The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-26
BRAIN VS.. Drawn.

The prizefighter as hero Is back num-
Der except among the savages of civiliza-
ton, whose estimate of hero was shad-
owed forth in the childish ignorance that
asks "How big was Alexander, pa; and
why do people call him great?" Nobody
ever saw prizefghter of the Sullivan class
but he sighed that nature in the lavish
generosity of her seemingly careless hand
should have cast her fine pearls, in the
shape of extraordinary strength, agility,
endurance, nerve, stamina and exceptional
recuperative powers upon the neck OF
these human swine.
Few Of the great soldiers. statesmen.
philosophers or poets of either ancient or
modern times were of heroic port and
stature. or possessed little of the magnifi-
cent physical equipment of the average all
around good athlete in America. OF the
great soldiers of antiquity Marius alone
was of splendid strength and stature. OF
the great modern commanders Marshal
SAKE and Peter the Great were of gigantic
stature and muscular development. Marl-
borough, Gustavus Adolphus and Charles
the Twelfth were tall, handsome men, but
Bayard, William the Third, Luxembourg.
Napoleon, Wellington, Frederick the
Great, Maurice of Nassau, Alexander Far
nese, Condo, Prince Eugene, Suwarrow,
Turenne, Give, Nelson, Cromwell, Grant,
Sheridan, Moltke, were none of them big
men, and nearly all of them were of short
stature and inconspicuous for muscular
strength or superior bodily development.
None of Napoleon's heroic generals was
cast in the heroic mould save Kleber.
Washington was tall and muscular, but
had a weak voice and weak lungs.
Among men of literary genius to Goethe
alone was given the heroic mould. The
tact that the men of genius of both ancient
and modern times have seldom been of
superior physical strength and stature
would perhaps justify the conclusion that
when men are exceptionally developed in
muscle, Drawn, sinew and stature, nature
seems to nod when she frames their
minds. Ajax and Achilles are great
hulking brutes and DULLES in the ''Iliad."
Thersites calls Achilles "Thou full dish of
fool" and styles Ajax "a scurvvy valiant
ass, who wears his wit in his belly, his
belly in his head" describes him as be-
longing to "the faction of FOOLS" as one
whose horse will sooner con an grafton
than thou learn aprayer without book"
and as bought and sold among those of
any wit like barbarian slave"
This is exactly the type of John Law
renee Sullivan, who is 80 dull and stupid
that when he staggered across the the
atric stage for the first time in dramatic
character, and exclaimed: "Let me
thinkl" all the young gods of the gallery
broke into roar of laughter; the associa-
ton of thinking brain with Sullivan
seemed SO absurd. Richard Lion Heart is
another illustration of the hero whose de-
velopment of Drawn vastly exceeded his
brains. He was triumphant in the tour
nament or single combat, but the delicate
ly-built Saladin was his master as a gem
eral and Philip Augustus always out
witted him in statecraft.
The modern statesmen, Peel, Burke,
Fox, Pitt, Gladstone, Macaulay, Theirs,
Disraeli, were not conspicuous for COM
handing bodily development, nor, with
the exception of Tennyson, have the lit
erary class been of notably large and gen.
erous mould, either in England or Am
erica.
Science says that where large
amount of energy is devoted to
one function less remains for expen-
diture in performing another. Men
Of excessive mental energy and power are,
as a rule, not conspicuous for superior ath-
letic power, and vice versa, men of con-
spicuous physical development, stature,
bone and general muscular power are not
conspicuous for excessive mental energy,
vivacity, virility, endurance, quickness
and strength. At all events, very few men
eminent in history for pure intellectual
strength and force have been of corpulen
habit, and very few have been of superior
physical development, athletic power and
endurance. Perhaps the excessive and
premature mental activity and labor that
is exhibited by superior men erodes,
emaciates, or stunts the body which is the
affecting early the powers of digestion; the
ability to sleep at will profoundly, so that
the vegetative powers of the BODY are
weakened and contracted by the abnormal
development of the mind, and vice versa
the exceptional development of flesh, bone.
muscle, and blood creates a languor of
body that is favorable to mental Incidence.
indisposition to think hard and reason
with closeness and profundity.
At all events the bodily tenement of
men of superior brightness and power of
brain in the worlds history has not been
as a rule tall. well-proportioned and
stately edifice; and on the other hand
men of conspicuous beauty, strength and
fine stature have not as a rule been kings
of men save in appearance. Alexander
puts his brains in motion and the giant
Indian king, Porus, is easily crushed and
made captive. That answers the question
of the boy as to how big Alexander was
and why people called him great. He
was great not because of his Drawn. of
which he had little, but because of his
brains, of which he had a vast deal.
As long ago as Alexander, Drawn had
ceased TO be king over Brains, and had be-
come back number, and the modern APO
theosis of the prize ring and its champions is
stupid effort to make much of barbaric
type of humanity that has been a back
number ever since little Alexander proved
that the battles worth winning in this
world were won by beating your enemy
with hrnir,a nf hrr h,,. l.