Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1898-08-23
Hero Worship.

=. = ,,s-T y: iYtW sfYg.s% ri
J 4 Hero, Worship. !
One Of the most salutary traits in hu.
man nature is its passionate admiration
for those who rise far above the average
life OF their fellow men through the
medium Of heroic deeds. This superior
ity may be evinced on the battlefield, in
the saving OF human life by riskine
ones own. or by moral heroism in the
domain Of politics aud statesmanship,
or In other ways too numerous to cite.
But it 10 to tho hero of battle, through
tho full blaze. Of publicity which TO.
cuses the worlds attention at a single
point and the snowy splendor which &C.
companies military exploit, that the
fullest need Of admiration is generally
given. The hero Of peace may be quite
as deserving Of admiration as the sword
bearer, but his deed lacks the splendid
frame to set forth the color and proper.
tions Of the action. 1t may be set down
as reasonably true that the man capable
Of great enthusiasm in the admiration
Of great deeds and their doors, is him.
self capable Of doing something rightly
noble when the opportunity occurs. II
is this kind of admiration which keeps
alike the sentiment for a higher ideal
even under commonplace and depressing
conditions. It has been favorite theme
of some of the great modern philoso.
piers and essayists to consider, how fan
the stimulus given by war through the
spectacle of heroic deeds to the mass Of
men who looks on a. spectators may
compensate in moral elevation for the
waste and bloodshed Of war. At the
time Of the Crimean campaign of 1855
one Of the magazines instituted sym.
postum on this subject, to which many
Of the leading thinkers Of Great Britain
contributed. The consensus Of judgment
was that the tendency Of such an inf1u.
ence was clearly to lift public opinion
and practice out Of the rut OF the sordid
and the commonplace.
It does not need to 50 as far as Thorn.
as Carlyle's doctrine preached in thou.
sand forms with such a fury of eloquent
prose that. the hero-man was the only
savior Of society, before whom all must
bow down and worship If they would
find salvation. But one cannot escape
from the belief that the contemplation
Of the heroic deed tends to propagate
similar actions by force Of example and
imitation and to put the admirer in q
nobler frame Of mind. Men forget al
such times all that is mean aud habitu.
ally unworthy in themselves to drink at
purer fountain of feeling. And as for
women it Is a. natural for them to thrill
with joy and alteration at heroism a. il
10 to breathe the air Of heaven. -"
War, then, has its elevating as we'll a.
its seamy side. Our war has not lasted
long. Its opportunities for splendid
deeds Of daring and hardihood have not
been profuse. But some have been
achieved which will shine on the great
muster roll Of heroism a. worthily AZ
. any performed during our five years
civil war. The rapturous admiration
with which the country responded to
such an exploit as that Of Hobson, TO,
example, ahows that the wellspring
still bubbles clear and deep In the ma:
tional heart after quarter century Of
money making peace. The golden
calf on occasion IL easily and quickl,
,dethroned for a mightier idol.