WHAT IS COURAGE?

Shannon News, 4 May 1926, Page 4

WHAT IS COURAGE?

Rosita Forbes, speaking regarding “The Plucky Sex,” says that the question “which is the pluckier, man or woman?” is unanswerable ,for the chances a man takes in action a woman takes in life. She is at hearit an adventurer, even though her experiments be limited to the shape 'or her hat. the colour of her walls, or the form in which yesterday’s joint shall appear at to-day’s lunch. On tno whole, a woman’s courage is instinctive or impulsive. A man’s is reasoned and objective. A woman is perhaps more hopeful than logical. She may see “ways out” where none exist, but she is never weighed down by consequences. To some women any risk is a stimulant; to most men it is a responsibility. Therefore, if 1 were going into danger 1 would rather have a woman with me. When I was well in the middle of it I would rather have a man.

What exactly is courage? “I once," Mrs Forbes says, “saw a soldier, affected by some kind of heat stroKf, run amok on an Indian hill square. He had a repeating rifle, with whlcn he had already wounded two* men, and with which he threatened to kill the next. While a company hesitated a subaltern, whose nickname was ttie “the rabbit,’ because he was frightened of everything —horses, mountain paths,— and women—walked quietly across the hundred yards oi open square and took the rifle away. I have seen a native who had that day killed a lion with a spear dissolve into human jelly at the thought or camping near some alien graves. . . To .me the bravest man in history was Savonarola because he was so terrified of the flames. To repudiate his faith-and to withdraw that repudiation meant burning with all tne horror and aMittle of the glory or martyrdom Courage has no common denominator but I think, wne,her it be masculine or feminine it is always really of the mind not tne body.”