Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1881-07-21
Past and Present.

Ia5 ana Hftsen..
There is good deal OF harmless
prattle about the superior health, the
strength, and the wisdom of our great
graadfathers and great grandmother
1t is a common thing to hear Old peo-
ple. who ought to have better sense.
talking about the good old times ami
the higher mental AMI physical ability
Of those who lived long ago. While VT
nave great respect for the old folks.
living and dead. We must not shut our
ewes 20 the reality. The truth is that
people live longer now than ever they
did. The medical profession knows
more now than ever it did; and We
could put into the field to-day bigger
army of centenarans than our grand
father could in the good old days when
they were young. Moreover. old PEG
pie now are much more vigorous than
the old people of times past. Our peo-
ole are growing larger and stronger. 1t
is not SO many years since the Ameri-
can woman was slight, delicate
creature now she is tall and portiy.
The numbers of singularly tall and well
proportional young men and women to
be seen in the streets of New York to-
day astonish the old fellows who re-
member the boys and girls forty or fifty
years ago. Some persons imagine that
this increase in size is confined to the
children of our foreign-born citizens;
but this is a great mistake. fer the III
creased growth is general. Certainty
the mixture of races may have some
thing TO do with it, but whatever be the
cause, it is fact plainly to &c seen by
anv observer.
The greatest known feats OF physical
strength and endurance are recorded
to the credit OF the young men Of this
age; and, indeed, it is hardly too much
to assert that the greatest runners, the
greatest walkers, the greatest jumpers.
the greatest swimmers, the greatest
oarsmen. the greatest weight-liiterS.
the greatest gymnasts, the greatest
boxers, the greatest fencers, and the
heaviest men that ever lived are among
the living of to-day. There seems 10
be universal increase in the growth OF
humanity The height, the chest meas
urement. and the weight OF the soldiers
of the immense arm es OF Europe OF
the present time are at lelst as great as
they We're among the picked men OF the
much smaller European armies of fifty
years past, clearly showing that the
average man of to-day is as big
and as strong as the picked
man of long ago. The fact stares
us in the face that the grcwn-up sons
and daughters of the Old people OF this
country are, as a rule, bigger and
stronger than their fathers and moth
ers were. An ordinary-sized English
man finds considerable difficulty in
squeezing himself into the armor of one
of the Norman conquerors of his coun-
try: but what could one of our Western
farmers do with il? Certainly he could
pick ii up and look at it, but that is
all
We have great respect for the men,
DRY OF our srandfathers and great
grandfathers. as well as for our grand
mothers and great-grandmothers, but
We cannot afford to delude ourselves
with ideas and notions that facts and
| figures set aside. People are inclined
to overestimate the measure of wisdom
and ability of the grand old fellows of
days gone b.. 1t is an amiable fault.
but still a iault; because the truth is not
so.-N y san.
1t is pointed out by the Levant
4 4.