Heroism Of The Fishermen

Ti is always with a vague regret tnat ■wo read the sagas, and are thrilled by the Tiking's exploits. It seems as if rhe deeds of daring had gone by forever, and as ií the héroes of the deep were a myth of the past. Absorbed iu the Norse romance, we forget that the vikings were only pirates, and that they dared for slaughter and for booty. If the Gloucester of today had only existed then, what heroic saga would it not have inspired ! For to risk lif e for glory or riches or rescue or love is in the heart oí every man to do, but to risk lif e íor a bare existence, for other peopie 's profit and for an anonymous end partakes of that cornmonplace sublimity which does not forra the favorite plot of poets, although ouce in awhile it is the subject of a daily paragraph. Por the vikings are not dead. From Portland to New Orleans, our harbors are full of them. They lounge upon our wharfs, and we do not recognize thera. They loiter on our streets, and we know them not. Bat if there is a more modsst, unconscious, or braver fellow than Jack the Fisherinan, our eyes have yet to rest upon his face. He is the hardiest and most daring, the best sailor in the world today. Any continental kingdora would give itswealth topossess him for its defense. He is the envy of every maritirne nation. Has he no valué for us, bevond the halibut and the cod, the