The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-10-07
EVERYDAY HEROlSMS.

EVERYDAY hEROISMS.
A writer had plain true word to say
which every sort of man may accept:
"There is no trade or employment but the
Young man following it may become q
hero" A great many people have the
notion that romance is a thing OF the dim
and distant past, with which present people
have no sort of concern; that the tragic
and the wonderful, the heroic, the glorious,
the beautiful in life are to be sought and
found only in some distant era; that ex-
allied virtue and greatness OF soul are
things to read about, and that the oppor-
tunity to display and emulate the highly
priced qualities that ennoble and lift up
men and women only comes to certain
favored peoples in romantic ages, remote
from the actual living present and far dis
tant from the country and cline in which
they live.
The majority of people forget, or never
learn, that the people of this age and
country are making history just as truly
as the people of any age or country, and
that each individual is playing part in
the worlds doings for veal or for woe.
And vet it is an actual fact that the
present age is as romantic and as wonder
ful as any age that has preceded it; that
the people are the same sort of men and
women, and that The problems and O1e
duties confronting the people of this time
and place are just as true test of courage
and virtue as were ever presented to the
people of any era in any country in the
worlds history, however entrancingly the
gifted historian and romancer may detail
and depict the situation in the past.
Certain splendid and striking feats of
daring in times of excitement are more
interesting to read of than recital of or
binary duties we'll done in times of peace
and tranquility; but the heroism required
to perform small duties constantly, year in
and year out, when there is no stimulus of
applause nor shouts of favor from admiring
multitudes, is as great and as praiseworty
as the finest exhibitions of dashing cour-
age. An essayist set the matter out in its
true light:
ga man does not toll for himself alone,
but for those dearest to his heart; this for
his father that for his child, and there are
those who, out of small pittance of their
daily earnings, contribute to the support of
the needy, print Bibles for the ignorant,
and preach the gospel to the poor. Here
the meanest work becomes heroism. The
man who tolls for principle ennobles him
self by the act"
The comparative splendor of acts is
determined by the appearance, but the
real test of the quality of the heroism and
courage is to be found in the character
and nobility of the principle and the self
sacrifice and fidelity which are exhibited.
Heroes and heroisms are as plentiful to-
day as at any period of history.
Acts of the rarest virtue and courage
are of the commonest occurrence in the
quiet paths of peace. Physicians, sur
geons and nurses are every day risking
their health and devoting, if need be, their
lives to the cause of science and for the
aid of humanity. Myriads of railroad men
undertake, quite within the line of their
duty, the most perilous tasks, and in dis
aster calmly face death in the discharge Of
their duty. The police and the firemen Of
great city run the greatest hazards at any
moment merely as matter of course. In
fact, the rapidity of modern industrial
civilization, the rigidity with which the
whole mass of the people are held to fixed
and difficult duties, day in and day out;
the intensity of the competition, the com.
plexity of modern life, with its enormous
demands upon the mental and physica
vitality, and the sustained and regular
attention to difficult and exhausting task.
demand and create type of man of thu
strongest fibre. Nearly every age befort
this was an easy going age, and the people
as whole-except when they were harriee
by war or stricken by pestilence- pursued
a less exacting sort of existence. The tes
of advancing civilization is the advance il
self-sacrifice, in the sense of responsibility
in the subjugation of the passions and tn
lower instincts in man. With create
knowledge and with keener sense o
personal responsibility, the burden which
the civilized man recognizes as his own i
becoming greater each century or decade
and in the performance of duty there
E. - T.