During this period, men went out and participated in the "barbaric virtues", meaning they fought the savages on the lands that the savages occupied and knew so well in order to save themselves of the idea that middle-class white Americans were disappearing, saving their health from the terrible disease of neurasthenia, and proving themselves as men (Our Little Brown Brothers: Race and American Imperialism). They would also seek out these fights in order to prove that they were warm-hearted Americans with true American ideals (Our Little Brown Brothers: Race and American Imperialism). This helped promote the idea of ​​hard living that to be a hearty American one had to fight battles to save oneself, save one's health, and prove oneself as a man (Our Little Brown Brothers: Race and American