Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1907-10-24

washing, nursing, caring for them,
with smiles for each and tenderness
for all, staggering beneath burden
more than man has dared to bear,
who shall deny her praise? That
widowed mother, with flock and a
pittance; that child who alone sup
ports a home; that maiden who is
pure and sweet upon wages that are
criminal before the living God, who
shall deny the sublimity of their
humble heroism?
To my mind the heroism Of the
plain people, who have little but who
serve SO much, to whom life offers
such meager portion but who make
it go so far, is most sublime, as it is
most compelling, fact of human life.
can conceive of nothing harder, day
by day, to arise to face the impenetra-
BILE wall of hardship and Of approx
mate poverty which dominates the
horizon of so many lives. I can pic
ture nothing more unutterably un-
bearable than. day by day, to be COM
pel!ed to undergo the refined slavery
that is unquestionab1y characteristic
OF SO much of our modern life. To
desire to live in the face Of it, to de-
eide to struggle against it, to hope
even against hope, to live and to love,
, to get a little and to give little. to
retain and to augment the diviner
characteristics that alone differentiate
humanity from the beast, to plan for
posterity and to have faith in God in
| the midst of the relative riches that
constitute the poverty of our times,
| is heroic. We should thank God for
! the heroism of those among us who
| have so little and who live SO largely,
in proportion as they have capacity
and opportunity, for the common
veal We should thank God that
they are faithful. that they know
how to live simply, that they are
moral. For if ever the men and
| women who are the burden-bearers
| in the worlds work become saturated
with the vices, the follies and the
fallacies concerning life that infest
the minds of those who constitute the
topmost and the nethermost strata Of
society, the world will have short
| shrift
Another sort of heroism that we
must never fail to remember and con-
slider and to which we owe much, is
that moral heroism among the polit-
ica1 and religious leaders Of the coun-
/ try that is increasingly obvious and
actively at work. For that heroism is
real. The forces of unrighteousness
are intrenched. The army Of greed at
any price is already in the field. The
plunderers of the public are as busy
as the vultures that prey upon the
dead. The camp followers who are
out for petty graft are busily at work.
The sleek, self-satisfied captains OF
political and commercial piracy are at
the front. They are all the more
dangerous because they have per-
suaded themselves that they are sin
cere, that the benefits they have un-
doubtedly been instrumental In bring
ing to society excuse and justify the
to-day are guilty. They scorn gov
ernment, they laugh at law, they scoh
at the rising tide OF popular disap-
hired, their subsidized papers are
are burnt. They invite the test and
even dare to threaten. In pulpit and
in pew, on the forum and in halls o1
learning, wherever there is an itching
palm or callous heart there their
champions may be found! It is need
less for me to expand the story By
telling you Of the governments, mu.
nicipal and state, that they may al
most be said to own, the legislatures
that they have bought or have tried
to buy, of the defiance that they
throw into the very teeth Of admins
tratiye officers who with honesty ane