Heroes of To-Day

HEROES OF TO-DAY



JOHN MUIR ⁂ JOHN BURROUGHS ⁂ WILFRED GRENFELL ⁂ ROBERT F. SCOTT ⁂ SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY ⁂ EDWARD TRUDEAU ⁂ BISHOP ROWE ⁂ JACOB A. RIIS ⁂ HERBERT C. HOOVER RUPERT BROOKE ⁂ GEORGE W. GOETHALS
BY MARY R. PARKMAN Author of “Heroines of Service,” etc. ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS
NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1917 Copyright, 1916, 1917, by The Century Co. ——— Published September, 1917 TO MY FATHER
Once, when I had been telling a group of children some stories of the heroes of old, one of the number who had always followed the tales with breathless interest, said:
“Tell us the story of a hero of to-day!”
“There are no heroes to-day, no real heroes, are there?” put in another. “Oh, of course I know there are great men who do important things,” he added, “but there isn’t any story to what they do, is there?—anything like the daring deeds of the knights and vikings, or of the American pioneers?”
Of course I tried to tell the children that the times in which we live bring out as true hero stuff as any time gone by. Nay, I grew quite eloquent in speaking of the many phases of our complex modern life with its many duties, its new conscience, its new feeling of individual responsibility for the welfare of all.