The daily morning Alaskan., 1904-01-05
N1g EX.RERO
IOrlelnaLl


 we call bravery is purely physical. Real bravery consists not in fighting an enemy, but ourselves Cowardice or bravery is purely a matter of tempo rary nerves"
 Nevertheless, general" said young Captain Fitz Hugh, Eve honor the brave and desplse the coward When my nerves go back on me I trust enough vigor will be left to enable me to remove myself from the world of my disgrace"
 A pun of smoke appeared at one of the embrasures of a bastion fort on the crest of a hlll, followed by a boom, and shell came blowing up the ground, burying itself in a tree not a dozen feet from the party. A fuse hiss ed and sputtefed, burning rapidly to the vent. Most of the officers present either fell on thelr faces or ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Fitz Hugh coolly walked up to the shell, pulled out the fuse and threw it away
 "WeH done. captain" said the gen eral. "The battle has reopened."
 There was a hard struggle When the fighting was over there was as much wonder that the young captain came out alive as at his conspicuous bravery. One of his exploits the leading of a few men against an angle of breast works wherein the guns were creating havoc, was so conspicuous and 80 far reaching in its results that be was decorated with a gold medal
 The war ended and Fitz Hugh was a hero to the world for all time. Oc- caslonally he would oyerhear some one say: That's he; the man over there. They say he doesn't know what fear is." At army reunions, when he arcse to say few words, be was SO violently cheered that he often gave up the attempt He was the pet of the petticoats aud the admiration of men. The world of adulation in which he lived became She only world he knew, that which he had inhabited before his honors being forgotten. Yet his mod esty never suffered. He would only wear his medal at social gatherings with the little band who had helped him earn it and to whom he always in- sisted it belonged.
 Thirty years passed Fitz Hugh met with reverses that brought on nervous prostration. He was obliged to break away and go on a trip. When be re- turned he was still weak melancholy and inclined to study his symptoms minutely. consulting doctors, besides doctoring himself. He recovered, but was not the man he had been a few years before.
 One day while he was at the seashore with a party of friends, among whom was a lady who had consented to be a comfort to the old hero for the rest of his days he was walking with her through the town when a rough fellow passed them, purposely brushing against the lady. Fitz Hugh remon- strated. whereupon the man took him by the collar and showed him up against a wall, where he held him for some time. then released him with the remark that next tine he'd better mind his own business. FiZ Hugh. mortified beyond measure at such treat ment tried to muster up courage to strike the man, but his enemy looked SO ugly. SO strong. SO brutal, so unmer- ciful. that the ex-hero did not dare touch him.
 That night. when all were asleep. Fdz Hugh. cutching something tightly in his hand, emerged from his room and went to an ocean pier. There he stood for awhile. looking out on the black expanse of water, yainly endeav- bring to muster strength of will to plunge. He could not. The waves till- ed him with terror. Then he threw what he held in his hand out into the water and, turning, went to his room.
 The next day he did not appear Ills fancee sent for him to go down with her to tho beach He went down looking pale and haggard She guess ed his trouble. but said nothing. They were sitting on the beach, lower than they were accustomed to do, for the tide was out looking at the bathes' the gulls, the waves glittering in the sunshine, the ships far ont at sea. The lady was thrusting her hand into the sand, grasping it and letting it slip through her fingers Suddenly they closed on something round and ddt and heavy
 It was the hero's medal.
 He confessed to her that he had thrown it into the water the night be- fore. and she knew why.
 "It is better to have been brave" she said, "and lost 1ne's bravery than never to have been brave at all."
 When the ex-hero returned to the city he married his fancee and settled himself in a home, which he resolutely declined to leave, eschewing especially army reunions. One reunion night his comrades came and took him away bodily, his wife before he left pinning his medal to his coat without his knowing it. Arriving at the room where a dinner was in progress, be was placed amid cheers in the seat of the commander-president
 Comrades" he said when the tu- muls had ceased, "my general onca told me that bravery is purely phys lcal. I have learned he was right have been weak enough to think my self what you think me-a hero. l ar no hero and never have been one