The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-27
STURDY FOLK OF
 NEWFOUNDLAND Many Heroes Found Among
 These People LIFELONG STRUGGLES With the Dangers of the Deep-Time Measured By More Striking Disasters-Vacant Chairs
 Are Common
LIFELONG STRUGGLES
rom the Philadelphia Inquirer.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer.
 Nowhere in the world Is unconscious heroism and self-sacrifice more com monly practiced than among the hum- hle fisherfolk of Newfoundland. The seas that wash It's coastline have bred in them the qualities of daring and courage almost to recklessness; and the Newfoundlander faces the peril of the pillow and the ice floe with an indffer- ence born of contention with these ele- ments from early boyhood.
 Stern and bleak and wild is this lonely fortalice Of the northern seas, as viewed from the waters, though inland 1t is richly lowered with natural beauties. Not alone 1t is aptly designed for it's prpose as the warden of the waters, but the ocean deeps beyond the coast are blocked with teemlng masses of fish that nowhere else can be equaled and that centuries of persistent marrying by every nation in western Europe has failed to appreciably diminish not to say depletc. When Cabot in 1497 westward bound into the vast expanse of unknown western ocean, found this inlet lying across his course and named it "rhe New Founde Lande," the gift of $50 which Henry VII with true Tudor parsimony, ordered to hymn that found it." was the best in vestment for the money that ever a Brit fish monarch made.
 The descendants of west country people are today the largest element in the pop ulation of Newfoundland.
 West-country terms are in common us- age, West-country names are to be found everywhere, and the language of the people is richly favored with the west country accent and the west-country idioms.
 In time the Irish also made their way to this coast. Driven from the "old sod," when penal laws sent legions of the hap less Celts to bleach their bones in foreign lands. Newfoundland was the nearest to their own loved country, and they sought to make a nelV Ireland of it. They came in such numbers that early in the last century they were the largest element in its population.
 New Type Developed
 The influx of English and Irish con- tinued until about 1850, when the open ing up of the great west tempted them there and for the past half century the tide of immigration has passed the is- land by. and it has no reserve but its natural increase. Thus it has come about that the colony has developed new type of people, the product of this British occupation, the virtues of the combination being unimpalred by other | breedings, for the population is abso- | lutely from this stock. Poor they may be in the worlds goods and frugal and toilsome their lives, but in the manly elements-courage industry, energy and reliance-which enrich a people or country, they are generously lowered indeed. The bulldog courage of the English has been rarefied by the im- petuous daring of the Irish and the outcome is that every man is a hero at heart. Lifelong association with the sea has taught them a contempt for maritime dangers that finds expression in every phase of the industrial life of the community.
 Heroic self-sacrifice Is a national vir- tue No man counts his life so sacred as not to risk 1t for another's. Modern sages tell us that romance has been eliminated from the world, that no longer Is life ennobled by its disregard for sordid fact. One has only to visit Newfoundland to be disabused of this idea, to see the daily workings of a system where self Is the least consid- eration. Not week, certainly not a month, of the year passes without some manifestation of heroism on the part of these humble f1sherfolk that Is worthy of admiration, and yet is passed over as the merest incident in the common doings of the people.
 They don't count their dead in small lots in Newfoundland. A disaster there io something large and awe-inspiring, with surroundings tragic enough to sat- isfy the most exacting sensation seeker. When one thousand men get adrift on the ice foes, or thrice that number are in peril in the fishing boats on the Cape Shore, it is scarcely surprising that the proportion of losses should be great. Indeed, with the fisher folk well defined epochs are fixed by the great colonial catastrophes which rise like mountain peaks abote the surrounding level of dull, monotonous existence. l The Thread of Tragedy 1f>the whole mortality of the New | foundland seaboard could be computed, | if the unnumbered hosts whose bones | strew the ocean floor for every mile of | It's coast line could be summoned to life again, if the narrative of ghastly maritime disasters during 400 years could | be told by visible portrayal of the | scenes of tragedy enacted herewith the world would be staggered. The element
 
 edy are so woven into the wool and warp of daily life fin Newfoundland as to oc- casion no surprise, no matter what the combination of startling circumstances | associated with it. One sits and listens | to the narratives of men who harrow | one with sea tales of the keenest inter- | est in which they have figured, fmpartine | thereto the fascination of the undying TO | nance of the sea.
 l There are countless incidents ilustrat- | ing dangers and trials in the life of d l Newfoundland fisherman. Daily are such experiences recorded in every cove and l hamlet around the coast line. Peril amid the pillows, peril among the ice foes peril along the rugged seaboard-that ,s | his heritage and his portion from boy | hood to old age. The rescuer today, he | may be rescued tomorrow. Life to him has few compensations. It Is an unceas- | ing struggle against the elements, a strenuous endeavor to secure the means | of existence from sea which is ever on the watch to work ruin upon him i Wreck wrath and calamity are the facts which predominate in every Newfound- 1 land village. They have come home to 1 every family and have left a vacant place | in every household. The frequency of disaster compels every man to be a hero unconsciously and if every person who saved a life in this colony were to be awarded a medal, they would be given out every week at least. and for actions