HEROES OF TO-DAY
John Muir among his beloved trees
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
FOREWORD
Once, when I had been telling a group of children some stories of theheroes of old, one of the number who had always followed the tales withbreathless interest, said:
“Tell us the story of a hero of to-day!”
“There are no heroes to-day, no real heroes, are there?” put inanother. “Oh, of course I know there are great men who do importantthings,” he added, “but there isn’t any story to what they do, isthere?—anything like the daring deeds of the knights and vikings, or ofthe American pioneers?”
Of course I tried to tell the children that the times in which we livebring out as true hero stuff as any time gone by. Nay, I grew quiteeloquent in speaking of the many phases of our complex modern life withits many duties, its new conscience, its new feeling of individualresponsibility for the welfare of all.
Then I told the stories of some of the heroes who are fighting “in thepatient modern way,” not against flesh and blood with sword and spear,but against the unseen enemies of disease and pestilence; against themonster evils of ignorance, poverty and injustice. We decided that the“modern viking,” Jacob Riis, had a story that was as truly adventurousas those of the plundering vikings of long ago; that Dr. Grenfell, thestrong friend of Labrador, had certainly proved that life might be asplendid adventure; and that the account of Captain Scott’s nobleconquest of every danger and hardship, and at the last of disappointmentand defeat itself, was indeed an “undying story.” Joyously we followedthe trail of that splendid hero of the heights, John Muir, and of thatgentle lover of the friendly by-paths of Nature, John Burroughs, andfound that there was no spot in woods or fields, among mountains orstreams, that did not have its wonder tale. The stories of those bravesouls—like Edward Trudeau, the good physician of Saranac, and SamuelPierpont Langley, the inventor of the heavier-than-air flying-machine,who struggled undaunted in the face of failure for a success that onlythose who should come after them might enjoy, were