Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-12
THE OMAHA DAILY BEE. SUNDAY. NOVEMBER 1e, 1902

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to make UP real manhood the grandfather
| OF yesterday Let this, too, he emphasized,
but do not let 1t be misunderstood The
world Is moving onward and upward. As
men grow old their mentality reverts and
they appreciate more keenly the triumphs,
the struggles, the achievements of their
younger days. What is good and what is
great in the past comes keenly back to them.
! With Mark Antony they are too willing to
believe that the evil that men do lives after
them while the good is too often Inferred
with their bones.
we Are Advancing Mentally.
"But the stores of useful knowledge which
men are accumulating, the good that they
are doing is not buried with them. Knowl-
| edge may be transferred indefinitely from
party to party; yet no party loses. though
all may gain. But all grant that we are
advancing from the standpoint of mentality.
The critics point to the physical man Of
today and make the claim that he does not
equal the physical man of the past.
zone of the best indications of the
| strength of a race, all things considered,
is the longevity OF its peoples. Recently
| there have been exhumed from the ruins
of Ponpeii a number of actuaries tables.
had worked out carefully the expectation Of
life for the people with whom they did
business. When the italian actuaries tables
were compared with the actuares' tables
OF the insurance companies now doing busi-
mess in the United States, a remarkable
condition was found to obtain at present
1t was discovered that the expectation of
life of the the American citizen exceed by
eleven years the expectation of the ancient
Italian. i
an this connection ii will be of interest
to many to know that the average expecta-
tion of life in the United States exceeds
by two years the average expectation of life
in England. The estimates for England
exceed in turn the estimates for France,
Germany and Italy and the rest of Europe,
taken as whole, by about two years.
Another important factor which must
be considered with the question of the i'm
provement of mankind is that of stature.
1t is fact that the average American of
today is a taller man than the average
founder of this country. The average
Englishman of today is unable to encase
himself in the armor which his forebears
wore on either side at the battle of Hastings.
BY way of comparison it may be remarked
that the American is an inch taller than
the EnSllSuuul, Willie Tue III
turn is an inch taller than the average con-
tnental."
How does the average white man COM
pare with the savage in point of strength"
was asked.
White Men and Savages.
II presume that you have in mind the
Indian and his traditional superiority in
point of strength and endurance?" was the
answer. Now, l have lived long time
among the Indians. If know anybody
/ fancy that it is the red man, and l can
state positively that the white man is his
superior in every way. In the first place
the white man has more of that quality
known as bottom. The white man can lift
more, run further and faster, he can work
more, can more and in the course of
time and practice can beat the Indian at
any of his own games. No, on the face of
the globe the white man has equal. |
Then there is the question of athletic |
records. Never a year rolls round that
numberless new records are not established.
AS a rule the record Of last year is equaled
or excelled this year. We cannot look back
to any old records They all fall far within
those of the present day. Did not the
athletes of the new world in competition
against the Greeks at the Olympian games
at Athens, break all of the records of an
tiquity? ..
II remember that when l was a boy an
athletic feat of the day caused the greatest
excitement. Some champion walker accom-
plshed the task of walking 1000 miles in
1000 consecutive hours. At the time this
was the talk of the country. How many
men do you think there are in this country
today who could accomplish this feat? l
will venture to place the figure between
10000 and 100000.
when Herbert Spencer came to this coun-
try some years since he made the observa-
ton that the American people were run
ming themselves to death. He stated that |
he believed that they would eventually be-
come crazy, so great must the resultant |
nervous strain be from working at the high
American speed.
Our Normal Pace is Swift.
"Mr. Spencer was wrong. He failed to
realize that we were going only at our nor |
NAL pace. l would lay it down as a general
rule that people on the average do what
they are able to do, and that what they |
actually do is the safest and truest meas |
ure of what they can do. In Berlin the