Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1877 — Presence of Mind. [ARTICLE]

Presence of Mind.

The late Bt. Louis fire suggests, an all such accidents must suggest, the value of presence of mind. In that fire, as in most fires, there were quite as many who lost their lives from a lack of presence of mind as there were who were saved by theii own composure of mental forces that enabled them to make the best of the means at hand. ■ ' The .New York” drummer who, encircled by dames and smoke, waited patiently until a rope was thrown to him. and by which he reached the ground in safety, afforded a violent contrast of character to the lady who, being told net to jump, that ladders were coming, threw her arms wildly in the air, and, leaping from a fifth-story window, was instantly killed. There was one man who coolly dressed himself, and, tearing up his bed-’clothing, made his escape from the window without receiving a scratch or injury of any kind; while, in the same building was another man who, even after escaping, was so unbalanced in his mental machinery that he shot himself. There were women who screamed and fainted, or threw themselves out of fifth-stoiy windows to be dashed to pieces; while there were other women who patiently waited their turn to be rescued, or procured a rope and effected their own escape. All of which merely proves the immense value of presence of mind. However terrible and pressing the exigency, there is always a wise way and a foolish way to meet it. Presence of mind is largely dependent upon mental discipline, and comes not so because an urgent demand has arisen for it as because the mind has been' previously trained to calm thought and intrepid action. It is not, however, altogether a question of intellect, but is due somewhat to temperament A man or woman may be ever so brilliant and accomplished intellectually, yet lack sufficient calmness of nerve to give them presence of mind in any sudden and terrible emergency; while a* heavier and more stupid person would have an appearance of calmness and fortitude, when he was in reality simply too slow to keenly realize or vividly express his senss of danger. » >* It has been well said that the essence of all true and intelligent presence of mind arises from hope, a secret belief that the emergency is not so terrible as it seems, and that escape is possible. This hope prevents the mental and physical paralysis of abject fear, and gives a person sufficient command of his faculties to make the best use of them

A striking illustration of this was given by a man who made his escape from a very large rattlesnake, whose baleful eye he suddenly encountered. When asked how he had escaped the paralysis of fear that would seem most natural under the circumstances, he said that he remembered that a rattlesnake never spnrog upon its victim until it first uncoils itself; and not icing that the reptile was coiled he at once felt that he had time to make his escape. Five times out of ten the danger that threatens may be compared to a coiled rattlesnake, and in the moment of grace that is allowed before the fatal spring is made there is generally time enough to escape the peril, provided one can command one’s faculties sufficiently to make the best use of the means at hand. ' A celebrated philosopher once found himself with a lunatic on tne top of a high building, when the lunatic, throwing his arms about bis companion, exclaimed: “Now let us immortalize ourselves by jumping together to the ground.” “ Pooh!” exclaimed the philosopher, coolly, “it wonld be nothing to jump down. Let us go down and jump up. That would immortalize us.” The lunatic consented to this very original idea, and the philosopher gravely went with him to the ground, that he nfight try the experimentof jumping up, and thus escaped. A record of such instances is valuable, because calculated to educate the mind concerning the value of calm nerves and a ready wit. As in times of peace we should prepare for war, so in times of safety we should prepare „ the mind for danger, and cultivate cajmness of nerve for all ordinary occasions, that we may be the better prepared for any extraordinary occasion where life may be saved cr lost, according to the manner in which we have

conquered or have been conquered by an emergency. There are few persons who cannot speak wisely concerning another’s folly; and there are many who can think after the crisis it passed how they might have bettered themselves if only they conld have thought when the time to think was at hand. And this question of calm nerves and quickness of mental perception applies not only to times of danger when a man’s life is the price of his action. but it is equally valuable for all ordinary occasions where swift-footed Opportunity passes and repasses, and serves only •haje who are swift to seize and strong to