South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-06-24

take orders and execute them uncOmplainlnglV
but he had the ingenuity and the courage to do
it successfully.
ManuS Duggan had the same ingenuity and
courage but il was native with him, not in
Stilled; that is, it was not the all of his bust
ness
He was miner; one of the rough, sooty fell
lows that you sometimes meet-but seldom
greet.
He was young only twenty had little
home, young wife and an infant child,-just
one of the plain every day fellows that you
pass, and who passes you, and in the case of
both too often, without the least feeling Of
anything like brotherhood
ManuS Duggan! Who is he? How unfa-
miliar and how common the name sounds
when uttered along side that of Lieut.. Rowan,
Gen. PerShing-thousandS of others in mill
tary and civil life, whom the world calls great?
Manus Duggan saved the lives of twenty-five
men in that Montana mine catastrophe; car
ried an unSealed and unSent Message to
Garcia" from the Anaconda Mining Co., to a
quarter-hundred of its men, told them, all his
elders, how to bulkhead themselves against
poisonous gases and keep alive until reScuerS
reached them. Ultra concerned thus, and for
getting himself that his fellows might survive,
until finally he himself, was overcome; down
there in the black depths of the earth, he pen
Ciled out between constantly shortening breathS
of foul air, that farewell already quoted.
Just a tool boy in the mine, whose only
preparation for this benefcient work and more
magnificent death, seems to have been the tax
ing of his mental powers with some rules for
"first aid; - Manus Duggan reared for himself
monument that reaches from somewhere in
mid-earth to pierce the very skies.
Mortal man may need spectacles to see the
base or watch it tower, but heaven crowns the
summit
''Not afraid to dier There is always sense
of satisfaction that knows no fear-n the real
izatiOn hat one has done his best.
A NGELS could do no more 1t is as much
n as heaven or earth could ask of anyone
Doing ones best represents supreme effort
and it makes no difference whether he be a
tool boy in some mine, a mechanic, carpenter
j general in the army, a president in his chair
or king upon his stool.
Doing ones best, however does not answer
the whole question. The answer is to achieve
Manus Duggan achieved. Without any such
requirements made upon him he had looked
forward to some possible day, when, down
there in that mine, he might be shut off from
the outer world by an explosion, or something
of that sort and he took to studying life pres
ervation pending an opportunity to escape.
The boy had Imagination; his mind must al
so have been of a somewhat scientific turn. He
prepared for an emergency. There had beer
mine explosions before. There had been mine
explosions elsewhere. Why not, possibly, some
time here? Self-preservation may have beer
first in his thoughts then, but it seems not tc
have been at the critical moment
'"With remarkable presence Of mind, the
survivors say che moved about explaining tC
US how 10 bulkhead ourselves against the poi
sonous gases, and when we were safe, he
worked his way on TO save some other group
1t was the last known of him until his body
was brought to the surface-telling of the fou
air; his fearlesSnesS in the face of eternity
Had Manus Duggan had the opportunitie:
for education, for training. for higher posts ir
life, as Lieut. Rowan had he might have beer
on the high road 10 some other eminence a
age twenty-but he was of Gods poor anC
was bound TO make the best only of little.
Had he lived, ten twenty thirty year
longer, he would no doubt have appeared upor
higher road of executive life at that. He wa
IL Il L