The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-01-30
WARRIORS OF OLDEN TIMES.
Small Potatoes Alongside the stall
wart Men of These LaterNDays.

From the Paris Figaro.
According to the popular opinion we
men of the present time are singularly de-
generated and are nothing more than
diminutives and reductions of the men OF
medieval times. It is said that the war
riors Of that perioa were giants, clad
in iron, and that their muscles We're Of
steel. That is what the legend says. and
what nearly everybody repeats. We might
confne ourselves TO an invocation to logic
in this case. In medieval times hygiene
was deplorable. The barons are too
much and the peasants did not eat enough.
Gymnastics were neglected and bathing
was little known, The populations were
crowded into towns and villages. The
castles were practically barracks and the
cottages huts. There was a need of pure
air everywhere. From this manner of
living there resulted, necessarily, deplor-
able 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
of the middle ages. But the bones of our
ancestors are 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 hove grown
taller since the time when they were
manufactured, but our shoulders could
never fit into the steel corsets OF our
so-called athletic forefathers. Moreover
this proof has been made on more than
one occasion. The Comte de Nieuwer-
kerke, the superintendent of the museums
under the second empire wishing to put
3 e
all in the Museum of Artillery. was obliged
to give it up. 1t was too little for him.
And; nevertheless, the comte, although a
fine man, was In no sense a giant. And
here is another example. At Soleure,
in Switzerland, recently, on the occasion
of gymnastie tournament, the young
men, wishing to close the festivities by
a procession with historical costumes.
asked the authorities for permission to
borrow the arms and armor of the arsenal
which possessed a remarkable collection
of them, and the permission was granted.
But il was evident that their ancestors,
people Of little foresight, never thought of
their grandchildren, and these grandchn-
dren were unable to put on the armor. 1t
was too small for them.
And now let us see what Machivalli
says of the Swiss, for the latter, also ac-
cording to the legend, passed for giants
among the giants, and if we were to take
the testimony VI the PICTURES their stature
was herculean. After having celebrated
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 declar-
ing that the battle of Marignan was COM
bat 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 equipment of the men
of-arms. What enormous strength they
must have possessed to be able to move
about loaded with metal!' SO say the in
nocent bourgeois, who, on Sundays walk
through the halls of the Hotel des In
valides. "Our soldiers of the present time
would faint under such fearful burdens"
Now in the first place the harness of the
knights was very much lighter than IL
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 rule, exceed fifty pounds,
and, inasmuch as those who wore it were
horsemen, it was the horse that had to
bear the greatest part of the fatigue.
But why has this legend become so
thoroughly rooted in the mind of the pub
lie? We might content ourselves with
the simple reply, because it is a legend.
The brain of the public is marvelously
prepared for the reception of error, and
the crowd advances toward an absurdity
just as a duck goes to a pond. But 1t must
be said that humanity, contrary to the
laws of optics, has a tendency to enlarge
everything 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 Patro-
clus, refers to the strength of the an
clients, and Adam is probably the only man
nh n nc of hoa CT aT IF lie
But let us conclude by saying that if
our grandfathers were to come back to
this world again, and, by reason of the
military laws, were obliged to pass before
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 gymnasium
they would in all probability be unable to
handle the dumbbells that we put up with
ease.