tations. In four years this idea of the
manly thing has changed, and it has
changed, so all who live in Boston or
Cambridge will tell you, because the man
who was most conspicuous in the college
life, owing 10 his place as captain OF the
varsity eleven, threw all of his influence
on the side of temperance III all things,
fair play or work, and showed at all
times, whether on or off the field, the
courtesy and modesty and strength of a
gentleman.
And yet it is very easy to turn and write
for the other side, and to say that more
to be envied is Frederick Brokaw, who
was given his chance at Long Branch last
week, and who rose to it, and died in
taking it.
Broizaw was one of the simplest,
gentlest, sturdiest souls l have ever
known. 1 know that one is always ex-
pected to speak well of the dead, but
there is nothing else to write of Brokaw
if one does not write we'll of him. He
was tall, ungainly and awkward, but his
face was one of wonderful gentleness and
beauty, owing to the eyes, think, which
were as frank and soft as a girls, and
showed the nature of the man to whom
soever looked into them. The smallest
freshman in the college could abuse Bro
kaw, and demand to know why he had
dropped that foul or made that over
throw, and instead of batting him over
the head for his presumption, the big
giant of the varsity nine would stoop
over and explain about it laboriously, and
almost promise not to do it again. And
with this simplicity and humility of
character he had the pluck and endur'
ance of bulldog, as all know who have
seen him stop the ball through a long
hot afternoon with hands that were SO
bruised and broken that whenever he
raised them the blood ran down his bare
arms from under the cuff of his gaunt-
let.
In all the terrible drowning accidents
that have made bathing on the Jersey
coast notorious, none of late years has
been so dramatically sad and pltitul as
this last one, in which Frederick BrokaW
gave his life to save three women. There
was something so fine in the readiness
the lack of consideration, and the very
recklessness, indeed, with which BrokaW
and his companion sprang to the rescue
of the women, without question or call
ing for further aid, or thought for theil
own safe return.
1t was just like Brokaw to lose his life
for one of his mothers servants. ANY
other man than Brolaw would have dice
for the girl he loved, or for some feeble
old man, or for a little child. But Bro
kaw was just such chivalrous, unas
Stunning, gentle soul as would bt
picked out, though he were twice thu
millionaire's son, to save the life of 'ont
of the least of these" and who would
go out of life as he had lived in tim
posed on with good nature, and bearing
good or evil gently and in patience.