Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-17
OUR HEROES.

While no one would detract one iota
from the we'll deserved popularity en-
joyed by Admiral Dewey, the hero Of
Manila bay, a reasonable doubt may be
raised as to the propriety of converting
honestly won and modestly worn fam
into hero worship. Under a republican
form of government, where every man is
supposedly a sovereign in his own right
it is understood that the distinctions ir
life are chiefly contingent upon ability
and opportunity, and that the highest
function of citizenship is to do his duty
in whatever sphere of activity he may
be placed. The recognition of a duty
faithfully performed, be it great or small
is the measure of the man.. Whether his
services be of high or low degree in tbs
estimate Of their possible results, ga
mans a man for a that"
In the struggle Of life. then. it is foreign
to the assumed simplicity of our form OF
government for it's people to convert a
man who does his duty-even though ii
be a great duty-from the democratic
standpoint of a hero to the sentimental
aspect Of a god. 1t will not do to esti-
mate men wholly from the happy freaks
of luck which have tided their undoubted
courage to success. So great are the
negative possibilities of life, especially in
| totalizing the fortunes of war, that they
should never be lost sight of in the esti-
| mate of a great event.
Admiral Dewey's great victory is a
case in point. Had the Spaniards been
intelligently on1cered at Manila, the
American fleet would have been blown
out of the water when passing over the
torpedoes at the mouth of the bay, and
the name OF the great commodore would
have gone down into history covered
with the execrations of his countrymen.
His venture would have been considered
as %foolhardy and reckless, unworthy the
ability of an experienced American sea-
man. But nothing succeeds like sue
cess" He took desperate chances and
WOil-N ol ilOl oAIy q SIchl Ad4iC III uiS~
tory but the right of way to a new era
Of commercial advancement for the
country he has served SO well.
The world is full Of such examples,
Illustrating wherein the inadvertence or
cowardice of one man has given to the
courage of another a place of honor in
.lr, on,a1. % bicfoyv II 6ac offap hoan
remarked with truth, that had Washing
ton failed to wrest victory from the dis
couragements of the revolutionary war
he would lave gon down into the his
tory of that struggle as a traitor; and
had the late confederacy triumphed in
the civil war, Jefferson Davis would have
been immortalized in song n story as
the heroic preserver of human rights.
What is true in the larger spheres Of
human activity is likewise true in the
humble life Of the private citizen. The
man who faces danger and death in his
daily toll, suffering hardships and de-
privations without a mur-nur, that he
may protect from starvation the wife
of his bosom and the gems of his fireside,
is as much of a hero before God and
man as he who dedicates his energies to
the fortunes of war. Blu there are so
| many Of these everyday heroes all over
our broad land that they excite neither
comment nor surprise. They are the
! heroes of the home that lies closer to the
foundations of our republic than the
triumphs of war.
When some such hero meets his death,
the event is briefly ~chronicled in the local
press, the coroner's jury decides that it
was his own fault, and the world moves
on as before. Had he died shooting
naked savages on the other side of the
globe, his name would go into history
with a halo of glory, and his widow
would get a pension from the govern
ment. Yes. there are heroes and heroes.
We would detract from the laurels OF
none; yet we do think that however much
a man may appeal to the applause Of the
world-however much he may merit the
good words Of his admiring c%ountrymen
he -hasewOa no title to a godship where
all men are equal and where the heroes