Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-01-05
"GIANTS" OF OLD TIMES.
Modern Men Taller and Broader THAI
the Ancients.


the Ancients.
From lie Figaro.
According to the popular opinion we men
of the present time are singuarly degen-
Grated and are nothing more than diminu-
tives and reductions of the men of me-
diaeval times.
1t is said that the warriors of that
period were giants, clad in iron and that
their muscles were of steel. That is what
the legend says, and what nearly every
body repeats We might confine ourselves to
an invocation to logic in this case. In me-
diaeval times hygiene was deplorable. The
barons ate too much and the peasants did
not eat enough. Gymnastics were neglect
ed and bathing was little known. The
populations were crowded in towns and
villages. The castles We're practically bar
racks and the cottages huts. There was
a need of pure air everywhere. From this
manner of living there resulted, neces-
sarly, deplorable generations
Our learned psychologists, after having
measured hundreds of skeletons testify
that the men of our times are from one to
two centimeters taller than the men of the
middle ages. But the bones of our an
cestors are not the only testimony left
by them in regard to their stature. We
also possess their war garments. We have
measured several of them, and it turns
out that we appear not only to have grown
ufactured, but our shoulders could never
fit into the steel corSets of so-called
athletic forefathers.
Moreover, this proof has been made on
more than one occasion. The Conlte de
Nieuw erkerke, the superintendent of the
museums under the second empire, wish
ing to put on the armor of Francis I, the
largest of all in the Museum of Artillery,
was obliged to give it Up. 1t was too little
for him. And, nevertheless, the coInte,
although fine man, was in no sense a
giant.
And here is another example At So
leure in Switzerland recently, on the oc-
casion of a gymnastic tournament, the
young men, wishing to close the festivities
by procession with historical costumes,
asked the authorities Or permission to
borrow the arms and armor of the arsenal,
which possessed a remarkable collection
of them. and the permission was granted.
But it Is evident that their ancestors. peo-
pie OF little foresight, never thought, of
their grandchildren, and these grandchil-
dren were unable to put on the armor. 1t
was too small for them.
And now let us see what Machiavelli says
of the Swiss, for the latter also according
to the legend. passed for giants among
the giants, and. if We We're to take the
testimony of the pictures, their stature
the valor of the Swiss troops who fought
in Italy in his time, the Italian adds:
They were all little men, dirty and ugly"
History may, perhaps. be right in de-
claring that the LATHE of Marignan was a
combat of giants, but the combatants were
not gigantic. So much for the stature Of
our ancestors.
Now, as to their strength, we have no
other proof beyond the weight of the equip
ment of the men-at-arms. What enor-
nous strength they must have possessed to
be able to move about loaded with metalv'
So say the inn ocent bourgeois, who on
Sundays, walk through the halls of the
Hotel des Invaiides. "Our soldiers of the
present time would faint under such fear
full BURDENS
Now, in the first place, the harness Of
the knights was very much lighter than 1t
was supposed to have been. According to
one of the catalogues OF the Museum of
Artillery the weight of the complete armor
did not. as a rule, exceed fifty pounds, and,
irasmuch as those who wore it were horse
men, it was the horse that had to bear the
greatest part of the fatigue.
But why has this legend become SO thor
oughly rooted in the mind of the public?
We might content ourselves with the sim
pie reply, because it is a legend. The
brain Of the public is marvelously pre-
pared for the reception Of error, and the
crowd advances toward an absurdity just
as a duck goes to pond But it must be
said that humanity, contrary to the laws
of optics, has tendency to enlarge every
thing that is far Off and to belittle that
which is close by. Instinctively, we are
disposed to lift our ancestors upon the
backs of our contemporaries. Even Homer,
speaking of the athletic games which took
place after the death of Patroclus, refers
to the strength of the ancients, and Adam
is probably the only man who has not
boastee of his ancestors
But let us conclude by saying that IL
our gredtgrandfathers were to come back
to this world again, and, by reason Of the
military laws were obliged to pass be-
fore the council of revision, many among
them would be rejected on account of their
small stature. And then If, on leaving
the council, they should enter any gym
nasium, they would in all probability be
unable to handle the dumb bells that we
put up with ease.