The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-06-14
True and False Courage.

/ courage as an GldSLlC COuCcpllOlis 0Oul
monty supposed to denote absence OF tbs
sense of fear, more often means absene'
| Of the PERCEPTION of danger. Another dis
| tfnction. and a more important one, i:
| that suggested by the impellng motive
| that causes dts manifestation. A fear
less deed done for self glJclfca.i lion an(
! notoriety Is not a manifestation of tTuS
| courage. The accompanying historical
! incidents will serve TO distinguish true and
| false courage:
The case of Leonidas, who. with three
| hundred Greeks, held the pass at Their
mopylae against the entire army of Xer-
xes, numbering over a million warriors
| is one of the most frequently cited sam
| pies of true courage, the courage that
| makes for the welfare of race or ma
ton.
| Arnold Won Winkeiried, at a critical
| moment in the battle Of Sempach, when
| the Swiss failed to break the serried
ranks Of the Austrians, after commencing
| his wife and children TO the care of COM
rades. rushed upon the enemy, gathered
in his arms the spears of the front rank
| directed against him, and opened a path
for the swiss soldiers.
There still remains in one of the valleys
OF the Cantaban mountains, in Northern
Spain, small hill called Cola de los
Ingleses' CThe Hill of the English). 1t
It marks the spot where three hundred
bowmen of the Black Princes army were
surrounded by several thousand Spanish
infantry, and, after a long and gallant
resistance, were entirely destroyed. The
object of the tenacious resistance was to
divert the enemy's attention from the
movements of the main army, and is one
Of the most drastic instances of supreme
heroism.
The daring act of William Barker Cush-
ing in his destruction of the A4bemarle
forms an interesting parallel to Lieu
tenant HObson's feat. He set out on Oc-
tober p, 1854, to sink this ram, which
had been doing a great deal of damage
on the North Carolina coast. Approach
ing it, he found it so surrounded by
floating logs that he feared his torpedoes
would not reach their goal
Under the full fire Of the enemy he
made his little launch jump the obstruc-
ton, discharging his torpedoes when al
most within reach Of the ship, succeed
ed in sinking it, and was able to swim
ashore in the confusion.
Two similar acts of heroism occurred
during our war with Tripoll, in 1S04the
firing Of the frigate Philadelphia by
Lieutenant Deca tur, when surrounded by
an overwhelmingly superior force of
Turks, and the explosion of the torpedo
boat Intrepid, by Commander Somers. In
the former case the commander and
most of his crew escaped, but Somers
and all his men went down with the
enemy.
Dewey and Hobson, will, of course. go
down into history as notable examples
OF genuine, self-sacrificing heroism.
When Lars Porsenna, King of Etruria
melted by the dethroned Tar0uinis AT
tackled and worsted the Romans, a Ro-
man youth, Caius Mucius, undertook 10
assassinate him. Having killed his sec
rotary, whom he mistook for the monarch.
he was apprehended and taken before the
assembled Etrurian generals, where, 10
give an exhibition OF the fortftude of his
people, he placed his right hand into a
small fire in the camp and unflinchingly
permitted it to burn to crisp. Though
often cited as an example of almost SUI
perhuman tortftude, 1t samples more of
vanity and Vadngl oriousness. He render
ed no service to his country of mankind.
He was surnamed 'rScaevo1a, !" 1.-THE Left
Handed One" in commemoration of the
loss of his hand.
One of the most revolving Instances Of
the exhibition of false courage is that of
a Russian savant who, in the late sew
enues, having tired of life and seeking
TO persuade the world that suicide in his
case was not cowardly, prepared for him
sell a death horrible almost beyond de- |
scrption. He lay on his back upon a bed |
stead from which he had stripped all |
with lamp placed underneath |
him so that the flames just touched his |
spine, rising at intervals to make notes |
which were afterward published. He |
succeeded in dying and making his case. |
though not his name, famous, without !
adding Jot to human knowledge Of good.
lnordinate craving for notoriety lies at |
the base of manifestations of false cour-
age. The most glaring example of this is
perhaps the case of 1.-The ambitious youth
who fired the Ephesian dome" Deyoured
by a desire to do something that would
hand his name down to posterity. and
without capacity for distinguishing him
self, he set fire to the magnificent tenn
lie OF Dianna at Epheus. which was mum
oered as one of the seven wonders. of the
world, and then gave himself up to the
authorities, cOnfessing his crime and
'oicing his satisfaction in having made
lis name immortal
The authorities ordered his name SUD-
pressed.
Sam Patch, jumping Niagara Falls NAV +,
properly be included in the same cate
sory.
In our Revolutionary War some Light
Horse Harry's bare-brained feats were
ldmittedly unnecessary and inspired bv
iare-deviltry rather than by patriotic
ourage.