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Show o THE DEATH OF SLADE HANCOCK The News is reprinting this week a beautiful eulogy of Slade Hancock, penned by Dr. Max A. Markus of the Richfield Reaper. Slade Hancock, a patrolman for the Telluride Power com- pany, lost his life in a blizzard on the night of February 27, while running a line in the mountains moun-tains between Fillmore and Richfield. To date, his body has never been found, although fifteen fif-teen men from Panguitch searched search-ed for a week and the Telluride company still maintains a searching party in the mountains. moun-tains. Hancock was known to a few Milford people who had made his acquaintance in Richfield, iThe death of Slade Hancock, the line patrolman of the Telluride Power Co., will be lamented by all the communities com-munities where he was known, and will contribute towards making him known where people did not know him before not only known, but admired, ad-mired, for it is not putting it too strongly to say he died a hero. In common parlance, when we speak of a hero we think of the warrior who laid down his life upon the altar of his country, of the soldier sol-dier w-ho died in battle amid the glamor . of war. We seldom associate asso-ciate with the world that kind of heroism which gets its incentive from the "still small voice" that directs di-rects man towards good and keeps him from bad. Hancock's untimely death came in consequence of a trip up the mountains moun-tains to find and repair a break ir, the electric transmission line. Wintry blasts made the going hard, and Hancock and his companion would not have encountered any blame had they returned and reported that a blinding snow storm hampered their progress. Yet, they did not return. They had other thoughts in their minds, thoughts genuinely heroic. They thought of the inconvenience and perhaps danger to which might be exposed the thousands of users of electricity not being able to get that current which in our days is almost as indispen-sible as other necessities in the daily pursuit of life. They did not think only of those thousands to whom their service ser-vice is devoted. They must have known, and they knew, that they night have to pay dearly for their !ivotion to duty, but that did r.ot turn them for a single moment from loing what they considered the right thine-, to bring relief to the users of electricity. So they went on, and raid, one with his health, the other with his life. The soldier fighting for his country md meeting his enemy in op'n battle is under a certain compulsion which leaves 6ut little or no choice, but there was no compulsion in the case of the two young men who battled igainst the enemy of an enraged "ature. They could have returned to a place of safety and could have 'eft in discomfort those served by the line. They staked two lives against the discomfort of many. The stakes were high, and they lost. One lost his hea!th; the other lost his life. But they won. They won the reward coming from the knowledge of a duty well done, and then won the admiration of all who know the particulars of their haiardous undertaking. under-taking. This is true heroism. The old Greeks ,the original hero worshipers, attributed the existence of their heroea to, at least in part, divine origin. This is a poetic thought, and like all true poetry, a wonderful thought. There is some-1 thing divine In the strict adherence: to duty, and this dlvino spark was glowing strongly in the heart and mind of the man now dead. ! Heroism did not die out with the classical age. It continues, and Hancock is a proof of this continuation. continua-tion. He died that others may live in comfort and happiness. He fully deserved our admiration, and ho has It j O |
