Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1889 — Moral Courage. [ARTICLE]

Moral Courage.

Moral courage is, after all, merely a relative quality, says the Boston Transcript, and there are hundreds of men who boast of its possession who are strangely lacking in its exhibition when it comes to putting their claims into practice. It is easy enough to preach about the necessity of making other men in far-off lands livd honorable and Christian lives, and it requires no great amount of courage to grieve over other men’s transgressions; but personal courage exemplified in one’s own acts is quite another matter. Where, for instance, is the man at all subject to the conventions of society who can so far indulge his natural predilections as to take up a wedge of pie in his fingers, or pour his tea or coffee into his saucer to cool it, or carry food to his mouth with his knife? He is hard to find; and yet a piece of pie never had, and never can have, the delicious flavor, by any other manner of eating, which it possesses when taken in the fist and gnawed at until its last morsel has disappeared. . And how often have we pitied the man, even though the man were ourself, who, for the sake of appearances, will dawdle over a cup of tea for half an hour and scald his tongue again and again, when, had he the courage, be could escape scalding and some precious time, not to .speak of the pleasure which is denied him of enjoying the decoction! It may be considered bad form to eat with one’s knife, but it is only bee uise custom has given preference to the fork. But consider for a moment how you have chased one poor mocsel of food around your plate until you have quite lost your patience, and then, when nobody was looking, how you have scooped it up with your knife, or mayhap grabbed it betweep your thumb and fingers, and carried it to the mouth that has so long watered for it ■ ' """" - 1

Talk of courage! Were you possessed of it, think you you would borrow the money or get trusted for a new hat when the hat you have is good enough to keep your head warm? Would you be likely to direct the servant to say you are out when your familiar bore calls at your residence instead of going to the door like a man and telling him that you didn’t want to see him. and would not? Would you, if a woman, tell tfie salesman at the dry goods store that you only inquired for a friend, when in truth you had been inquiring Tor yourself and only out of curiosity, or to p ss away your time? Moral courage. Indeed! It is as rai-e as honesty among politicians.