The mild, the fierce, the stony face;
Some bright with thoughtless smiles, and some
Where secret tears have left their trace!

Ah, it is only the faces that the tired pleasure-seeker sees and knows;
the real comrade, the human soul, is hidden away behind the mask!

Genuine heroic friendship cannot flourish in an artificial society; and
that perhaps accounts for the fact that the curled darlings of our
modern community spend much of their leisure in reading papers devoted
to tattle and scandal. It seems as though the search after pleasure
poisoned the very sources of nobleness in the nature of men. In our
monstrous city a man may live without a quarrel for forty years; he may
be popular, he may be received with genial greetings wherever he
goes--and yet he has no friend. He lingers through his little day; and,
when he passes away, the change is less heeded than would be the removal
of a chair from a club smoking-room. When I see the callous indifference
with which illness, misfortune, and death are regarded by the dainty
classes, I can scarcely wonder when irate philosophers denounce polite
society as a pestilent and demoralizing nuisance. Among the people
airily and impudently called "the lower orders" noble friendships are by
no means uncommon. "I can't bear that look on your face, Bill. I'm
coming to save you or go with you!" said a rough sailor as he sprang
into a raging sea to help his shipmate. "I'm coming, old fellow!"
shouted the mate of a merchant-vessel; and he dived overboard among the
mountainous seas that were rolling south of Cape Horn one January. For
an hour this hero fought with the blinding water, and he saved his
comrade at last. Strange to say, the lounging impassive dandies who
regard the universe with a yawn, and who sneer at the very notion of
friendship, develop the kindly and manly virtues when they are removed
from the enervating atmosphere of Society and forced to lead a hard
life. A man to whom emotion, passion, self-sacrifice, are things to be
mentioned with a curl of the lip, departs on a campaign, and amid
squalor, peril, and grim horrors he becomes totally unselfish. Men who
have watched our splendid military officers in the field are apt to
think that a society which converts such generous souls into
self-seeking fribbles must be merely poisonous. The more we study the
subject the more clearly we can see that where luxury flourishes
friendship withers. In the vast suff