The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1893-06-01
Courage.

Courage.
In this age of advanced civilization
and thought the pen has usurped the
power of the sword and the arbitrament
of reason and law has superseded the
wager of battle. The call on God to
defend the right may perchance be
heard publicly in some forensic duel;
but there is more trust now in the per-
SuaSive elOquence of glib tongue than
in the mightiness of right.
With this change has come the decay
of courage culture and great decrease
in it's display. Man is not now trained
from infancy with that one idea that
valor alone can gain him preferment.
He is not taught to worship hardihood
and cultivate cOmbativeness; there is
no money in either, except, accidentally
to some fortunate priZe-fghter or
skilled matadOr. In this prOsaic age
we are all after gold or it's equivalent:
and as law and order, oppose dispoil-
ment by the strong arm, strength is at
a discount as are all the traditions and
usages whereby man was trained to
its utmost display.
1t does not follow that the courage of
the human race is waning because it does
not show itself in battle and broil as in
days gone by. The charge of the Six
Hundred, the desperate dash of the
First Minnesota at Gettysburg are full
ly worthy to 60 down to future genera
tions, bracketed with the bloody pass
of Thermopyla and the defense of the
Roman bridge by the "dauntles three"
In civil life the most noble herOism is
very frequently shown: recorded per-
haps by meager telegraphic paragraph,
some gallant fireman, railroad engineer,
miner or who not has manifested cool
courage and daring which would have
won historic fame in the days Of armOr
and hand to hand fighting. Physical
courage is not dead but sleeps to start
up wide awake when the emergency
occurs.
But the courage of the body is an an
imal attribute which man possesses
alike with the brute creation. There
is, however, courage of the soul which
calls upon the man himself in silence
and aside from all brilliant incentive,
to do nobly, though it does not demand
the mere riSking of life, III moment
of exaltation. 1t is spark of divine
fire breathed into and elevating man.
kind above the rest of animated nature.
1t is the courage of elf-denial, of secret
suffering, of self-cOnquest, of saying no..
How many man is there not, who
would charge a belching battery of guns,
rush into burning building, or face a
furious wild beast with intrepid cool
ness, yet cannot say no. How many
men are wrecked in life's stormy sea
because they are ashamed to confess
81 L, -
friendly heart and ear. Courts of JUS
tice, prisons, Warehouses, the graves Of
suicides, ruined homes, broken-hearted
wives and dishOnOred children, tell day
after day, the pitiful tale of those who
lacked the moral courage to confess a
first fault or to fatty say no to boon
companion or false friend, who held
the cup of temptation to his lip.
But there is yet another phase to
this moral courage. Though you have
sible nodding heads and wagging
tongues. The world is not entirely
made up of Pharisees; there are enough
large hearts and broad minds in it to
stretch out the hand of good fellowship
and aid to him who picks himself up
and, with head erect and steady eye, re-
gains the right road and marches along
It straight for the new mark he has
chalked for himself in the future
Learn from the infant; did he stay
down after his first tumble he would
never walk, but creep on through life
on all-fours. Pick yourself up, shake
yourself together, and say to the CEN
serious, "let him who is without sin
cast the first stone" My dear friends,
you will not be buried under cairn.
r Z