Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-03-20
EYESIGHT OF SAVAGES.
NO DOUBT THAT 1T is SUPERIOR TO
THAT OF CIVILIZED MEN.

That men who can see well will
learn to shoot better than men who do
not see well is a fact so patent that
we do not wonder Sir Redvers Bull
ler's remark about the superior eye
sight of the Beers attracted public at
tention. He thinks, it is said, that the
Boer has the "eyesight of a savage"
ard sees two miles further than the
Englishman, and of course that fact,
If it is proved. furnishes sufficient ex-
planation of many British mishaps in
the South African campaign, and ac-
counts for losses of life which might
otherwise be attributed to a reckless
disregard of necessary precautions.
But we do not quite understand the
deduction so generally drawn from Sir
ledvers' statement that savage eye
sight is naturally better than the eye.
sight of civilized men. Why should
1t be better? There is no difference
of structure in the eyeball and the
! difference in health is rather in favor
of the civilized man. The latter no
doubt very often loses something of
the keenness of his sight from much
reading and the use of artificial light,
but Tommy Atkins is no philosopher,
reads little more than the savage, and
burns no midnight oil.
The truth is the Boer, like the saw
age, habitually trains his eye, as the
sailor does, to look into the far dis
tance, and acquires from that train
ing, and the habit of close attention to
all signs of movement on the part of
his quarry, a power of quick percep-
/ tion which seems to those without it
almost miraculous. He sees game or
an enemy minutes before Tommy can,
| just as the sailor sees a sail or a
| smoke minutes before landsman
can, but there is no difference of ori-
ginal or natural powers. Tommy
! could be trained. if we took sufficient
! trouble to train him and allowed suffi-
cient time, just as well as the Boer
and very often is trained when he is a
gamekeeper or in any other way de-
pendent upon the acuteness of his
sight Let any one who doubts this
| just take walk with an ornitholo-
gist, and remark what the latter sees,
and at what distance, when compared
with himself.
The matter is of some interest, not
only because the private soldier has to
be taught to shoot as well as any enc
my, but because it bears upon the
very large question whether civiliza-
tion necessarily diminishes the ply
sical powers of the average human be-
ing. If it does, that is a great draw
back to civilization. because 1t pre-
cludes the hope of man ever develop
Ing a kind of aristocracy with the
powers of both body and mind in
creased to a point far beyond present
experience. That is the dream. the
rather lofty dream as it seems to US,
Of the dons who foster athletics as
well as reading in their pupils; but if
the reading spoils physical as much
as it develops mental power, that is
dream impossible of realization.
But does study necessarily have the
effect Of spelling sinews? That it
does so is very natural idea, because
the savage seems so much more agile,
and is. besides. trained by his mode of
life, which the civilized man is not;
but we do not know that there is any
solid evidence for the notion.
The "big, black, bounding beggar,"
as Rudyard Kiplng called him, can
outrun the citizen, or outwaIk him in
long march. or throw him in a wres-
tie for life, but the trained runner will
outstrip the savage, the gamekeeper
will walk with him till he drops from
| fatigue, and the Cumberland wrestler
will like nothing better than to throw
him over his head. The whole differ
ence is that the savage is always. from
the habits of his life, in condition
which the citizen only reaches after
weeks of careful training have re-
stored him to the full exercise of his
natural powers. Just give a savage
who has never been accustomed to
carry weight, say red Indian of the
North American forest, the weight to
carry under which the British soldier
habitually marches, and see which of
them will give out first, though the
savage has even then the advantage of
having walked every day to his full
power all his life. If it were not so,
man as an animal would differ from all
other animals, for it is notorious that
no wild horse can keep pace with a
racer and no wild dog can escape q
hound. The Kanaka it rs true, of tho
South Seas, can usually swim much
farther than any civilized man, bu
then what civilized man passes half
his life in swimming in water just
warm enough to give his lungs fair
play?
There is, we admit, one faculty in
which the savage appears hopelessly
to distance his rival. He retains, or
appears to RETAIN the superior sense
of smell, which belongs to so many
animals, or perhaps, in different de-
grees, to all, detecting, for example.
the odor of water or of land from a