Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-03-11
HEROES AND HEROISM

Most people seem to think that the age of heroism is a past age. Talk of heroes and hero ism makes such people think of knights and war riors and the days of chivalry. Yet heroism did not die with chivalry, and there are more heroes in the world today than there ever were before,
 Because, you see, there is more than one kind of heroism. The fireman who rescues people from burning building at the risk of his own life is as great a hero as any swashbuckler who ever wore sword and buckler. The policeman who stops runaway, braves frenzied mob or boards a desperate criminal i'll his lair, IS as brave as any hero who ever crossed swords for the fair fame of his lady.
 But it may easily be that in winning bread for his wife and children, in facing the many prob lens of existence, in struggling against ad- versity in fighting sickness and in winning the fight for staunch character and self-respect, a policeman or a fireman or a hod-carrier or a brakeman or plumber or a boOkkeeper or a clerk is greater hero than the fireman who dashes into a burning building, the policeman who faces down a mOb the soldier who stands to his colors in rain of hostile lead, or the knight who fought the fabled dragon.
 The man who goes off to work in the dim morning, with dinner pail in his hand, leaving his heart with the wife and kids at home, doesn't t look much like a hero, but very often he acts like one. He faces the world every day, alone and unaided. He wins from it's reluctant grasp the money needed to feed and clothe those con- fiding dear ones at home. He works with little thought of reward for himself, but all for the peace and happiness and contentment of those whose lives depend upon his health and strength. He does battle every day just as truly as ever mailed knight or tinseled soldier did battle.
 "Many a woman fails to see the o-husband she has, who fights the battles of life better than any fiction ido' This inscription under pie ture of plain man in homey clothes battling with a dragon is what put us in mind of this thought of heroism. It also put us in mind of another aspect of the subject: that there are heroines as well as heroes, and just as many of them. The man who goes forth to work in the morning is hero, but he leaves heroine be- hind him. He leaves wife who has to make his earnings span the necessities of the family, and who must develop skill and ingenuity to do it that are as great as some people use to win millions. She has to bring up the children, to see that they learn the right things and avoid the wrong things, to see that they are clothed and fed out of the slender earnings that the erO-husband' $ toll wins from the world.
 Oh, there are plenty of heroes nowadays :; more than ever were before in all the world, be- cause there are more people. The high cost of living makes heroes every day that are as noble as any the world ever has produced, and re quires sacrifices as exalted as any the world ever has exacted.
 The truth is that the man who does his duty bravely and honestly is hero, and this no mat ter whether he wears buttons of brass or bone blue coat or brown, fine apparel or plain, tin seled uniform or tol-stained overalls. And the woman who does her duty bravely and honestly is heroine, whatever her state in life. It's the heart within, and not the apparel without, that counts.