Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-11-25
Little Talks by
Beatrice FdIrfaG

. A few weeks ago all of us were
startled to read of the man who,
tlInging protective arms about his
WIFE VINO stood racing death in the
railroad ties, stood 1acing death in
the form of an oncoming locomo-
tive.
II won't leave you, Mary" he
said.
And the ring of it had something
-of heroism and love bigger than
self.
1t takes a lot of courage to face
iire-snorting, powerful, onrush-
ing car of the juggernaut. Courage
like that has something of grand
eur. There's no getting away Tor
a breathless moment OF reverence
for the sheer masniticence of the
thing.
would ! be brave enough for
that?" we say-''bravc enough to
face annihilation with someone
loye?"
But there is one braver thing. To
face the agony of farewell, to en-
dure the awful knowledge tnat part
ing has come, to bear the hideous
crushing out of life in the being
dearest in all the world-to bear it
and not share it for the sake of
the "stern-faced daughter of the
voice of God-DUTY." That is the
supreme thing. That is the thing
that requires the greatest courage
of which the human heart is capa-
BILE. O.
For every human decision has it's
other side" The man who loved
his wife enough to die with her
was to love them enough to live for
them.
There were three helpless kiddies
at home. Those three kiddies were
, flesh of the mans flesh. They had
+, come into this world without any
volition on their own part. They
hadn't been given any choice about
the mere matter of being born and
living. And the man who had
thrust upon them, all unasked, the
gift of life, was responsible for the
life he had summoned from the in-
finite.
There is no way of getting out of
duties and responsibilities. And the
sternest duty in all the world is the
duty of parent to child. What a
child owes its parents doesn't start
to be a finite thing until the parent
has created the deft as it created
the child.
To make a supreme decision all in
a moment is terrific mental test.
Everywhere Crossroad
Everyday life is full of moments
| of strain. We keep coming to cross
| roads and having to decide down
which we will go. When there's
plenty of time to think things over,
to weigh the pros and cons, there
isn't much excuse for deciding
stupidity. Some unconsidered ele-
nj oh a11nR
render a well-thought out decision
null and void. But other things
being equal, when there's time to
decide the well-balanced brain
makes the wish choice.
The big moments, however, come
| unheralded. Instant action, quick
decision. an unerring choice, a right
| weighing of values are required.
How then shall we make the right
choice
The best preparation for a crisis
| is to live every moment of every day
as well as we know how. When
the little decisions have to be made,
we must make them sanely and
wisely. Mentally and not emotion
ally. Honestly and not dramatically.
Then when crisis comes automati-
cally the brain trained to weighing
and measuring and basing decision
on actual values is pretty likely, to
formulate its decisions like tha,. in
the infinitesimal moment it has for
adjustment.
Emotion, the love for the dra-
matte, the telling gesture, are tempt
ing to all of us all the time. And
the wrong mental habit will lead us
to make first one and then another
decision with our minds eye on the
wrong thing.
Unconsciously we play to the gall