Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-12-29
UNIVERSALLY OF HUMAN NATURE
A Common Danger Often Makes the World
Akin.
BY LuE +. VERNON,

Gently. 1t is not out OF place to re-
joice that those who suffered most
have gained most. l do not know
that they acted like heroes" for !
have never seen heroes act, except ON
the stage. From what have seen oil
them there, and from what l have
read OF them, they are not the kind oil
people who are worth much in genu.
inc emergency, when there is no time
to photograph them in the act of do
ing something heroic, or to write a
poem about them to transmit their
fame to posterity. But from all re-
ports, while the flood was present,
those who were suffering most from it
acted as men and women always act
when they are in the presence Of some
great general emergency.
They rallied against calamity, and
fought it back and helped each other
to the full extent of their forces.
They stood together like men, in the
presence of the overwhelming forces OF
nature, gathering to a flood crest, the
water, with the result involved, per.
haps OF the question of life and death.
Whenever there is a real issue OF
that kind, men recover their common
sense com pletely. They work to-
gether then like men in full posses.
sson, not of beroism, not OF any super.
natural quantity, but of sense. When
an entire community is IN full pos.
session OF sense it has q gift of actually
cooperating, OF working together, all
for Q common object, without trying
10 get the better Of each other. This
is much better than heroism; its re-
suits are 90 much more real, 80 much
higher, more noble, moro useful, than
any sort of heroism, that it insults it
to call it heroic. It is better than
heroic, for it is manly. and it is manly
because i, is common sense. A food
will develop something like sense, even
in the lower animals. As the crest
passes along, we are likely to hear
strange stories Of wolves, wildcats, cat
tie and hogs gathered together on lit.
tie knolls in the food. This does
happen often enough, and it is true,
as the dispatches often state, that the
wolves and the wildcats are on friendly
terms with the cattle and hogs. What
the dispatches omit to state is that
this friendliness exists only while they
are huddled together on q few feet Of
dry ground. If they are not all
drowned together before the crest
passes, the cattle and hogs will dis.
appear from the knoll long before the
food disappears. The question will
then be one of subsistence between
wolves and wildcats, which, though
they have some measure OF reason in
the presence of ap actual crisis, have
no common sense, no common feeling,
no possibility Of acting together for q
common object without attempting to
get the better OF each other.
Unless We do face an actual crisis,
We leave the work OF the common
sense which means the common feel.
ing of the whole community. to be
done BY machinery. Usually it is
we'll done. Three or four blocks from
the place where this was written q
man was shot and killed in the not
very remote past. A crowd collected
and watched the police arrest the man
who shot him. The patrol wagon was
called by telephone. The prisoner was
hustled into it and driven away. The
ambulance which had been called by
telephone came moment later, and
as the man who had been shot was
still breathing family, he was taken to
the city dispensary. As he was dead
before reaching there, the body was
driven to the morgue, and the Coroner
notified. The crowd at the place OF
the shooting stood there watching dur.
ing the quarter Of an hour required
for oil this to take place. Then il dis.
persed, expecting to see what il Was
all about in the morning paper. This
expectation was 80 confident that few
took the trouble to ask the cause OF
the tragedy. Everything connected
with it Was left to the machinery OF
organized civilization, which worked
90 smoothly that in quarter of an
hour the street was once more quiet as
il nothing had occurred out of the
routine.
While, in one way, this is the high
est result OF the common sense which
means the common feeling OF the
community for its own needs, the very
perfection of the machinery through
which it works makes us forget that
the crowd which collects to stare, or
the passers who push through it be.
cause they are too busy with their own
affairs to stop, are capable of doing
the hardest things, the most difficult
things, the most painful and danger.
GUS things themselves. This has no
chance to appear until the food, or
other dangerous affairs, happen along.
Then il 10 not q question of whether
one man eats his peas with the blade
OF his knife and another cuts bis let.
tuce with both knife and fork, When
it appears that he is willing to shovel