o,--a hero more inspiring than Achilles of the "Iliad," or Odysseus
of the "Odyssey," or AEneas of the "AEneid."

My hero is not a myth, not a creation of literature, not a tradition,
but not unlike the Grecian hero in that he sprung from the union of a
god and a mortal. My hero is not reckoned among the high and mighty nor
will his name ever be carved on stone or raised on bronze. Neither has
my hero accomplished startling feats. As a hero he may be a paradox.
Inconspicuous, humble in station, modest, hid far away from the
maddening, jealous, curious, bickering, taunting, striving, restless
crowd of life. Too long already I have held him from you. His name? I do
not know. His birthplace? I do not know. His age? I do not know. Is he
living now? Here my ignorance is painful. I do not know. My hero,
however, is an actual man of flesh and blood. I met him but twice in
life, but was so charmed I did not ask his name. His personality
thrilled and he in a measure has become my patron saint. He is not a
hero of large and commanding stature, but a cripple--doubly so. His arms
were palsied and turned in so that he could not use a crutch, his lower
limbs turned in also. He sat in an ordinary cane-bottomed chair and
could easily move himself about by throwing the weight of his body from
one back leg of the chair to the other, lifting the front legs at the
same time. I saw him along the train side at Spartanburg, S. C.

A beggar? No, my young friends, beggars are seldom heroes. He was a
merchant prince. He carried his goods around his neck and shoulders and
in his outer coat pockets. He was selling shoe-strings and pencils. If
you gave him a dime he would insist on your taking one or both of the
articles he had for sale. In his activities he was a fine lesson of the
first requirement of life. He was self-sustaining. By the sweat of his
brow he earned his bread.

Did he complain of his lot? Not a bit of it. His handicap he did not
make nor could undo. He therefore accepted his condition
philosophically; he was self-respecting. He knew his limitations; he
knew what he could do and what he could not do; he was self-knowing.
Knowing his handicap and that it was quite unlike any other man's and
that he needed a means of locomotion, he found it; he had, therefore,
initiative. He leaned not upon the strength of others, but used his own
resources; he was therefore self-reliant. He did not wait for business
to come to him, he put himself