The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-09-25
DEEDS OF HEROISM.
Acts Carved as Epics on Memory OF
World.

stinctiye heroism stirs humanity to
its depth so that even the most sor-
did and practical of men and women
offer the homage of their admiration.
In Chicago William Fitch Tanner has
restored the idea1ist's faith in man
kind. Two or three years ago
young soldier in France gave the
world a similar glimpse of the pure
spirit of sacrifice when he threw hlm-
self on a smoking hand grenade
wrapping his body round it in such
a way that the force of the explosion
was spent in his own destruction and
his 1e companions were saved. They
were his 'buddies," but it cannot be
said that it was personal love Tor
them that made him choose a sure
and dreadful death to save them. IT
was instructive heroism.
So with Tanner. 1t was not so
much the quality of his love as OF
the man himself that made him face
with his wife rather than leave her
alone to it's horror. He was instlnc-
lively hero.
Neither annals of life or pages OF
literature offer a parallel to Tanners
act There were incidents that bear
some resemblance to it, but none so
nearly counterpart in the instructive
quality of it's heroism as that OF the
soldier who, without more than
second in which to choose, flung hlm-
self on the exploding hand grenade.
When Mrs. Isadore Straus refused
q seat in a Titanic lifeboat and elect
ed to die with her husband, her act
won the silent homage of men and
the tears of women. 1t was undoubt-
edly a wife's devotion that Influenced
Mrs. Straus, for she had been mar
RED 40 years to the very exceptional
man with whom she choose to die
rather than face the years without
him.
"Save your sorrow for infamy,'
wrote Reginald Wright Kaufman at
the time of the sinking of the IT.
tanic.
Although the sacrifice of Sidney
Carton in Dickens's ''Tale. of Two
Cities is the purest fiction, it offers
a fine example of Dickens's ideal of
what a hero should be. Even If it
strains point in sentiment when it
asks you to believe in a sweet heart
whose affection is so high and so
fine that it leads him to take his sue
cessful rivals place beneath the gull
lotine's knife, the incident will con-
'tinue to offer inspiration to world
of mem and women who, whatever
their own defects, hate all that is
sordid and love all that is noble.
It was by a trick, you remember,
that Sidney Carton exchanged clothes
and places with Darnay, who was
well on his way to London and safe
ty by the time consciousness return
ed with it the knowledge that another
had died in his place.
Back in Paris Sidney Carton had
ridden in the tumbril from the Bastile
to the place of the guillotjne. Every
one believed he was Citizen Eyre
monde, as Darnay was called d-that
is, everyone but the little seamstress
of 20, also to die.
eff I may ride with you Citizen
Evremonde, will you let me hold your
hand?" pleaded the little seamstress.
'tI am not afraid, but am little and
weak, and it will give me courage"
AS the patient eyes were lifted to
his face, Carton saw sudden doubt
in them, and then astonishment.
"Are you dying for him." she
whispered.
s'And his wife and child. Hush!
Yes
ooh, will you let me hold your
brave hand, stranger"
stHush! Yes, my sister, to the
last"
And, if at the last, Sidney Carton
had given any utterance to his pro-
phetic thoughts, Dickens declared
they would have been these:
II see the lives for which I lay
down my life, peaceful, useful, pros
porous and happy, in that England
which I shall see no more. I see her
with a child upon her bosom, who
bears my name -.
"I see that child . winning his
way up that path of life which once
was mine. I see him winning it so
we'll, that my name is made illustrous
there by the light Of his. see the