The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-06-17
HEROES IN REAL LIFE.
At South Carolina College aud a North
ern Prison.
Ne,cs and Courier.

Ne,us and Courier.
There are very few souls so dead to
the nobler impulses as not to expert
ence a thrill and exaltation Of feeling
at the sight OF mention of some truly
heroic act. Such an act Of heroism,
involving as it must the basis OF
strong character and high moral prin-
ciple, breaks up the monotony and
prosiness of life and sends our
thoughts with the force Of proiectiles
to nobler things and higher achieve
ment than those with which a mere
humdrum existence is filled. This
responsiveness in the soul OF nearly
every man and woman to what is he
roic in human conduct is highly cred
liable to human nature and shows in
those that have it in large measure q
soil into which heroic thoughts and
deeds may strike their roots.
The man chat has no sense OF the
heroic and whose soul cannot be stir
red by a brave deed, or lightning
word, eff such there be 60 mark him
WE'LL" for more than "the man who
has no music in his soul is he fit
for treason, stratagem and spoils.
This responsiveness and admiration
in most men and women for heroic and
noble deeds is, perhaps, the reason
why the biographies Of great and he
roic men and women are more sought
and read than almost any other books
1t is the heroic elements in novels
that largely gives them their hold up
on the interests Of their readers. The
more heroic the "hero'' or heroine of
the story the greater its power and
charm. Of what may be called world
books, the two, it is within reason to
say, that have been the most read and
taken the strongest hold upon the
world and have the greatest influence
on the thinking and character making
of the world are the Bible, with its
matchless heroes, and "Plutarch's
Lives Of great Greeks and Romans.
And wherein lies "the secret OF the
great strength" Of these two wond-
rous books-I mean simply as litera-
turej Largely, without doubt, in
their heroic element. This. certainly
is the secret of the popularity and i'm
mortality Of Plutarch, and but for
which he would have shared the fate
of the other great writers of Greece
and Rome, to be known only to classi.
cal scholars, whereas he is a classic
in all the great %literatures OF this
nineteenth century.
AS regards the Bible who Ear read
the story of Abraham offering up
Isaac, his only and we'll beloved son;
Of Joseph's great temptation in the
house of Potiphar, and yet he sinned
not; Of Moses despising the crown OF
Egypt for the love he bore to his de-
spised and afflicted people; of Elijah
coming right into the presence of the
powerful and wicked Ahab and more
wicked Jezebel and denoEncing the
wrath of God upon them; of Daniel
who braved the hungry lions den be.
fore, as a worshipper of the Lord God
of Israel, he would fall down and wor-
ship ''the golden image" which the
| King of Babylon had set up and COM
manded that he should bow down to
and worship; and more than all, the
story of the Hero Of the Cross; who, |
say, can read of these Bible heroes
without experiencing soul quickening
| and soul elevation2 And I may ask
again, who can read of the great heroes
| Of Greece and Rome, and the heroes
Of all the ages and countries, and of
their great actions, without falling in
love with greatness and desiring to be
a hero, for the first step towards be-
ing a hero is the desire to be one.
And hence there is no class of books
more useful and quickening to the
young, when their characters are in
the formative state, than the biogra-
phies of great and good men, whose
lives were cast in the heroic mold.
As Longfellow sings SO inspiringly:
olives of great men all remind US,
We may make our lives sublime,
And dying, leave behind us
Footprints or the sands of time"
The 1.-TWO Heroes" Of whom I shall
write in this article belong to "the
mute, inglorious Milton company of
heroes, but they are heroes just the
same. He is a hero who wonld die be-
fore he would tell a lie; whom no diff
fculties and dangers can deter from
trying; who grapples with some great
temptation and overcemes it; who
stands by the right when the right is
down, though he stands by himself;
who 'sswears to his W hurt and
changes mott" who asks not "what is
popular, but what is right and who
makes his "border" where he ';feels
his honor grip" And to sum it all
up in one word, who always quits
himself like a "man," and wins from
the world its highest %eulogy: "He is
a man." But though my "Two He
roes" do not belong to the class of he
roes that attract hero-worshippers,
aud are not considered as belonging to
~''stars of the first magnitude they
may be compared to the little twink
ling stars that We can just see in the
far-of depths Of space, not because
they are smaller than the more con-
%spicuous and blazing stars, for the
"%little stars" are infinitely brighter
and larger, their smallness to our eyes
being only that they are more out Of
view.
But it is time that I was introduce
ing my 1.-TWO Heroes to my readers.
1t is more than sixty years ago, and
the large and capacious chapel of tho
South Carolina College, at Columbia,
the capitol of the State, with it's gal
leries, was literally packed with as in
telligent and interested an audience
as ever gathered in that city Of cul-
ture and refinement. The occasion
was commencement. In those days it
was held in December, during the sit
ting of the Legislature. The members
of the Legislature were there in full
force, Columbia was out in her glory,
and in that audience were the Pres
tons, the Hamptons, the Disclosures,
the Greggs, the Maxcys, the Bland
ings and the Taylors, with others of
Columbia leading citizens. Charles
ton was there, too. in her representa-
| tive sons and dauphters. And from