The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-06-10
THE EVENING STORY
A Hero's Cowardice?

A HERDS Cowardice?
When under flying colors and to the
sound of beating drums he marched
away IN the ranks to the war group
OF girls stood on a porch waving. on
ali the faces save one was a pleasur-
aDIe excitement. That one waved sad |
~, Ianguidly, as If bidding adieu to in
visible spirits. She was blind.
During the four years of campaign
ing that followed he never forgot that
race. When rain or snow beat upon
nm, when the bullet sang its melodi-
Gus yet terrible song, when shells
walled above or solid shot shoWered
MIN with the soil of the south his
eyes were fixed. not on the "colors,"
Tut on that remembered face-sWeet,
melancholy, enduring
When he returned he was riding at
the mead of the column, a distin-
gu1shed soldier. The line of march
led past the porch where he had seen
the pnnd girl, but she was not there
In his disappointment he forgot his
honcrs, the clamoring throngs, the
shouts that ran abreast of him like an
incoming tide. Then farther on his
pulses quickened at seeing her at a
window. She was standing between
two friends. AS he approached he
saw her say something which he could
not but infer was a request to be told
where was the hero of the hour, for
one Of them directed her hand in
which she held a small flag, so that
when she waved it it was to him. He
refined in his horse, faced toward the
window and reverently raised his asB.
Then when he had seen her friends
tell her what he had done and saw
that he had given her a pleasurable
emotion he turned and moved for
ward.
The excitement of that emotion gave
him his first fixed purpose in life. He
had been enlinently fitted for a soldier,
whose career is like the wind which
bloweth where it hsteth. He had felt a
pleasure III the roar of battle in the
accomplishment of achievem ents in
proportion to the hazard of the under
! taking, but this human delight was to
/ die away before his newborn spiritual
! purpose as a storm that has passed
gives place to the soft sunlight. The
/ inspiration that had been kindled In
his heart was to comfort a bereaved
soul
But his time was not his own. There
was much to do in closing up the work
of the war and in disbanding the
armies, and he was retained even after
| this had been done in an important
command Weeks passed into months
and months into years, and the object
bof his life seemed as remote as ever.
One summer while suffering from
the effects of an old wound, DESTROYS
of change and rest, he assumed the
plain garb of a citizen and went in
c0gnitO to an unpretenuOuS summer
resort. As he mounted the steps OF
the porch he saw sitting in a wicker
chair the blind girl. He had pur-
| pOsely chosen this remote place where
he would not be recognized, and after
/ he had seen those who were staying
/ in the house he was pleased that there
was none who knew him. He did not
ask for an Introduction to the girl-he
did not need one. No one needed an
introduction to her for her blindness
caused her to be always dependent.
He waited one morning until he saw
/ her rise from her chair and grope her
way into the house, then asked II he
! he experienced the sacred emotions as
when he took the hand and directed
| the steps of this stricken girl.
From that moment he was her con-
slant companion. Perhaps it was her
| weakness that led her to admire the
stern duties Of a soldier, and when he
| admitted that he had been in the
/ struggle of the states she begged him
! to tell her of his experiences. But he,
I like her valuing his counterpart dis
! paraged war and led her into more en-
nobling topics. She grew to love the
| tones of his voice, the unexpressed
sympathy apparent in his every word
and action.
Then came a time when, having pre-
| pared the way, there was nothing for
| him to do but tell her that from the
| moment he saw her he pitied her and
| of the desire that had been born in him
to devote his life to that which would
be some reconpense for her misfortune.
But when he faced this announcement
a sense of his own unworthiness doomed
up before him. Tell her that he wished
I TO give her comfort when he felt that
| he would be honored by the right to do
so! He shrank from such a position.
This was not all He must drop his
| incognito and become known to her as
a hero. The incident of her waving TO
| him on his return from the war and his
stopping to salute 4ler must be made
give for all this secrecy? He thought Of
a dozen ways in which it might be mis-
| construed He who had stormed FORTH
! cations shranlx from telling a blighted
girl that he was a hero Again and
again he started in to make a breach in
| these imaginary ramparts, always to
make an inglorious retreat.
And what was the Tesult2 He threw
Ip his command-and that in face of
| bility to another. He went to the girls
mother and begged her to speak for him
words that he dared not speak.
| There is poem in which a perl IS
described as gaining admittance to
heaven by carrying there the most val
/ ued gift tear of a repentant sinner.
| In a similar way the soldier won an
entrance into the girls heart. To de-
scribe her sensations at this modest sur
render of a hero coming as it did with
| the knowledge that he was the man
whose deeds had caught her youthful
enthusiasm, would require the genius of
a poet.
gan what he considered a life worth
living. F. A. mitchell.