FATE DEFIED

Evening Star, Issue 19658, 10 September 1927, Page 21

FATE DEFIED

HEROIC BOBODIE3 ' No one has any conception of the heroism and sacrifice that are dis- ' played behind hospital walls. It leaves me humble and wondering. , Never yet have ‘1 met a man or woman, no matter how lowly and “common,” who did not have- some streak of nobility. ; The distinguished surgeon, Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, declares, in : the ‘ Sunday Chronicle,’ that perhaps the greatest lesson he _ has learnt is not to be afraid of Life. '.'■One of life’s greatest gifts, I think, is the gift of being able to profit by its lessons (ho writes) So many people go tfiraugb life and come out ou . the debit side because they fail to capitalise experience; tho thousand and one lessons they might profit by are as so much Greek to them; they do not know how to master the business of Jiving, and they never try. They are life’s failures. I have been learning for over sixty years. There was a time when I thought I knew everything there was to know. I was very young then. NoV I have more sense.

Life has taught mo a good many valuable lessons. Perhaps the greatest one I have learnt is not to be afraid of it. Too many people, I think, are scared of life. They are afraid of what is called ,in tho vernacular “ chancing their, arm.” THE COWARD’S WAY.

1 know many men and women whose pvery day is darkened by the fear of what life may do to them. They fear to take risks, they hate the unknown. AH the time they try and keep their feet along the same narrow path they know so well.

Not long ago I met a man who for years had. struggled, to better himself, whoso whole life had been one or desperate striving towards a definite goal. At last his chance came, a marvellous chance which opened the door to great 1 success. But he was afraid to take it. When the moment came ho had not tho courage to transplant himself, not enough confidence in himself to take root afresh. Ho was afraid of tho uncertainty. The chance will never com© again. ■There are thousands of men and women like this. How often one meets people who say, “Ah, if only I had seized my opportunity when it came, how different things would have been,” These tales of lost chances, these repinings after what might have been, .are the saddest of human tragedies. That’s not the way to face life. It’s the coward’s way. Life has taught me to square up to it and not to be ■afraid ,of it. I’m not saying that life isn’t cruel, that it can’t deal you a knock-down blow. But it is cruellest to those who are scared of it. Always it is the weakest who go to the wall. STREAK OF NOBILITY.

There is one lesson life has taught mo that I value above all others. That is the great nobility, the heroism, and the beauty that lie in common people. • We all know the story of the famous soldier who, when lying .wounded, refused a drink of water until a private soldier had drunk. Nobility like that is being shown in hospital wards every day. And by V common ” people, by tho Dicks, Toms, and Harrys of the world.

Mo one has any conception of the heroism and sacrifice that is displayed behind hospital walls. It leaves me humble and wondering. Never yet have I met a man or a woman, no matter how lowly and “ common,” who did not have some streak of nobility. 1 remember a woman of tho unfortunate class being admitted into a great f*ondon hospital in the last stages of consumption. Very little of her lungs remained, and her life was swiftly ebbing away. There was nothing to be done except to make her as comfortable as possible. . - This poor woman had a child, a girl of twelve, who in a way must have been a 'cause, of. her mother adopting her terrible mode of life. For the girl was evidently tho idol of her heart, and she bad sacrificed herself in order that she might have pretty clothes, a good education, and an equal chance with other children. i When, she knew there was no hope for her the woman’s ono thought was for her child. “Don’t let mo die,” she pleaded. “I can’t die. I must live, for my girl’s sake. There is no one else to look after her.” Her great fear was that, left friendless and alone, tho girl might tread the same path. Her will to live was amazing. For months after wc had given her up she clung to life with a tenacity that astonished tho doctors. “ DON’T TELL THEM.” Then, at last, a woll-to-do couple beard her story and adopted tho girl. Three days later the mother died. ' That is but one instance. It could bo multiplied hundreds of times. One of the commonest experiences of hospital life is tho desire of people under sentence of death to keep the worst ITom their loved ones and save them naiii. “Don’t tell them” is their constant cry. I knew one woman who had been brought in after a had motor accident. There was no hope, and it was only a matter of hours before the end came. The husband and children were hastily summoned. Fully conscious, she made the ..surgeon and the nurses promise that they would say she was going to recover. “I want to spare them pain,” -be said. When her husband and children ■amo she actually managed to smile though she was in agonising torture; “ Don’t worry,” she said cheerfully. “I’ll soon be home again.” Two hours later she was dead.