The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-12

they did business. When the Italian act
uaries' tables were compared with he
actuaries tables OF the Insurance com2a-
MES now doing business in the United
States "A remarkable condition was found
to obtain az present. II was discovered
that the expectation OF life Of the AmeH-
can citizens exceed By eleven years the ex-
pectatlOu of the ancient Italian.
We Americans Are Long-Lived.
I'm this connection 1t will be Of interest
TO many TO know that the average eXpec-
tation of life in the United States exceeds
by two years the average expectation u
life in England. The estimates for Eng
land exceed in turn the estimates Tor
France. Germany and Italy and the rest
Of Europe, taken as a whole, by about two
years.
Another important factor which must
be considered with the question of the
Improvement of mankind is that Of stat
ure. 1t is a fact that the average Amer
lean Of to-day is a taller man than The
average founder of this country. The ay-
erage Englisnman of to-day is unable 10
encase himself in the armor which his
forebears wore on either side at The battle
of Hastings. BY way OF comparison fl
may be remarked that the American is
an inch tiller than the Englishman, while
the Englishman in turn is an inch taller
than the average Continental
How does the average white man COM
he was asked.
White Men ard SaVoEes.
Il 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 a long
time among the Indians. If l know any
body / fancy that it is the red man, and
] can state positively that the white man
IS his superior in every way. In the first
MI al VHfhf hoe r,f hot
quality known as bottom. The white man
can lift more, run further and faster, he
can work more, can see more ana 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
no equal.
Then there is the question of athletic
records. Never a year rolls round that
numberless new records are not establish
ed As a rule the record of last year is
equaled OF 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 antiquity?
Il remember that when l was a boy an
athletic feat of the day caused the great
est excitement Some champion walker ac-
complished the TASK of walking one thou
hours. AT the time this was he talk of the
country How many men do you think
there are in this country to-day who could
accomplish this feat? | VIII venture 10
place the figure between ten thousand and
a hundred thousand
when Herbert Spencer came to this
country some years since ne made the OBJ
SerVatiOn that the American people were
running themselves to death. He stated
that he believed that they would event
ually become crazy. so great must the re-
suftant 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
normal pace. / 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
tTuest measure of what they can do In
Berlin the average man walks al the rate
of two and a half miles per hour; in Lon
don, three, in New York, three and a
quarter, and in Chicago. San Francisco
and Denver the latter pace is exceeded
But Mr. Spencer would have found if he
had taken the trouble to investigate, that
the average length of life in America ex-
ceeds the average in England and that
one proport on of our population that is
confined within asylums for the insane is
considerably less than in either England
France or Germany.
In this connection I will say that I be-
lieve that the greater amount of labor
that the American Is able to stand is due
in considerable part to a single cause. The