Heroism, Domestic—See Domestic Heroism.
Heroism in Disaster—See Compensations
of Providence.
HEROISM IN FICTION
There is not a mine, not a railroad, not a
steamship line, not a life-saving station in
America or Europe, not a city in America
or Europe, that has not illustrated in its
history the capacity of human nature
promptly to do and dare and die. And these
deeds are done as modestly, as instinctively,
as frequently as they were in the days of
the Civil War when thousands on both sides
faced each other in a battle whose issue,
whether victory or defeat, put not a cent
into any soldier's pocket; when victory stood
for no more booty or beauty than defeat.
And since this is so; since our plain American
common people are easily capable of
heroic action and chivalric conduct, why do
writers like Howells persist in picturing us
a people whose average life and soul are
represented by dudes and dolls, by selfish
or silly men and women; by knaves with a
vast retinue of fools and tools? The everyday
heroism of the plain common people of
America is a rebuke to Howells for his low
figures, and a justification of the school of
fiction that fills its pages with men and women
that stand for noble aspirations and inspiration.
The story of high endeavor is
all that keeps the world's eye on the stars.—Portland
Oregonian.
(1402)
Heroism, Missionary—See Missionary Call.
HEROISM, MODEST
Bicycle Policeman Ajax Whitman, the
strong man of the department, did a stunt
on the new Queensboro Bridge, New York,
that those who saw will never forget, and
the feat is vouched for by a large crowd who
witnessed the bike cop's job.
Thomas Jones, of No. 102 Fourth Avenue, and Charles Schoener went over to the bridge to string lines of flags from the various towers. Both men are steeplejacks.
Jones went up the north tower of the bridge and Schoener the south. The men used their little steeplejack seats and pulled themselves up. They had rigged their ropes and pulleys and were preparing to pass a line from one to the other to string the flags across to their respective towers when Schoener saw Jones suddenly go limp in his seat at the top of the tower flagpole, fall forward against it and hang there.
"What's wrong?" called Schoener.
"I'm gradually going," was all Jones could call back.
Schoener slid down his flagpole as fast as he could, all the time calling for help.
Down on the roadway below the towers Whitman was walking along with his wheel. He looked up when he heard Schoener yelling and then he spotted Jones, who sagged forward in his seat like a lifeless man. Whitman dropt the bicycle and ran to the little spiral stairway that leads from the roadway to the top of the tower. Meantime, a large crowd had been attracted by the flagman's peril. All vehicles at work on the bridge were stopt and people were running in all directions trying to devise some means of being of use. Whitman suddenly came out at the top of the tower.
Just as Whitman appeared in sight the seat in which Jones was sitting became loosened and as the seat started to go downward the decorator lost his balance and shot out of the seat head downward. Whitman braced himself against the foot of the flagpole and held out his arms. Jones' limp body shot down and the big policeman acted as a net. The body fell just across Ajax's big arms, and then both men went over in a heap as Jones' weight carried the policeman from his stand against the foot of the pole.
Jones was unconscious and when the two men fell to the narrow flooring at the top of the tower he slipt from Whitman's grasp and rolled toward the edge, over the river. Whitman made a desperate grab, got hold of Jones' coat and held fast. Others below then regained their wits and ran up with Schoener and pulled the unconscious man back on the tower platform.
As for Whitman, if it hadn't been that everybody stopt work to watch the accident and so blocked the bridge no report would have been made, but Whitman had to account for the block of vehicles on the roadway and he did so by stating that "an accident to a decorator caused a ten minutes' block of traffic on the Queensboro Bridge."
(1403)
HEROISM RECOGNIZED
Pausing for a moment in its legislative
activities, January, 1909, the House of Representatives
listened to a eulogy of John R.
Binns, the Marconi operator aboard the
steamship Republic, who remained at his
post following her collision with the Florida.
