Your Heroic Heart #9: Fire
Heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Anonymous Andrew Carnegie was thirteen when his family moved from Scotland. After they settled in Allegheny City, Pittsburgh, he earned $1.50 a week, working twelve to sixteen hours a day in a cotton factory. About thirteen years later, when drafted into the U.S. Army during the Civil War, the young man paid $900 to have someone serve in his place. [A common custom back then.] $900 in 1861 would be $32,250 in 2024. While working his way from messenger to secretary to telegraph operator, Carnegie built contacts with wealthy businessmen, like B. F. Jones, founder of the steel mill where I eventually worked. Another was Colonel James Anderson who allowed Carnegie access to his private library. Inspired by the Colonel’s kindness, Carnegie vowed to build as many libraries as possible, to give poor youth chances to develop their minds. Between 1883 and 1929, over 2,500 were built. At one point, Carnegie said, “It is now thirteen years since I ceased to accumulate wealth and began to distribute it. I could never have succeeded in either had I stopped with having enough to retire upon, but nothing to retire to.” One activity he retired to was the creation and endowment of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. It exists to honor and support heroes and their dependents, including, Harry Amster of Clarkdale, Arizona. The meat dealer was 23 on April 27, 1915 when he tried to rescue toddlers from a fiery, wood frame house. In Sylvania, Georgia, Quillie Addison [a 36-year-old janitor], saved William Z. Kemp from a home so engulfed in flame, no one else would enter. When a 3-inch pipe carrying natural gas erupted, Matilda Aloisio offered her hand and foot to pull Henry Green from the pit of ten-foot high flames. Nominate a Hero. COMMENT. Myths tell of gods creating starry constellations for heroes The word comes demi [half, unfinished, almost]-god and to watch over, to protect. Imagine a world where everyone goes to bed a hero. A “Random Act of Kindness” will do, as in this post’s video [below]. What a world! Giving Tuesday The goal is heroic, whether to make someone smile, help a neighbor or stranger, show up for an issue or people we care about, or give something to those in need. Every generous act counts. Tuesday, December 3. Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Presenting arts experiences to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. Krispy Kreme’s Butterfly Effect Click Here to View [5 minutes] When Chris Rosati was diagnosed with ALS, he sought to make other lives better. Through November 7, Save 30% on Photo Books. Discount Code: PBGIFTS30 Few remain who experienced an old-time steel mill’s awesome, harrowing and magical world. As a young mother, I worked at Jones and Laughlin Steel’s Pittsburgh Works during its heyday when over 10,000 people struggled and snoozed, played pranks and died in that fire and brimstone world. I saw the last steel poured inside those bleak walls. Steel Genesis Memories of Metal and Metal shares some of my experiences. The books are 8×10, 50 pages. Two versions are available.: HIGH-QUALITY HARD COVER. Printed on Premium Lustre Paper. Normally $125. Through Nov 7, $87.50. See book. SOFT COVER. Flexible and sturdy, high-gloss cover printed on quality paper. Normally$69. Through Nov 7, $48. See book. Shop All Radiant Tree Books Thanks !
Crushing Conditions
I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance. — Pablo Casals The “Your Heroic Heart” series is inspired Succeed and Soar’s August 21, 2021 post. There, Eleanor Roosevelt said, “We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time.” After the Carnegie family left Scotland in 1848, they settled in Allegheny, now part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There, Andrew and his father worked in a cotton factory. The teenager would have worked 12 to 16 hours a day. and earned—at most—$1.50 a week. In time, the bobbin boy became one of the world’s wealthiest men. He invested much effort and resources into ending West Indies and Asian colonization. When the United States bought the Philippines from Spain for $20 million [over $757 million in 2024 dollars], Carnegie offered to purchase the islands for the same amount to assure those people’s freedom and democracy. Six years later, Carnegie dedicated a fortune to honor, “deeds of heroism where men or women are injured or lose their lives in attempting to preserve or rescue their fellows.” For their actions following a 1954 sewer excavation cave-in, three men were honored by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. In trying to rescue Richard Fisher, who’d been buried to his neck. 20-year-old construction worker Nicholas A. Bruno, was the first to swing over the edge, followed by Arlin Vance and John Weaver. Within 30 seconds, a second, massive section of earth shoved shoring and timbers forward. Bruno, seven feet below ground, was pinned between the shoring and sustained severe internal injuries. 27-year-old John Weaver was caught at the hips and legs. A worker atop the wall freed him. Weaver suffered a fractured pelvis, torn muscles and bruises. He was disabled nine weeks. A timber pinned Arlin G. Vance’s legs, but he freed himself. With others, Vance raised some shoring and sawed away other portions. Vance’s chest and shoulder were wrenched. After two hours , Bruno was freed. Fisher had died of suffocation. Bruno was rushed to a hospital but died of his injuries the following day. Six months later, and two days before Thanksgiving, 27-year-old Alden Hartz rescued a woman who fell into a hole 70 feet deep. Catherine Murphy had been crossing a field that collapsed into an abandoned coal mine. Because the hole’s sides were unstable, others wouldn’t enter the cave-in. The 72-year-old woman had been half buried, and died two days later. Hartz was shaken but recovered. Nominate a Hero. Myths tell of ancient gods placing heroes among the stars. Some stories tell of heroes’ eyes becoming stars to watch over their children. ‘Hero’ comes from ancient words meaning demi [half, unfinished, almost]-god and to watch over, to protect. A “Random Act of Kindness” qualifies, as in this post’s video. Imagine a world where everyone goes to bed a hero. Wouldn’t more monuments honoring these kinds of heroes be great? Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Presenting arts experiences to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. COMMENT. Stranger’s Gift Inspires Grieving Widow Click Here to View [2 minutes, 36 seconds] As a young mother, I worked at Jones and Laughlin Steel’s Pittsburgh Works during its heyday when over 10,000 people struggled and snoozed, played and died in that fire and brimstone world. I saw the last steel poured inside those bleak walls. I watched those miles of cinder and char change as new life evolved from the mill’s ashes. Steel Genesis presents images and experiences of making steel, the metal and human mettle. Book Details: High quality, soft laminate cover. 50 Pages. 8×10, $69. Preview. Hard Back, printed on Premium Lustre Paper. 8×10, $125. Previews. Shop All Radiant Tree Books Thanks!