Kawartha Lakes Public Library Digital Archive

Fenelon Falls Gazette, 17 Mar 1893, p. 2

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QBOABD THE 8T0 RM KING. A Memorable Voyage With a Mail Captaln. I was going aboard the bark Storm King as she lay in the Liverpool docks about ready to sail for J amaica with a general cargo, when I stumbled upon a ragged and dirty old woman who looked to be a full hundred yoaiaold. She had a voice as shrill as a fife, and as she held out her hand for a. gift she cried out : “ Donit go in that ship. Her Captain is crazy. Look out for the Captain. He’s a big man, with red hair and blue eyes, and when he smiles it’s the devil in him trying to break loose I” “ \Vhat graft areyou speaking of 2'” I ask- ed, as I handed her a coin. ] “ ‘he Storm King, my lad. Don’t go in icr l” . The bark lay in a dock a long way above us, and it Struck me as a. bit queer that she should have hit her off so correctly. I had signed at a shipping office as able seaman and had not seen the Captain yet. “What’s the matter with the Captain, did you say '3” " He’s crazy. Nobody knows its yet, but it’s the living truth, sir. Ifyou go with him you’ll meet with wreck and death. Ah ! but it’s dreadful to see him rub his hands together like a great tiger sharpening his claws to tear you to pieces.” As I passed along she kept calling to me not to ship aboard the Storm King, and by the time I was alongside the bark I found myself considerably upset. I was in that state of mind when a word would turn me either way. They were getting ready to warp her out, and as I stood on the rail tak- ing a look at her decks the mate sang out to me : “ Now, my lad, if you have signed articles for this voyage,;jump down and make your- self liandy, for we are to sail with this tide.” , He spoke gruflly, but there was a kindly ring in his tone, and I was soon at work with the rest. Had he blustered at me I should have made off, for I had received no advance, and was not indebted to the boarding house man for a single meal. \Ve soon had the bark out of dock and a tug hold of her, and. it was not until after we had had our supper that I saw the Captain or recalled what the old woman had said. TH E CHIEF OFFICER, whose name was Mr. \Vatson, was evident- ly a thoroughgoing man, but not a tyrant, while the second mate went about his work in a quiet way and showed no disposition to bully anybody. \Ve had a crew of fourteen , men, which made us stronghanded, and the provisions were fresh and good. , Therefore, after the watches had been choosen and l was sent to the wheel, with the bark push- ing her way down the Irish Channel with a. fair wind, I thought I had reasons to con- gratulate myself on being aboard such a craft. It was just at sundown that Capt. Lucas emerged from his cabin, and the instant I got sight of him my heart gave a jump. The old woman had correctly described his 1 personal appearance. He stood fully six I feet in his stockings, weighed about ‘200 pounds, and had the appearance of being a Samson in strength, You’d look fora deep voice and a sort of heartiness about such a I man, but Capt, Lucas had neither. As II watched him pacing the quarter deck while he smoked his cigar, his step reminded me of the movement of a wild animal. It was I a gliding, shifty step, as light as a woman’s, I but with a sort of crouch to it, as if a spi'iny was mcditated His eyes kept travelling from point to point in a furtive way, and a queer smile came and went almost as 'reg- ularly as if worked by machinery. As he I wall-zed and smoked he had a way of rub- I bing his hands which madelyouiwonder if he , was not softly purring at the same time. I I didn’t like the looks of him at all, and as he stood by me for a moment I felt as creepy as if aroused from a dream in which I had seen murder done. The cook was the only man in the sp l who had sailed with the Captain before. He was a colored man and had probably never looked the master in the face. \Vhat the mates thought I did not ascertain until some days later, but such of the men as caught sight of the Captain voted him a “ queer ’un.” There are four men aboard ship whom J aok Tar sizes up in rotation. The Captain comes first, of course. The other three take their cues from him. If he is a bully, both mates will curse and drive in order to curry favor. The cook will not only be arrogant and impertincnt, but skimp the men in order to save stores and score a point for himself. The Captain’s steward plays no part, as his duties do not bring him In contact with the men, and all the sailors look upon him with great contempt. ly the time we were off soundings we made up our minds that the Storm king wasal very proper craft, but it was also plain that I the mates did not exactly know what to v make of the Captain. He may have been I communicative at mealtime". but he entirely ignored them while on (look. You wouldn’t i have believed him a sailor at all but for the ' way he kept his feet. He showed no inter- cstiii'things going on around him, but as long as he was on deck he walked to and fro LIKE A TIGER out for exercise. and seemed to be wholly wrapped up in his own thoughts. Every man who had the wheel when the Captain was on deck came forward to declare that it gave him the shivers to have him come nchr. We had been out clcven days aml had longed off a fair run most of the time when it’l‘én a dead calm. The last of the breeze left us at about 8 o’clock in the. morning. The weather was very hot and the sky without acloud, and about 10 o’clock, as the bark was rolling heavily on a ground swell and the sails slattering like the report of field pieces, everything was made snug. On board every 'sailing ship both Captain and mate take the noon observation at the same time. and both work it out afterward. The two (are then compared. The only thing we had seen Capt. Lucas put his hand to was to take this observation. At noon of this day both men “shot the sun," as usual, and retired to the cabin. Some of the watch off duty were below and asleep, while others were on deck washing their clothes. The watch on deck had knocked off work and were waiting for dinner when Mr. Watson emerged from the cabin with a wild, scared look on his face and came for. ward almost to the mainmast. “'hen he halted. he glanced this way and that, likca man who wanted to run, but he pulled him- self together after a bit and went aft to the seccni mate on the quarter deck and began I nonh’ to talk in an excited way. The cook now called to dinner, but while we were yet staring and wondering Capt. Lucas appear. ed and roared out at the top of his voice : “ Lay sit, the crew ! Every man in the bark, lay aft 1” . He had a. double-barrelled fowling piece in his hands, and while his face was as pale as death his eyes had the shine and glint of a wild beast’s. Some of the men hung back a bit, whispering to each other that the skipper was crazy, but presently all of us had» gathered around him. I took notice that both mates seemed to be badly upset, and that Mr. Watson did not look the Cap- tain in the face. . “ Men,” began the skipper as we waited for him to speak, “ you have all conspired to deceive me. My observation just now proves that the bark is 600 miles north of her true course. There is a conspiracy here to murder me and run away with the craft, but I have discovered it in time to defeat it. My mates are more guilty than the rest of you, and they must leave the ship. Put a breaker of water and a. bag of biscuits in the starboard quarter boat and lower her away.” We stood for a moment like men turned to stone, each wondering if his ears deceiv- ed him. The Captain looked from man to man and tiicn cooked the gun and lifted it to his face and said : “ Mr. Watson, provision the boat and lower her away.” Now the entire crew moved as one man. You couldn’t fail to understand that the Captain was out of his head and ready to do some terrible thing. \Ve were not over ten minutes getting the boat into the water and as we worked away I think every man hoped to go in her. Four or five of us were slipping over the rail when the skipper shouted : “ Back with you there ! Now, Mr. \Vat- son, you and Mr. Hope get into the boat l” Had there been any show for it we should have made the Captain prisoner, as it was clear to every man that he had lost his mind, but he was on his guard, and would .have fired into us at the first move. The mates smartly OBl-JYED THE 0RDER, and each taking an car, they pulled right away until out of gun-shot. The Captain lost much of his ferocity as they rowed away, and after a bit he lowered the ham- mers of his gun, smiled to the right and left of him, and very quietly said : “ .Go forward and get your dinners, and the watch below will turn in. I will select new mates later on.” - He entered his cabin, and fifteen minutes I later the steward told us he was sound asleep. As soon as we learned this we be- gun to signal to the mates to return. The becalmed bark was going all around the compass as she rolled, and the bo.tt ap- proached her from the bows. She was within half pistol shot when Captain Lucas suddenly appeared among us holding a le- volver in his hand. He had doubtless feigned sleep in hopes to trap us. As soon as the mates caught sight of him they sheer- cd off and rowed with all their might, but they had come too near. He lifted his pistol, held his arm as rigid as a bar of iron for 10 seconds, and the bullet he sent struck Mr. Hope at the corner of the left eye and tumbled him over (lead. Mr. \Vatson at once threw himself flat down, and though the Captain fired at him five times he was not hit. \thn he had fired his last bullet, the madman strode aft, dis- appeared for a moment, and when we caught sight of him again he had the fowling piece in his grasp. He shouted to us to lay aft, and when we had gathered as before he said 2 “ Men, I am sorry you have been led into this thing, but I cannot pass over such con- duct. I have the legal right to shoot every one of you, but I shall not enforce it. You must all leave the bark, however. Get the longboat off the checks !” To clear away the heavy longboat and get her over the side is a good bit of work with an officer to direct, and you can under- stand what a mess we made of it with no- body to give orders and the crazy Captain walking to and fro with a gun in his hands. It took us two full hours, and we were for piling into her and shoving off at once when the skipper called : - “ Belay, there ! I’m not going to send you adrift to perish of hunger and thirst. Provision the boat.” We got two breakers of fresh water, a lot of biscuit, a big lump of salt horse and some raw potatoes. By order of the Captain the steward brought us some canned fruits, a spare compass and a lantern. Just as we were ready to shove off he brought us a gallon of rum and two pounds of tobacco, and said : “ \Vhen you reach Liverpool, I want you to tell the truth about this affair. Your course is due south.” ~ He leaned over the rail and watched us as we rowed away. The quarter boat had drifted away about half a mile, and we headed directly for it. Mr. \Vatson was still lying concealed, though he had taken a ly peep now and then and informed himself of what was going on. The body of Mr. Hope was already growing cold. Under the circumstances every man was for get- ting rid of it at once, and it was lifted over the rail without much ceremony or loss of time. Mr. \Vatson then explained that he had suspected the Captain’s unsouudncss of mind ever since the day of sailing, and that our plan would be to get back on board, overcome him, and take the bark back to Liverpool. But how to get aboard was the question. The Captain was no longer to be seen, but- we did not doubt that he would be on the alert, and it was a sure thing that he would kill three or four men if he fired into us with the double-barrcllcd gun. During the rest of the afternoon we main- tuinod our position, and the calm was un- broken. Just at dark a steam freighter from New York for Liverpool was sighted from the west, and after a pull of two miles we intercepted her and told our story and asked for help. It was promptly refused, the Captain saying he would notbe justified in PERIIJJNH Tm; Lives of his men. We then rowed back to the bark and made use of the two boats to ap- proach her from opposite sides. I was in the longbout with M r. \Vatson and others. \Ve were sneaking up to the port how very quietly when there was a flash and a report from the rail, and four of us were hit with swan shot. T he distance was so great, how- ever, that no one was seriously hurt. We were compelled to row away and evolve some other plan. No one had a thought of deserting the bark and her made skipper, At midnight we got a breeze from the and the bark drove off with her broad- side to it. At daylight the wind shifted to the northeast and blew harder, but all we could do was to follow after the craft. .At noon 8. brig cut of St. John’s came up With us, and we boarded her and told our story. Her Captain declined to take any risks, the more especially as Capt. Lucas could now be seen walking the quarlendeck of the bark. You will find it on record at Lloyd’s that we followed the Storm King for six nights Iund five days, during which time she drifted almost to the Azores. W'e encountered and appealed to five different vessels, but .got no help from any of them. Toward night of the fifth day, not having seen anything of Captain Lucas for twenty-four hours, we nervcd ourselves up and boarded the bark. After the whole lot of us were on her deck four men skulked aft to surprise and blind the Captain, but he was nowhere to be found. We searched high and low before we gave up, but were forced at last to realize that hchad endedhislifebyjumpingoverboard.‘ It was probably a deliberate thing with him, as he had first undressed and carefully fold- ed all his garments, and the dishes he had eaten from had been washed and re- lurncd to the pantry. We ran the bark to ’ the Azores to watt for instructions, and there every man deserted her as soon as her anchor was down. REALMS OF THE SILENT- ln the Hun-k Domain That All Must Traverse .uone. Silence and shadows surrounded him. Silence, broken only by the whispers of those who ministered to his voiceless needs. Shadows that lengthened and darkened as the day grow old. _ Silence, pierced now and then by a stifled sob from the inner room. Shadows that lay heavy on mourning hearts. The blin-ls were drawn, the shutters bow- ed in the room where he kept his royal state. His throne, a satin casket. His scepter, a spray of the valley lily clasped in his frozen hand. His crowo, the invisible eirelet that death lays upon the brow. Outside the snow had drifted in curving banks. It was no whiter nor so cold as the little hand that held the lilies. The wind that swept through the bare branches of the trees seemed but an echo of ' the mother’s moan. The sun that shone upon the white ex- panse of snow mocked her grief. Only yesterday he was a laughing, rosy I boy, whom she chid and caressed, loved and reproved. To-clay a crowned king in the realm of the silent. 0, profound mystery of death that changes . the loved, the familiar, into something strange and awful. I They told me with bated breath of how he had suffered, and one bent low to my ear and murmured, “ His little face was so pain-drawn at first. See how peaceful and content he lies now.” I Peaceful ! Surely. (.‘ontent ! \Vho shall say? I Does one willingly let fall the fresh gath- ered rose ‘3 dashed from the ready lip ‘2 The dewy fragrance of the new-blown rose is most sweet. The bead upon the wine of life sparkles in the early sunshine. \Vho would not wear the rose a little longer ‘2 - Who would not drink deeper of the am- ber wine? 0, thcu pale and silent King! dofl’ thy dread majesty and come once more among us. Listen to that cry ! ’Tis thy mother. ’Tis “ Rachel who weeps and will not be comforted”. Break, for her sake, break thy cold silence. In a little whi'e the impatient earth shall throw off her mantle of snow. Then shall be seen a. myraid life upon her brown-and beautiful bosom. The lush and tender grass shall serve for a couch if only thou wilt come back to us. The crocus shall dot thy bed with its brill- iant bloom. From the distant woodland the breezes of spring shall bring the linger- ing fragrance of the sweet arbutus, and around thy young head shall circle the nurslings of the air tempting thee to join them in their joyous frolics. Is there .aught in the silent kingdom which can compare with the life thou hast known, the love thou hast left '3 It is in vain that. the empty arms are extended. In vain the longing heart on- treats. . From beneath the closed eyelid there comes no ray of light. From the sealed lips no word of comfort. Must it be always so ? Comes there not a day when the shadows are lifted, the silence broken ? Comes there not a time when the empty arms are filled, the longing heart satisfied ? Hope springs eternal. Faith lifts expect- ant cycs. “.6â€" The Extinct Moa- Fm' ages before its occupation by man, New Zealand swarmed with great wiugless birds, which found here no carnivorous enemies, but an abundance of vegetable food. The moas not only existed in vast numbers, and for thousands of years, but had such diversity of form as to embrace no less than seven genera, containing twenty- five speciesâ€"a remarkable fact which is un- paralleled in any other part of the world. were only from two and one-half to four feet high. Those of the South Island were mostly from four to six feet tall, while the giant forms, reaching twelve and fifteen feet, were always rare. Immense deposits of men. bones havebcen found in localities to which they appear to have been washed from the hills in tertiary times. Skeletons on the surface of the ground, with skin and ligaments still at- tached, have given the impression that these birds have been exterminated in very recent years, but other facts point to a dif- ferent conclusion. Tradition seems to show that the moa became extinct in the North Island soon afterthe arrival of the Maoris in New Zealandâ€"that is, not less than 400 to 500 years agoâ€"and in the South Island about 100 years later. The fresh-appearing skin and ligaments are supposed to have been preserved by unusual favorable con- ditions. -â€"-â€"â€"-â€"-.â€"â€"â€"-â€" I BRITISH SLAVHTRADING- I Is one content when the brimming cup is I l l l l l l I | For Over Three Hundred Years the Trade ' was Pei-milled. ‘ From the year when Vasco (la Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope (1497), to the year 1807, when the British government prohibited the exportation of slaves over the high seas, is a period of 310 years. During all this time Africa was surrendered to the cruelty of the slavcdiunter and the avarice of the slave-trader. \Vhilc its people wererthus subject to capture and expatriao tion, it was clearly impossible that any in- tellectual or moral progress could be made by them. The greater number of those ac- cessible from the coast were compelled to study the best methods of avoiding the slaver and escaping his force and his wiles ; the rest only thought of the arts of kid- napping their innoeeut and unsuspecting fellow-creatures. Yet, ridiculous as it may appear to us, there were not wanting zealous men who devoted themselves to Christian- izing the savages who were moved by such an opposite spirit. In Angola, Congo, and Mozambique, and far up the Zambezi, mis- sionaries erected churches and cathedrals ; bishops and priests were appointed, who converted and baptized, while at the mouths of the Niger, the Congo, and the Zambezi their countrymen built slave-barracoons and anchored their murderous slave-ships. European governments legalized and sanc- tioned the slave trade, the public conscience of the period approved it, the initrcd heads of the Church blessed the slave gangs as they marched to the shore, and the tax- collector received the levy per head as law- ful revenue. But here and there during these guilty centuries words of warning are not wanting. Queen Elizabeth, upon being informed of the forcible capture of Africans for the purposes of sale, exclaims solemnly that “ such ac- tions are detestable, and will calldown ven- geance on the perpetrators.” \Vhen Las Cacas, in his anxiety to save his Indians, suggests that Africans be substituted for them, the Pope Leo X., declares that “not only the Christian religion but Nature her- self cried out against such a course.” One hundred and sixty-five years after the discovery of the Cape, Sir John Hawkins pioneers the way for England to participate in the slave trade, hitherto carried on by the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Dutch. A century latera king of England,Charles II., heads an English company which under- takes to supply the British West Indies yearly with 30,000 negroes. After the Asicn'to Contract, under which for thirty years England secured the ino- nopoly of supplying the Spanish \Vest In- dies with slaves, as many as 192 ships were engaged every year in the transportation of slaves from the African coast. The countries which suffered most from the superior British method of slave capturing and trading and slave-carrying were Congo land, the Niger Valley, the Guinea and Gold coasts, the Gambia, Cross and Calabar lands. The system adopted by the British crew in those days were very similar to that em- ployed by the Arabs to-day in inner Africa. They landed at night, surrounded the selected village, and then set fire to the huts, and as the frightened people issued out of the burning houses, they were seized and carried to the ships ; or sometimes the skipper, in his hurry for sea, sent his crew to range through the town he was trading with, and, regardless of rank, to seize upon every man, woman, and child they met. Old Town, Creek Town, and Duke Town, in Old Calabar, have often witnessed this summary and high-handed proceeding. Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Johnson, called the slave trade “ an important and necessary branch of commerce ” ; and prob- ably the largest section of the British pub- lic, before those autislavery champions Clarkson and Wilberforce succeeded in per- suading their countrymen to reflect a little, shared Boswell’s views, as well as his sur- prise aud indignation, when it became known that there were English people who talked of suppressing it. ' That the slave trade must have been a lucrative commerce there can be no doubt, when we consider that from 1777 to 1807‘ upwards of 3,000,000 Africans have been sold in the \Vest Indies. All those forts which may be seen lining the west coast of Africa today were constructed princ1pal- ly by means of the revenue derived from the slave taxâ€"[Henry .\l. Stanley, in Har- per’s Magazine. A Hen With a Memory- A well-to-do farmer in a little village in Hertfordshire has a nine-year-old hen on his farm that has a good memory. , The first brood she ever hatched was from a setting of ducks’ eggs. She was exceed- ingly proud of her family, and after they were a few days old she wandered with them through the farmyard towards a neighboring pond. The dueklings no soon- er came in sight of the pond than they toddled towards it, umnindful of the calls of their lieu mother or her distressed agita- tion. They plunged into the water, and at once were in the full enjoyment of their natural element. The hen ran up and down the sides, call- ing lranticullyito her brood,aud manifesting her distress is various ways. But the duck- lings paid no attention to her, and sported their fluffy bodies about on the water. By-and-by, seeing that no harm came to her brood from their contact with the (to her) dangerous water,the lien quieted down, and it was not long before she was enjoying the antics of the ducklings in the pond as much as they were themselves. She watched them intently, occasionally giving low and contented clucks, until the ducks were satisfied with their sport and came out and rejoined their guardian, who led them back home again. Every day after that the hen took her brood to the pond bright and early, and stood by and watched them sporting iii the water with as plain evidences of enjoyment of the scene as actions could give. She continued to fake daily pleasure in watch- ing the young ducks in the water until they grew out of her care, and even then she occasionally strolled down to the pond for an hour or so and watched them as they swam. The next spring this hen was set on eggs of her own kind, and hatched out afine brood of chicks. The first thing she did when she got around with her new family was to lead the chicks down to the pond. She seemed to be surprised when they Decency and external conscience often showed no inclination fogct in the water, produce afaircr outside than is warranted I find lined t0 coax “10m 1"- Not Succeeding. I‘e commonest kinds in the North Island by the stains within. and-dropped it into the pond. 7 and watched the struggles of the chick i tlie'water until it was drownedf-Eha seemed to be a disappointment to'her. ‘ ’ picked up another chicken and dro it in. That one struggled ' ' same :way, and soon died. This to enrage the hen, “and she another chick, tossed it in the watei . another, and threw it in, and eviden cl ' tent on drowning the whole broo '1 pond in her disappointed rage, when 5" ,of the family, who had noticed the strange action of the hen, ran to the rescue a d drove the hen and the rest of the brood o the house and shut them up. % ‘ The hen has hatched a brood of‘ chickejis every year since, and to test her reco ec- tion of her enjoyment of her first bro , of ducklings in the pond she has been mit- ted to run at large with her broods ,{’Not once has she failed to lead them to t ‘.’pond and try to induce them to go into the w r, ending.in by grabbing a chick and toss1 it in, fwhen she is driven off and shut up ’ . again. If this hen has no memory, what has she got? W HOW A MAN I‘BELS' UNDER FIRE. “ How does a man feel under fire ‘3” is a. question of interest to’men who have had the experience as well as to those who have not had it. We are all anxious to know what may be] the mental impressions of any one of our fel- lows in circumstances generally supposed to be a test of bravery or courage, especially since most of us have had no such test. W e'Anglo-Saxons, as we call ourselves for want of a better term, attach extraordin- ary consequence to our readiness to undergo exposure in case of need, to danger and death. During the Civ11 \Var, as war co‘r- rcspondeut of the vNcw York “ Tribune,” says Junius Henri Browne, in “ lVorthing- fon’s Illustrated Magazine,” I learned to the full what it is to be in range of balls and bullets of every calibre and variety. During the first eight or nine months of the war, I heard, in divers reconnaissance and skirmishes in Missouri and Kentucky, and on the Mississippi, a great deal of mar- tial music performed by musket, rifle, and cannon, and even learned to distinguish the sound of different balls as they whizzed by. Butl did not know what it was to be in a regular battle until we were at Fort Douelson (February, 1863), wheroI received I may say, my baptism of fire. ~ The morning of the second day of the siege, I was wandering on foot through a. wood, trying to see how the battle was go- ing. There was continuous firing to the left, and the frequent whizzing of bullets over our heads. Abruptly the Confederates opened on us from an adjacent battery with grape and canister. The shot rattled all round us, cutting down the bare twigs and boughs above, and ploughing up the ground in our immediate vicinity. It was so abrupt, and the source was so invisible, that I was fairly startled at first, but I was cxhilarated also. It seemed like real war. The sensation was genuine and not unpleasuiablc, because, perhaps, I saw nobody struck. It make’s a deal of difference with onc’s feelings, under fire, when one is an eye- witness of casualties in the immediate neigh- bourhood. The sense of danger is greatly increased as well as the likelihood of death, if men are falling around oneâ€"if somebody at one’s side receives a ghastly or a mortal wound. Wounds and death in the concrete appear very different from what they do in the abstract. Time and experience are needed not to be deeply moved by the inevitable horrors of war. Usage makes us to a cer- tain extent callous to our surroundings, however painful. In battle, every soldier is under obliga- tion to be firm, to obey orders, to be faith- ful to his cause. If he falters or flies, he is disgraced, punished, irrevocably ruined. 0n the other hand, if he does what he should do, he is esteemed, honored, pro- moted. As a matter of policy, of self-interest, therefore, is it not strange that any soldier should Shirk or flinch under any circum- stances ! A soldier in his first engagement is inclined to a presentiment of death, and is often surprised when it is over to find that he is still alive. In about his twentieth engagement- his presentiments have disap- peared with his nervousness, and he is cool in the presence of peril. “’hat is known as courage is, in ninety- ninc cases out of a hundred, a matter of discipline. A man is alarmed at danger in the beginning. not so much because he is timid as because danger is new to him. The trite proverb that “familiarity breeds con- tempt” is measurably true of war. The coward of to-day may be the hero of to-morrow. The nerves that tremble at the outset may be strong as steel at the termination. Everything comes by educa- tion, intrepidity included. Raw troops are always untrustworthy, simply because of their rawness. The same troops as veterans do not blanch in the face of death. It may be hard to count on a man’s cour- age, but it would be madness to count on his cowardice. Almost any human being will be fearless with certain provocations, from certain motives. Much depends on the cause and his attach- ment to it. He may be cravcn in one thing and dauntless in anotlict‘. Men feel very differently under fire at first, but much alike at last. They can all be made to endure it becomingly, crcditably, after repeated trials. The incurable coward is almost as exceptional as the congenital idiot. In speaking of prowess we must dis- tinguish between bravery and courage. Bravery is, in a strict sense, constitu- tional absence of fear : courage may fear greatly and still be capable, by strength of will and determination, of overcoming, or at least resisting fear. Bravery, if it sees the danger, does nor. feel it; advances in its teeth Without pause or tremor; it is supe- rior to place or pressure. Courage is quite consistent with physical timidity, being mainly mental and suscep- tible of improvement and expansion. It is strongest where morality is on its side, where conscience approves. Bravery may be material, brutal ; couranc belongs to the highest organisations. lira:- ery is inborn and neecssmzily rare. Cour- age is evolved, aud may, with a given environment, reach the loftlcst heroism. Though flattery blossoms like friendship, jin that, she picked up a chick in her bill yet there is a great difference in the fruit» a. W: . and, - . .« “he. " i . my: i l l, I.

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