The suburban citizen., 1902-08-09
PRESENCE OF MIND RARE
A VALUABLE QUALITY TO HAVE IN
TIMES OF DANGER.

even the most searching scientific In
vestigation. For instance, who can
account with any degree Of satisfaction
for that mental condition inspired by
emergency and commonly designated
as presence Of mind? Hundreds of
lives are saved every year through the
brain function which makes it possible
for human beings to think and act
quickly with seemingly supernatural
powers, yet no one can say positively
whether he possesses a mind so en-
dowed until opportunity opens the way
for a practical demonstration.
Presence of mind Is, as a matter of
fact, an exceedingly useful condition
in the matter of life saving. 1t is In
reality the one generally effective
agency through which persons are res
cued from death, for without presence
| Of mind there would be no such hero
Ism as is encountered almost every
day. And a remarkable thing about
this attribute of the brain is that it is
developed only through opportunity.
Perhaps every man given at all to
romancing has al ose time or another
wondered what he would do If brought
face to face with a situation in which
life was endangered and he had the
power to save that life. 1t is a pleas
ing thought to contemplate ones self
rushing into a burning building and
rushing out again amid the cheers of
bystanders with helpless victim un.
der each arm. 1t is also satisfying to
think Of dragging child from in front
Of a laundering train, or fishing
drowning woman out Of a lake, or
stopping a runaway horse, or per-
forming some other act OF bravery cal
culated to produce hero. But is there
any one who can tell with any degree
of accuracy what he would do If facing
any one of these emergencies? 1t is
in this field that presence of mind
dominates.
By considering cases where lives
have been spared through presence Of
mind it will be seen that even in accl-
dents of the most shocking character
persons are snatched out of the jaws
of death by the ability Of the mind to
remain active even under exceedingly
trying conditions. Oftentimes it is the
person who afterward is heralded as a
hero who displays wonderful presence
Of mind, and not infrequently it is the
victims themselves. But the general
principle is the same in both cases.
Another remarkable feature about the
mental activity known as presence of
mind is that it is as we'll developed in
children as among grown persons.
This fact is governed by the heroic
conduct Of siX-year-old Edith Ruthem,
Of New Brunswick, N. j. The tot
started from her home to take her
small brother for a walk. The children
passed directly in front of a rapidly
approaching trolley car The mother
shrieked a warning, and with wonder
full GOODNESS the little girl pushed her
brother out Of harms way and then,
unable to escape, jumped into the fen
der of the car and hung on until the
motormon, white with fright, brought
it to a standstill. She was unhurt
save for a slightly bruised side.
Here is another similar illustration,
in which Mary Mccarthy, of Detroit,
Mich, is the heroine. She lived with
her uncle, Daniel Mccarthy, seventy.
eight years old. Their house was dis.
covered on fire at 1890 O'Clock in the
morning, and the girl ran into the
street in her nghtrobe Looking back
she saw that her uncle had not fol-
lowed her Running back into the
burning building, she found that the
aged man had stopped to put on some
clothing and had been partially over
come by smoke. She plunged through
the flames and after a hard struggle
landed her aged uncle safely on the
pavement.
1t was surely presence of mind that
saved Katie Collins from a horrible
death In a silk mill at Haverstraw.
While working near a rapidly revolv-
ing machine her hair caught in the
wheels and she was being drawn with
terrifying swiftness to a frightful death
when her presence of mind asserted it.
self and she grasped her hair with
both hands and pulled with all her
might, thus retarding Its progress.
Then she tainted, and a young man,
who also had presence Of mind, rushed
to the power wheels and threw off the
belt.
Harry Brown, of Philadelphia, Is
another whose presence of mind served
him well in the face of almost certain
death He was working at the top of
a huge steel smoke-stack while it was
being hoisted into place. The tackle
broke, and Brown, percelving that the
stack was about to fall, dived inside.
1t dropped with a tremendous clatter
and bounded from one steel beam to
another until 1t struck the ground fifty
feet below, with Brown still inside.
His comrades hurried to the spot, ex-
pecting to find him crushed to death.
When they looked into the stack he
was slowly crawling out. He said he
didn't think he was much hurt, but
an ambulance surgeon found his right
leg broken and one shoulder bruised,