The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-07-05
FAMOUS WEEPERS IN HISTORY
Andrew Lang Discusses Tears as an
Expression of Feeling by
Crest Men CT pnst.

The heroes of Homer, great, strap
ping fellows, weep on the slightest
opportunity. Menelaus cries when he
is wounded-not badly. Mr.. Kipling,
| think, writes Andrew Lang, in Lon
Ion Post, is my authority for saying
chat everyone cries when he is shot
in the hand. The foot seems less apt
when injured to cause tears. l late
~ met young gentleman who, after
adequately bayoneting @ Boer, was
himself shot in the foot. But, from
his description of the sensation, it
was as if somebody had thrown Il
stone at him, and he did not weep.
AT any emotion Homer's men cry,
without any of our false modesty.
In one place q hero is described by
the great poet as weeping like a wa
terfall," which to us northern people
seems rather absurd. The heroes of
the old French epic, "The Song of
Roland" cry; the whole army, with
out exception, blubber when they
think of sweet France during a penin-
sular campaign. On the other hand
] do not remember a single instance
in which the tough warriors of the
Morse sagas weep. Our early Nor
man kings. hard-bitten men, rolled
on the floor and gnawed at straws
instead of crying, and they also
swore terribly, especially at William
Rufus.
Now, if you come to think of it,
the Romans, and still more the
tically ignorant of profane swearing.
Homer never tells us that ''our men
swore terribly in" Troia. They
would curse, / admit, but to curse
was rather an elaborate affair (usual-
ly resorted to by injured mothers),
not mere explosion of irritation.
No Homeric hero, however angry, ex-
claims, you go to Tartarus." They
had not even word for our brief
popular expression of hostile interest
in the future life of an irritating per-
son. Fielding makes the village boys
say to Phaethon, the son of the sun:
"You, the suns son, you rasca1-you
be d-d!"
But here the learned author of
tom Jones" permits himself to en-
Joy an anachronism. The inference
from these considerations is that the
early Greek warriors cried so much
because they did not know how to
swear, practice far more military
and manly. Swift tells us that when
all London expected the last day the
officers of her majesty, Queen Anne,
swore even more than common, lest
their men should think that any oc-
casion however serious, could daunt
gentleman who wore the queens
uniform. The intention, by itself, was
excellent, but Achilles and Agamem-
non would have sat down and cried,
thing detrimental to discipline.
The next best weepers known to
history are the philosophers of the
eighteenth century. Their great idea
was to return to state of nature.
which was presently done in the saw
age ferocities of the glorious revolu-
ton. But before blood was shed in
rivers the philosophers returned to
q vi ny liNC " uN
terfalls. Rousseau, especially, out
did Job Trotter. Mr.. Jingle's servant
in ''Pickwick," gentleman whom
this lackey genius greatly rescm-
bled.
Rousseau tells US that he used to
walk along the road weeping when
he thought what fine old fellow
the earl marischal was. Even Again.
emnon would not have cried at the
reflection that Nestor was fine old
fellow. On the Scottish shoulder and
velvet coat, adorned with yellow butt
terfiies. of Mr.. David Hume did Jean
Jacques also shed the tears of sensi=
bility, greatly disconcerting Mr..
Hume. A daisy, pretty girl, ga bird
in the branches, a flower by the
way" were enough to set the lachry-
matory glands of the philosopher at
work. ''He went out on the main
and did the briny.n The practice be-
came fashionable, as the novels of |
the period show, if we can trust the |
novels of the period