New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-06-20
TIE COV4RDICE or HEN.


The recent duel between Count Robert de Mon
tesauoin and VI. Henri de Regnier has been fol-
lowed by vertabe campaign OF social Ostra-
cism against men of fashion who are charged
with cowardice and brutality at the Paris
charity bazaar fire. The insnuatlon that the
Count might have been one Of the culprits
may have been entirely unfOunded. But there
IS no room for doubt that some men were
guilty Of the conduct limited at in his case Men
of high lineage and fastidiOus social department
were in that hour Of horror transformed into IN
carnate fiends. Instead of risklng their own
lives to save the women about them, they struck
down and sacrificed the latter to secure their
own safety. Nor only that, but even when the
safe open air was gained, still moved by the
mania of utter fear they struck wildly with
fists and canes at all about them, so that more
than one gentle dame Of the FaubOurg bears
bruises and scars inflicted In wanton savagery
by him who should have been her protector
These facts are hideous and disgraceful, but
they are so well authenticated that they cannot
be doubted. TO mention them is no individual
reproach to French manhood. however, but
merely to that Of the whole world. 1t Is to point
cut a frailty Of human nature. Such an incident
might occur i'm any country. Some races are
more apt to do such things than others: but the
French are assuredly not among the most but
rather among the least apt The salient fact Is
that with all its strength, It's courage ana It's
cbiyalry the male sex Is in serious matters more
given to cowardly and brutal panics than Is the
weaker female sex. In trfing matters the re-
verse is true Let mouse run across the floor
or bat futter in through the window and the
women will scream and flee, while the men Will
sit unmoved But raise the cry Of fire In
crowded theatre, or let the steamship strike
rock and it is the women who will remain calm
and collected while the men yield to helpless
panic. Such things have been observed so often
that they may well be formulated into law.
Nor. after all. is that strange or contradictory.
The instinct Of sclf-prescrvation is one of the
strongest motive powers in the world, and it Is
purely animal in its nature. 1t Is the same In
humanity as in the brute. And since animal
passions in general are stronger In men than In
women. 1t follows that when once these get the
upper hand of the mind and soul, men become
more brutal than women. So long as the In
tellectual and spiritual qualities retain control,
man is the more courageous. But when once the
balance Is shifted, and the brute passion Of phys
zeal fear comes uppermost, he Is the more
cowardly That Is most apt to occur, as I'm Paris,
when danger comes suddenly, for then the AMI
nal nature springs to the front with bound, BE-
fore the will and soul have time to assert them
selves Given such latter time. and men show
heroism wellnigh divine And yet 1t would be
hazardous to say that even the most steadfast
hero is entirely proof against panic The flight
Of old Hdebrand before the sword OF Hagen in
the Niblung Lay has been realized in actual his
tory n thousand times The headlong scamper
of the scared Greeks from Larissa the other day
has evoked from phlcgmatic British veterans the
confession that they, too, and their Dravest COM
rades, have felt such senseless panic.
1t may WELL therefore. be that these men OF
Paris who in a moments madness disgraced
their own and the whole worlds manhood would
on another occasion have stood against fear and
death as steadfastly as their compatrlots or the
Guard at Waterloo. And it Is entirely possible
that the Three Hundred Of Thermopyl@ might
have been stampeded by some swift brutal
fear as hopelessly as their unhappy namesakes
at Larissa 1t all depends upon the ''psycholog-
cal moment" upon which beam of the scale files
upperInost when the sudden blow falls, whether
n man is n hero or q pOltroon. Perhaps some
day we NAV learn to prepare fOr such emergen-
cles by discipline and culture. The passions of
fright and fear may perhaps be brought into
subsection, just as other animal passions have
been That will be a new branch OF human
training. hitherto most of all ignored But there
are few that would contribute more to the no.
bilty and even to the selfish happiness OF man
kind