TRUE HEROISM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1449, 2 January 1886, Page 3

TRUE HEROISM.

'(Southlander). Many correspondents of English and ■>ther journals refer admiringly to the noble work dona by the priesthood and religious orders among the sufferers from the cholera in Spain. By every mail that reaches the Colony fresh testimony is brought to a similar effect. Now we are told of the Cardinal Archbishop of Seville that he died on what is to the Catholic ecclesiastic the familiar "field of ' honor," that is in assiduous attendance on bis stricken people. Now we hear of the Archbishop of Granada who sells all that he possesses in order to devote the proceeds to the relief of the poor. And uow a bishop of a southern diocese, who, having nothing else lett, carries his episcopal ring to the pawnbroker that he may obtain a loan—the pawnbroker refusing the pledge, but lending the sum required. Again, the Madrid correspondent of the \ St James's Gazette writes' as follows : " The sisters of chfrity are behaving splendidly; thoy die ia great numbers, and their places are immediately filled by others. I cannot," he continues, " tell precisely the numbers of the Sisters who have died by the bedsides of the patients since the cholera began, but they can be counted by the score." But who can picture the calm bravery of those Sisters, of the living as they replace the dead with the certainty of death before them, with the terrible spectacle of the contorted, discolored corpses of those who hate died in agony unspeakable before their eyes, and assured that a miracle only can preverjt them from themselves lying in a like place ere many hours have passed. And the Sisters have faced their fate unflinchingly and in crowds. ... The prowess of the athlete displays his training, and tbe nun who faces a terrible death without a moment's heaitntion gives evidence of what her life has been and of the manner in which she has been prepared for the conflict undertaken by her. These are the noble-hearied gentle self-sacrific-ing ladies the "escaped nun" has come to traduce, vilify and slander.