The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-09-07

Dr1gnt once u IL Dafeu 10 the WOflu fsa1c.
] have written tales If hcroism in scores
and hundreds, fully expecting that skep-
teal readers were mentally calling me down
for explanation OF the mysterious thing
called nerve or daring. Sometimes heroism
seems to turn on accident, sometimes on
luck and again on the nerve Of the docr OF
a deed. Accident and luck surely play into
the hand Of the hero. but Is not that simply
because they give a setting to show out the
deed In the best lightf Doesn't accident
merely furnish the occasion, luck place a
certain man there and nerve do the rest,
which is the all essential' Let some calam-
ity pass without producing its hero, and
there goes mp the wall, 'Oh, IL some man
Of nerve had been ON the spot, this or that
evil would have been prevented"
II the man OF nerve happens to be on
nand when needed. the calamity never takes
place, and the trifling episode which an
swers for 1t calls out no gush for the
man Of the hour The truth is per-
haps that our jaded faculties demand
strong sensations We nre blind to the
stars which keep up their faithful routine
vigils In the sky, only doffing our hats and
rolling up our eyelids when the m,teors
and comets sturtle with their fla hing bril-
liancy. Really. were II not for good old
| fashioned, prosaic. spartanlike and martyr
| like, almost sullen and gloomy, stubborn
and relentless courage, modern society
would go to pieces. There are always bril-
liant hotheads to stir up a fight. There
needs be the sound hearted men, with cool
heads and thorourh braced nerves, to carry
the thing through.
There are several millions of men In this
country today OF military age who would
be glad to know whether or not they pos
sess the nerve to stand up and be shot ut by
people shooting to kill. This is something
no man can kew until he tries IL, and he
may go through one initiation only TO feel
the need of another and another The
chances are that ont Of every million there
would be co $40 good for round of battles.
One of the marvels of the civil war was
the manner in which tender bred chaps
shouldered their way through hardships and
fighting. Bookkeepers, cashiers, oouutt 7
jumpers, students, professors and lawyers
touched elbows, with the horny handed
brown faced sons Of toll, and neither class
could say to the other, "Followr' 1t was
nip and tuoi."
The experience in our war was astound
| ing when one stops to think we are Amer.
leans with thoroughly independent social
traits. There 10 no such thing as caste, no
acknowledged superiority and no class de
manding reverence. Independence OF
thought and action Ia the boast Of every
American, and though it may be only q
sentiment 1t Is hard one to uproot. TIE
moment man enlisted all his independ-
ence vanished From being accustomed to
think and act for himself and tackle his
own problems in n manly way be became
- a..
thinking. to order him when and how to
act. or, worst OF all, not to stir II he died fer
II. That was n lesson to completely upst
the average American with soldier stuff Ia
him. Schooled to healthy self control, he
was called upon to practice self effacemeni.
Many of our mountaineers and backwootls-
men were spoiled by having leaders SCI
over them who didn't understand their ma.
terinl. Lieutenant Cushing of torpedo
fame was let alone by his superiors the
moment they discovered his weak points.
He was good for nothing ut routine WORK.
Fighting on his own hook be destroyed the
monster ram Albemarle, and. to use a com
mon term, raised the old Harry" gener-
ally. Custer was man of the same nature
Sheridan did nothing on large scale as a
subordinate nor when pushed in his indie
pendent commend, ard Stonewall Jacl; on
was an absolute failure when trammeled
by orders and policy.
The fact that the American soldiers &C
quilted themselves 40 well is proof that the
average man has the soldier stuff in him.
and the leaders, like the men, believed SO
from the start. A man Is more touchy on
the question of bravery than on that Of
beauty. He'll go into his first fight one
third hero and two-thirds coward, but he
won't know 1t and will come out thinking
IL Is the reverse. Unless some one gives 1t
away he will reverse the proportions the
second time.
1t Is easy to give ones nerve wrench by
OVERRIDING the heroic. Bravery is all uncer-
tain quality when 1t is at all unnatural, as
it is when spurred up to initiate somebody.
Who knows what Is back OF the heroic deeds
we see or hear aboutl An officer in the civil
war who was promoted for daring conduct
ON the field owed it to frantic and ungoy-