Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1901-03-20
ETESIGHT OF SAVAGES.
No DOUBT THAT 1T is SUPERIOR TO
THAT OF CIVILIZED MEN.

not see we'll 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"
and sees two miles further than the
Engllshman, and of course that fact,
il it is proved. furnishes sufficient ex-
PLANTATION of many British mishaps in
the South African campaign, and &C.
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
Redvers' statement that savage eye
sight is naturally better than the eye.
sight of civilized men. Why should
it be better? There is no difference
Of structure in the eyebal]. 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 .3e 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 say
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-
ton which seems to those without it
almost miraculous. He sees game or
an enemy minutes before Tommy can,
just as the sailor sees 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 suff1-
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 a 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 we'll as any enc
my, but because it bears upon the
very large question whether civiliza-
ton necessarily diminishes the ply
sical powers of the average human be-
ing. If it does, that is great draw
back to civilization. because it pre-
cludes the hope of man ever develop
ing kind of aristocracy with the
powers of both body and mind in
creased to 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
we'll as reading in their pupils; but If
the reading spoils physical as much
as it develops mental power, that is
a dream impossible Of realization.
But does study necessarily have the
effect of spelling sinews? That it
does so is a 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.
-" big, black, bounding beggar," "
as Rudyard Kipling called him, can
outrun the citizen, or outwalk him in
a long march, or throw him in 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 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 a
hound. The Kanaka, it is true, of the
South Seas, can usually swim much
farther than any civilized man, but
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
great distance; but then smell is the
one sense which the civilized man, it
may be from an instinct of self-de-
fence, never cultivates at all, but per-
mits to die unused. 1t is Of course
possible that in a clear, dry air like
that of South Africa the eye acquires
a certain keenness which is wanting
to the eye used for generations to a
humid atmosphere; but that. if it oc-
ours, is not due to any defect imposed
by the conditions of civilization. 1t is
more like the extra thickness of skull
which enables the negro to resist the
direct rays of an African sun without
discomposure or brain disease.
The truth is, we believe, that civil
lied man when cultivated up to cer-
tain point acquires latent spite