Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1882-01-18
The Matter Of Legs.
st. Lcuis-Globc:D c:Dcnoe,a,.

!
pose, of course, and abstractly, a
one looks upon work Of art; ant
while the verdict 'limpid and utter
| is a trifle obscure, we find out al
| about it when she adds: "Both ar
delicately intellectual, but his lef
| leg is a poem" Never having seel
| Mr.. Irving, we are still at n loss t
know what constitutes talented
leg, and by what process Of irsigh
poetry, . il - dissoysgablo il, ale p;sig. 9
flagsz but We Hupp pose all fEis Wits
made plain when the new order 0
criticism becomes familiar. 1t i
quite evident that Mr.. Irving ha'
''made q mash with his legs, anl
we hope he will have them photo
graphed, to the end that 1.-The proper
study Of mankind" which Pope
says lis man. may be promoted
| and accurately guided.
That legs have always played ,
a prominent part in human affairs
from the time of Adam down to the
davs of the Black Crook and the
pinned back skirt, will not be dis
puted. Even wooden ones have
been celebrated; and perhaps, now
that we are coming to judge them
bv an Intellectual standard, a good
many more will prove to be wooden
than we ever dreamed of. We feel
quite certain that the question OF
size has little or nothing to do with
the matter, for the smallest legs have
often been most conspicuous, and
very large ones have irequntly failed
to lift their owners above the COM
monplace. Indeed, short legs, not
to say thin and scrawny ones, have
p,'obably taken precedence, as a rule
in the achievement OF memorable
deeds and the furtherancc Of great
pith and moment. So there mus.
be some subtle and under surface
mode of reason by which leg eriti-
c;sm should arrive at its judgments.
We may safely believe that Go
liah had pair Of legs that were
striking and calculated to win him
renown as a warrior; but they went
down like a couple of ten pins be-
fore the sling of a man poised ON
legs that were certainly not large or
long, however "limped and utter
they must have been. Samson had
tremendous legs, too; but Sampson
turned out to be Il miserable failure,
Notwithstanding. The only big
legged lnen among the disciples
were Peter and Judas, strange to
say. John had legs not much more
pronounced, we should guess, than
those Of Alex. II. Stephens; and
Paul stood in the presence of Aggrip-
pa upon legs that were not only
short, but but gaunt and unimpress-
i've. Plato had insignificant legs;
and so had Pericles and Homer.
Anthony. on the other hand, who
lost his kingdom for kiss, boasted
of magnificent limbs and Nero
of violin playing memory, had the
legs of a Roman gladiator. 1t
would not be difficult to demon.
strate that, in ancient times, the less
a man had in the way Of legs, the
more he seemed to accomplish.
Turning to modern history and
facts Of daily observation, the truth
still appears to be that potential ai
legs are in the struggle of life--ant
we are not seeking to controvert tha
idea must look beyond th'
mere indications of bulk for th'
true theory of criticism. Napoleon
it is well known, had short ant
"dumpy" legs, but they corried hin
to fame that is yet foremost il
military annals; and Grant VIII,
stands next to Napoleon as com
mander of armies and a winner @
victories, has a similar brevity ant
dumpiness below the anatomica
parting of the ways. In politics
oitenest happens, we think, that
superhuity of leg is an embarass
ment rather than an advantage; an
though we say it who should no
longleggedness in journalism is
hindrancc and snare. The me
; who run to legs appear to be NOR
; given to stumbling than those VIII
travel on shorter and nimbler allow
ances in that respect--which tend
to prove, we take it, that there is a
unconcious sort of connection b.
tween the brain and the legs whic
has much to do with moulding ii
character, though we must confe
that in many instances we migl
name, this inter-dependent thcol
never seems to work farther ths
about the middle Of the body.
We have spoken up to this poi
only Of the influence of legs in
masculine way, and we hesitate