The Portland daily press., 1895-01-12
GIANTS" OF OLD TIMES.
ifsdssrtha Ri MEN Taller and Broader Than fils
Ancients-Bones and. Old Armor. show
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| F11p ,' If f5a '.lis
This. ssza
| ;, According to the papnlar opinio1 We men
of the present time are, singulaTly degener-
| atsd and are nothing more than diminu-
tives and reductions.of The men of m ediae-
val times.
1t is said that the warriors 'of that period
were giants, clad in iron, and that their
muscles werenof stael.Q That is what the
| Iasende says. and what, nearly everybody
repeats. We might Gqntine ourselves to an
| invocation to logic in this case. In mediae-
val 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 pop
ulations were crowded in towns and vii
lagos. Tho castles were, practically
| barracks and the cottages huts. There was
need of pure air everywhere. From this
manner of living there resulted, necassari-
ly, deplorable generations.
Our learned Fhysio1eg lists, after having
measured hundreds of skeletons, testify
that the men of our times are from one to
two centmeters taller than the men of the
middle ages. says writer in ne Firago, of
Paris. But the bones of our ancestors are
:.
not the only testim8hy 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 taller ssince
the time when they hwere manufactured.
but our shoulders coula never fit into the
steel corsets OF our so called athletic fore
fathers.
Moreover, this proof has been made --en
more than one occasion The Comfe de
Nieuwerkerks.9ts the 1snpsIintandent OF the
museums Ind ar j. elsacnnd empire wishing
to put the armor OF frsneis 1.-the largest
of all in the Museum of~Aftillery, was
obliged to give 1t up Ii was too little 1of
him. And nevertheless the comte, although
fine man, was in NO sense giant.
And here is another example. At Soleure-
in Switzerland, recently, on he occasisn of
a gyanastic tourn2msnt, the young men,
\. q Gloss tha fsstiviti.s nv ,,tosesi.
sion With historical costumes. asked TIC
authorities for permission TO borrow The
aims and armor of the arsenal, which .pos-
the permission was granted. But it is evil
dart tn.t tbair arca,,ors naor1. of lit1a
1t-...n. .rS.t,. = p 3. -,
foresight. never tnoug NJ OF their grandchii-
dren, and these grandchildren were unable
IN nut IN the armor- II was too small for
~ pu' Va 'n0 a. o'' - Teea wv si'"'t i't
them.
And now let us see what Maehiavelli says
of the Sw;ss for the ,attar also .ccoydinp
- ~ 1. ".s uassad eon a,.a also ths
giants, and, If we were to take the testi-
mony of the pictures, their stature was
hereulean. After having celebrated the
valor of tho Swiss troops who fought In Italy
i, h;s time tho italian adds. .HThav were
~ n 1,s., ..ns, ~" 49,, n "a " '1. " VIZ"
all little men. dirty ana ugly.
inc that the battle of Maigan was a combat o.
giants, but the comhatants were not eigan-
tic. SO much for the statue of our ances-
80
'ols ,h.;r .,...u., hon. ~
so"' as ~ tnen ns.n' We now NV
ment of the msn-at-arms. 'whst enormous
strength they must have possessed to be able
to move about loaded with meta1!' SO say
the innocent BOURGEOIS who, on SUNDAYS,
Inyalides- EOur soldiers of the present