The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1904-01-05
THE WEAKER ONES.

The fierceness of the animal 10 man,
regardless of years and centuries of
culture, springs to the surface and
marks with acts Of savagery his con-
duct, when amid the dire conditions OF
q death threatening disaster, like the
recent Chicago fire, he becomes an un-
reasoning demon, who, for self preser-
walton, would crush the weak and help
less beside him. 1t is beyond concep-
tion, that any condition could prevail,
which would cause brave men to for
get all manhood, and with the lessen
ing strength of death crush out, In
their wild, mad rush, the lives of help
less children. Men who, away from
the appalling conditions of this awful
catastrophe, would have faced with un-
trembling and unfaltering valor the
approach of death in din of battle,
or through the slow wasting encroach-
ment of disease, here became maniacs,
and defed every law of life and love,
except that one, strongest Of all, self
preservation.
The awful, the terrible destruction
OF life in the Chicago theatre, with all
Its burdens of inestimable sadness and
weight of grief, has behind It the dis
closure of the real fact, that humanity,
after all these years of civilization
and christian teaching, are yet not so
far, as one in moments of safety
might think, from that animal bar
barism which characterized the sell
fish cruelty of the times before the
cross of Christ had fixed the stand
ard of self sacrifice in the laying down
of life that others might live.
1t is easy, we know, to sit. in safety
tonight and write criticism OF these
poor frenzied creatures, who for the
love of living would trample out the
existence of helpless little lives, and
doubtless we, in that fearful moment,
would have acted as did those who
faced condition which can not be
pictured by words. 1t is not, then,
that we would bring reproach upon
these few Of the great worlds millions,
who were called upon to face this
terrible ordeal, and who, regardless of
their efforts to save self, lie tonight
unrecognized in the citys morgues, or
beneath the gaze Of loving friends in
charred distortion: nor would we bring
10 those who escaped unharmed word
Of censure for their actions.
1t was human-only human--this
rush and crowd and jam for life's pres
ervation. II is the human in it all to
which we would call attention. That
snn fnr hot ans, ,o1
for perpetuation of existence, that
supreme law OF self preservation, which
controlled under ordinary circum-
stances to some extent stifes selfish
ness, but which under stress and
strain rules the mass, and the absence
OF which marks the martyr.
The martyr and the mass; the hero
and the crowd. There are, after all,
few John Maynards among the men
Of real life, and while ore dies that
others may live, hundred will with
relentless selhshness crush those
weaker than themselves that they may
escape the scourge of the threatening
flaming death. 1t is beyond belief
that strong manhood, crazed by the
fear Of death, should stride to safety
over the defenscless forms Of the lit
tie ones in the great disaster at Chi
sago. And yet, when we stop to think,
It is the way Of the world, even in the
twentieth century. II enters too
largely into the ordinary routine. but
we pass it then unnoticed, until stand
ing in awed silence by these broken
little bodies, there goes up from our
hearts an unworded prayer for that
spirit which in safety Of direst dan
ger, will give thought to the weaker
ones beside us in the struggle