How He Earned His Medal

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A young man, while strolling in the streets of Paris, finds a medal which has been given to someone for bravery. Wishing to wear the medal he starts search for opportunities to prove himself a hero. Mistaking a galloping horse far a runaway he stops it and is beaten by the occupants, who are forced to miss their train. He attempts to save several bathers from drowning, thereby getting further chastisement for himself. Seeing smoke floating from a window he thinks the building is aflame, and unceremoniously throws water in upon an old gentleman who is quietly smoking his pipe. He then saves a fly from a neighbor's glass in the coffee house, and is punished for interfering. On every occasion he finds his opportunity to display heroism develops into a case where he is interrupting others and that rather than being a hero because of saving people, he is one because of having been subjected to so much humiliation. He therefore proudly pins the medal upon his coat.