The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1900-10-06
WISE ONES CROSSES.
THE GREAT OF .EARrH HAD TO
BEAR THEM.


worlds great men2it seems as IL the
majority had some mental or physical
in11rmity which wrung their brows in
agony beneath their crown Of bays.
Homer Is said to have been blind,
though 1t Is probable that his blind
ness was an affection Of his later years,
else how could he have written Of the
"wine-dark sea" and the "rosy-fn-
gered dawn?" Demosthenes, as every
schoolboy knows, suffered and over
came his defect by making speeches
with pebbles in his mouth to the
waves breaking on the Grecian shores.
Milton was q martyr to govt, and it
was his equity constitution, combined
with his Unsuitable thirst for work,
that finally brought on his, blindness.
Before he was forty he had lost the
sight Of one eye by the deposit OF
equity crystals around the optic nerve.
Though warned that arduous work
meant total blindness he undertook to
write q reply to Claude de saumaise's
book on The Divine Right OF Kings"
and as he wrote impenetrable darkness
slowly closed over him. It was not un-
til after he was wholly blind that he
gave to the world Paradise Lost"
Pope was . hunchback with a wasp
ish temper, and al made constantly
miserable by Q realizing sense Of his
maltormations. His deformtty once
wa made the occasion Of a brutal Jest
BY Q soldier whose senstbilities Pope's
venomous tongue had pierced to the
quick. One evening at a tavern which
he frequented the poet was discussing
with some friends what was likely to
be the proper punctuation OF q passage
in the Had which he wa then trans
lating. There was much diversity Of
opinion, and a soldier in the room sug-
gested that perhaps an interrogation
mark had been omitted. Pope angrily
asked what he knew about i%nterroga-
ton marks. "a mark Of i%nterroga-
tion." calmly replied the soldier, "is a
crooked little thing that asks impu-
dent questions"
Dr.. johnson. the dictionary man,
suffered greatly from scrofula, then
called kings evil'-a disease Of which
1t was believed the "kynges Of Eng
land. by the power which God hath
gwen to them. doth make the sickle
man WHOLE" Accordingly johnson
was touched" by Queen Ann, but was
not cured. the salic law evidently in
~terfering with the operation Of the
hearing power. In addition to being
eaten with scrofula. DR.. Johnson was
alnicted with hypochondria. which al
most, amounted to insanity. He lived.
In constant dread Of going crazy, and
.even IN his deathbed translated his
prayers into Latin to prove to himself
that he had not lost his mental facul-
ties.
The poet Cowper did all his best
work In the intervals between its OF
the deepest religious m~elancholia. Mary
Lamb went insane. Byron. otherwise
O. beautiful as 4 Greek god. had . club
loot. Who that once has read can
forget Macauley's antithetical desrip-
ton Of Byron? HE had a head that
sculptors loved to copy. and . foot
the deformity Of which the beggers In
the sstreet mimicked." Sir Walter Scott
was lame. One leg was slightly short
er than the. other and one Of his feet
was distorted. Carlyle was q chronic
dyspepttc,. and Charles Kingsley slut
tered. Robert Louis Stevenson did his
best work after the Edinburgh doctors
had told him he had only half q lung
left" Mahomet, Julius Caesar and
Napoleon were %epileptics. Nelson had
two acquired detormities. He lost one
ere and his left arm In battle. When
lii arm was amputated one OF the
nerves unwitttngly was bound up In
the ligature applied to one q the ar
teries, and9as q result the gallant ad-
miral suffered much pain for several
ysass. The German emperor has an
imperfect development OF his left arm.
10 President Kruger 10 said to be g
SUFFERER from Bright's disease. Louis
Pasteur was afnicted with partial par
alysts. ,s
U..sssS1laysd Roor Cricket. I
An amusing illuatration IS the groswW-
ine demand Tor sfhlettc clergyman wa
rssentiys given ~ country scsrats,
who recaivsd notice TO quit because.
tkouxh un4xceptionable IN other re-
spacts. hissyiaar$declarad that what
this parishreallySneeds Is good last
hoWln.wfghSa shrealk from the Gin Y
SdoubtStl ie worthy vicar perceiyeds'tn 4
H. y,illsges could possibly reject ths