OCR Text |
Show Sober Thoughts for Heroes. Hero worship is about as old as the human race, and about as difficult to eradicate as any other phase of human nature. The American people may be unemotional, but let an individual perform per-form some deed that sets him apart from his fellows as a man possessed of qualities not displayed by the public generally, and a nation rises up as one man to do him homage today, and tomorrow to-morrow it has found another upon whom to lavish adulation. With the generous and fit recognition of a noble act hero worship in its larger sense has no part. No one can begrudge tiie person who has done humanity a service the grateful grate-ful recognition of the public, but thrre is something incongruous in the thought of such a person springing at once into the limelight. The hero of yesterday is the drawing card at the vaudeville show today, and tomorrow he will be pushed aside and forgotten. Today the chorus girls leave the artistic artist-ic coloring of their own tinted cheeks upon his. but after the rays of glory have beat down upon him for a few short weeks, at the most, he finds himself him-self treated like any other individual, unless he does something to recapture the attention of the public. The spectacle of a young navel hero receiving the osculatory greetings jot scores of admiring maidens is not an impressive one, and if he possess real capacity he is likely to find his transient tran-sient dream of bliss of great handicap when he subsequently askte to be treated treat-ed seriously. When he rises on the platform plat-form to speak, the first thought of the auditor is, "So that is the man who was kissed by fifty girls!" and the impression impres-sion of frivolity is not an easy one to overcome? It is safe to say that more people remember Lieutenant Hobson because of the episode at Kansas City than because of the heroic act which brought him before the public, or on account ac-count of anything he has since done. Were it possible to determine beforehand before-hand the individuals who would stand most in need of It, a course of special training for heroes might be devised. It is unquestionably difficult for the average human being who finds honor suddenly thrust upon him to bear himself him-self with grace and dignity. But It should be borne in mind that the glare of the limelight is for the moment only, and that there will be a lifetime in which to think about it and wonder how, on sober second thought, wnen those glorious days have become history, his-tory, the incidents following upon the initial act of heroism really looked. New York Tribune. Rehearsal for the annual concert on March 17 is held every Saturday at 3 for the little ones, 4 for the young girls and 5 for the boys. |