Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1892-12-24

AooAA ~
the courage Of woman amid great emergen-
cies. What mother or sister or daughter
would dare to go out to fight the cormorant
and jackals Rizpah did it. And 60 would
you If an emergency demanded. Woman is
naturally timid and shrinks from exposure
and depends on stronger arms for the achieve
ment of great enterprises And she Is often
troubled lest there might be occasions de
handing fortitude when she would fan- Not
50. Some Of those who are afraid to look
out OF the door after night-fal1, ana who
quake in the darkness at the least uncertain
sound. and who start at the SIAM OF the door
and turn pale in a thunderstorm, If the day
Of trial came. would be heroic and invulner-
able.
Goo has arranged it so that that woman
needs the trumpet Of some great contest Of
principle or affection to rouse up her SUM
berlng courage. Then she will stand under
the crossfre Of opposing hosts at Chalons to
give wine TO the wounded. Then she will
carry into prison and DARK lane the message
of salvation. Then she will brave the pes
thence. Deborah goes out to sound terror
into the hearts Of Co.'s enemies. Abigail
throws herself bet ween a ralding party OF
infuriatad men and her husbands vineyards.
RizDah frhtS back the cultures from the
rock.
Among the Orkney Islands an eagle
swooped and lifted a child to its eyrie far up
on the mountains. With the spring Of a
panther the mother mounts hill after hill,
crag above crag. height above height. the
fire of her own eve publishing the glare of
the eagles. and with unmailed hand stronger
than the iron beak and the terrible claw she
hurts the wild bird down the rocks, In the
French revolution CaZatte was brought out
to be executed, when his daughter threw
herself on the body of her father and said:
"Strike. barbarians! You cannot reach my
father but through my heart" The crowi
parted, and linking arms father and daugh-
ter walked out free.
During the siege of ~Saragossa. Augustine
carried refreshments to the gates. Arriv-
ing at the battery OF Portitlo she found that
all the garrison had been killed. She snatcaed
a match from the hand of a dead artillery
man and fired of a twenty-six FOUNDER, then
leaped on it and vowed she would not leave
it alive. The soldiers looked in and saw her
daring and rushed up and opened another
tremendous fire On the enemy.
The life Of James I. Of Scotland was
threatened. Poets have sung those times
and able pens have fingered upon the story
OF manly endurance, but how few to tell the
story OF Catharlne Douglas, one OF the
queens maids, WHO ran to bolt the door, but
found the bar nai been taken away SO as to
facilitate the entrance Of the assassin She
thrust her arm into the stable. The muir
derers rushing against it. her arm was shat
tered. Yet how many have since lived anu
I1eQ VINO never He9fu LQ0 COuGQlQR, Sell
sacrificing, heroic story of Catharine Doug
las and ner poor, shattered arm
You know how calmly Nine. Roland went
to execution and how cheerfuiiy Joanna of
Naples walked to the castle of Mura, and
how tearlessly Mme. Grimaldi listened to
her condemnation, and how Charlotte Cor
|, day smiled upon the frantic mob that pur-
sued her to the guillotine. And there
would be no end to the recital if / attempted
to present all the historical incidents which
show that woman's courage would rouse it
self for great iIergenc
But l need not go SO far. You have
known some one who was considered a mere
butterfly in society. Her hand had known
no toll. Her eye hal wept no tear over
misfortune. She moved among ~obsequious
admirers as careless as an insect IN a field OF
blossCming buckwheat. But in 1867 fnan-
cial tempest struck the husbands estate.
Before he had time to reef sail ande make
things snug the ship capsized n went
down. Enemies cheered at the misfortune
and wondered what would become Of the
butterfly. Cool men pitied and said she
would die of a broken heart.
"She will not work" say they, land she
is too proud to beg" But the prophecies
have failed. Disaster has transformed the
shining sluggard into a practical worker
happy as princess, though compelled to
hush her own child to sleep and spread her
own table and answer the ringing of her
own doorbell. Her arm had been muscled
for the conflict against misfortune, hunger
and poverty and want, and all the other
jackals Rizpah scares from the rock.
! saw one in a desolate home. Her mer-
CHESS companion had pawned even the
children S shoes for rum. From honorable
ancestry she had come down to this. The
cruise OF oil was empty and the last candle
gone out. Her faded trock was patched with
fragments of antique silk that she had worn
on the bright mar iage day. Confident in
God. she had a sIl ung neart, t. which he-
children ran when they trembled at the
staggering step and quailed under a fathers
curse. Though the heavens were filed with
fierce wings and the thickets gnashei with
rage, Rizpah watched faithfully day after
day and year after year, and wolf and COM
GRANT by her God strengthened arm were
hurled down the rock.
You pass day by day along streets where
there are heroines greater than Joan Of Arc.
Upon that cellar floor there are conflicts as
fierce as Sedan, and heaven and hell min.
gle in the fight. Lifted in that garrett there
are tribunals where more fortitude is de-
manded than was exhibited by Lady Jane
Grey or Mary, Queen of Scots.
Now l ask, ii mere natural courage can
do so much, what may we not expect Of wo
men who have gazed on the great sacrifice,
and who are urged onward by all the voices
OF grace that sound from the Bible and all
the notes OF victory that speak from the sky
Many years ago the Forfarsnire steamer
started from Hull bound for Dundee. After
the vessel had been out a little while the
winds began to rave and pillows rise until q
tempest was upon them. Tn vessel leaked,
and the fires went out, and though the sails
were hoisted fore and aft she vent speeding
toward the breakers. She struck with her
bows foremost on the rock. The vessel
parted. Amid the whirlwind and the dark.
ness all were lost but nine. These clunR tc
the wreck on the bea cc.
Sleeping that night IN Longstone light
house was a girl of gentle spirit and comely
countenance. As the morning dawns | SEE
that girl standing amid the spray and tun'
ult of con1ending elements looking through
a glass upon the wreck an the nine wretch
ed sufferers. She proposes to her father :;
take boat and put out across the wild sea tt
rescue them. The father says: sit canno
be done' Just look at tue tunbling surf!
But she persisted. and with her father
bounds into the boat. Though n4ver acvus
TONED to plying the car. she takes one an
her father the 0ta-r. STEADY howl Phi
The sea tossed un the boat as though il
we're a bubble, bur anil the foam and the
wrath of the sea the wreck was reaches,
the exhausted people picked up and save1
humane societies rendered their thanks
" oalth rnurai into tHa lon IF tho roor ~,rr