Árdís - 01.01.1963, Blaðsíða 8

6
ÁRDÍ S
flagration. Dr. Gunsaulus’ nephew was there. He got out. Not a
single hair on his head was singed. But he was not satisfied
merely to get out and to save himself only. He hastily collected
lumber, barrels and boxes, and with this material he constructed
a sort of fire escape and through one of the windows he saved
fifteen people. When he was endeavoring to save the sixteenth
person this structure collapsed. The flames were raging all around
and he fell into the fire. He got out, but nearer death than life.
They rushed him to the hospital and telephoned his uncle. He
came at once. When he reached his bedside, the nephew, whose
eyes were filming in death, looked at him, recognized him, smiled,
and said: “Uncle, now I know why I came into the world.” He
then closed his eyes in death.
May I ask: “Was that not a noble purpose, a great mission, a
glorious lifework — to save fifteen people from the flames?” No-
body knows what that meant to fifteen homes in Chicago. Was
selfishness present in that heroic act?
Shortly after this, Dr. Gunsaulus was travelling in Europe. He
visited the old imperial city of Rome. When people knew he was
from the U.S.A. they asked him to speak to a compatriot who
walked up and down the streets, day after day, repeating the
words: “I saved myself, I saved myself, I saved myself.” Evidently
he was demented. When the man met Dr. Gunsaulus, he said:
“I know you. I have heard you often in Chicago. I was in the
Iroquois Theatre when it burned down. I got out, not a hair on
my head was burned, but in my efforts to get out I threw at least
twenty-five people into the fire. I saved myself. I saved my body,
but I lost my soul in that awful conflagration. Now I have twenty-
five lives on my mind and my conscience. Yes, I saved myself.”
These are striking examples of two conflicting ideals in this
world. The one is this: “Build yourself up no matter how much it
costs the other fellow.” The other is: “Help your fellow men, no
matter how much it costs you.” The former is inspired by selfish-
ness, the other by love, service and sacrifice.
The former, inspired by selfishness, was the ideal of Hitler,
Mussolini, and Hirohito, and their forerunners, the Caesars, Napo-
leon. Louis XIV, Philip II, and the Kaiser. The latter, inspired