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                           HEROES OF TO-DAY

           [Illustration: 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

                            [Illustration]

                               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 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.

Then I told the stories of some of the heroes who are fighting “in the
patient modern way,” not against flesh and blood with sword and spear,
but against the unseen enemies of disease and pestilence; against the
monster evils of ignorance, poverty and injustice. We decided that the
“modern viking,” Jacob Riis, had a story that was as truly adventurous
as those of the plundering vikings of long ago; that Dr. Grenfell, the
strong friend of Labrador, had certainly proved that life might be a
splendid adventure; and that the account of Captain Scott’s noble
conquest of every danger and hardship, and at the last of disappointment
and defeat itself, was indeed an “undying story.” Joyously we followed
the trail of that splendid hero of the heights, John Muir, and of that
gentle lover of the friendly by-paths of Nature, John Burroughs, and
found that there was no spot in woods or fields, among mountains or
streams, that did not have its wonder tale. The stories of those brave
souls--like Edward Trudeau, the good physician of Saranac, and Samuel
Pierpont Langley, the inventor of the heavier-than-air flying-machine,
who struggled undaunted in the face of failure for a success that only
those who should come after them might enjoy, were particularly
inspiring. From them we turned to the heroic figure of the
“prophet-engineer,” General Goethals, who proved that faith and
perseverance can truly remove mountains; and Herbert C. Hoover, master
of mines and of men, whose great talent for organization and efficient
management brought bread to starving millions.

Carlyle has said that “the history of what man has accomplished in this
world is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here.”
When the real history of our day is written, will it not be seen that
some of its most important and significant chapters are those which have
nothing to do with great cataclysms, such as the wars of nation against
nation? Will it not be seen that the victories of peace are not only “no
less renowned than war,” but that they are, in truth, the most enduring?
These “heroes of to-day”--doctor