The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-06-18
LITTLE DIG HEROES.
THE PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF
SOME GREAT PERsoNAeEs.

SOME GREAT PERSONAGES.
BY Far the Larger Part of the Men
Who Have Ruled the World, Either
intellectually or With the Sword,
Were Small of Stature.
One of the natural instincts Of men is
that curiosity which all feel regarding
the personal appearance of those per-
sons who have stood mentally high above
their fellows. Whenever we read or hear
of a great man, and especially when we
are familiar with his history, we uneon-
sciously form a picture of his looks and
stature to which the contrast of the
actual man is often very disappointing.
Often we refuse to substitute the strange,
unsatisfying reality for our own fond Gre
alton, especially If the great man is found
to be a small one-the intellectual giant
a physical dwarf AS a rule we overes-
innate the height and bulk of our heroes
and endow them, if attractive, with SUI
-perhuman beauty or, if hateful, with
ugly and repulsive looks. 1t was this
feeling which made the people at Var
mouth, England, when Nelson, delicate
in body and insignificant in appearance,
was passing over the quay to take COM
mand of his first ship, exclaim, why
make that little fellow captain?'
During Napoleon's first campaign in
Italy, in 1896, the Italians were greatly
surprised at his personal appearance
His short stature, his pale face, the sick
" thinness of his frail body, which seem
ed consumed by the fires of his genius,
but was in reality made of muscles of
steel, seized the imagination of the peo-
pie by the contrast they presented to his
dazzling feats of arms. 1t was novel
and startling experience to find that di-
rect and penetrating glance, that abrupt,
imperous gesture, that laconic speech and
peremptory and absolute tone-all which
bespoke the man born to command-asso-
ciated with such a dwarfish and attenu-
ated frame.
1t is a singular fact that while nothing
would seem to be easier than to ascertain
the exact size of great men yet it is real
ly difficult and often impossible to do So
How long did "the grand monarch,
Louis XIV, pass for a large man, being
described as such by courtiers and histo-
rians! Yet the measurement of his skele
ton some years after his death revealed
that he was under the average size. Napo-
leon Ill, while on the throne, was de-
picted as majestic in figure. We now
know that he was very short, little more
than five feet high.
Indeed, far the larger part of the men
who have ruled the world either intellec-
tually or with the sword have been men
of small stature. Aristotle, the Greek
philosopher who for 1000 years main
tanned despotic sway over the world of
thought, was slender man with spindle
shanks, small eyes and shrill, stammer
ing speech. In the great council of Nice,
consisting of 1000 delegates, the most
potent spirit, who, after long and fierce
disputes carried the council with him,
was Athanasius, a man of very small
stature, "a dwarf rather than man,
says Dean Stanley, "but of almost an
gelic beauty of face and expression" In
his little body dwelt a mighty soul. Com
bining subtlety of thought and power of
eloquence with resoluteness of will, inten
sity of conviction and intrepidity of spir
it, he fought single handed and for half
century the great battle of orthodoxy
having ''no friend but God and death"
and today the creed of Athanasius is sub
stantially the creed of Christendom.
Gregory VII, the mightiest and haugh-
test of the Roman pontiffs, who de-
throned sovereigns at his will, was
diminutive man, and so were Canute the
Great and the great Conde Voltaire. the
literary autocrat of the eighteenth cen
fury and the most brilliant wit of the
ages, was one of the thinnest and most
spectral of human beings. Two of the
most potent spirits that directed the storm
Of the French revolution, Robespierre and
Marat, were far below the average stat
ure. The former, an incarnation of will,
1 who by the sheer force of his intellect
swayed the multitude and the national
assembly at his pleasure, was but FIVE
feet two or three inches high, and the lat
ter was less than FIVE feet. Many of the
most eminent Frenchmen of the nine
tenth century-La Place, Poisson, Fou
rier Theirs, Guizot-were small, spare.
spiritualized beings, who could distinctly
feel their own ribs.
Montaigne, the father Of essayists; DR..
Watts, the hymnist; the sickly Scarron,
who, in reference to his i'll health and in
significant stature, called himself IAN
abridgment of human miseries;" Alex
ander Pope, who wore three pairs of
stockings to plump out his legs to a de-
cent size and also wore stays; Campbell,
the author of "Hohenlinden," "a pretty,
little delicate, ladylike, fnical gentle
man." Thomas De Quincy, the "opum
eater" were all dwarfish men.
Suwarrow, the greatest of Russian gen
erals; Frederick the Great, David Gar
rick, the wonderful actor, and Alexander
Hamilton, whom Talleyrand pronounced
one of the three greatest men he had ever
known, were slender and below the mid
die height. The brave General Marion
twas in stature of the smallest size, thin
as well as low" and Dr. Kane, who sur
passed all his arctic companions in BRAY
ing torrid heat and polar cold, was but
FIVE feet six in height and weighed at his
best but 1876 pounds.
But more dwarfish than any of these
ghostly beings was that phenomenon of
the eighteenth century, the Able Gallant
of Naples. Personally" says Marmon-
tel, ''the abbe-who was but four feet and |
six inches in stature-was the prettiest
little harlequin that Italy ever produced
but upon the shoulders of that harlequin
was the head of a Machiavelli." Refer
ring to the frequent and sudden alterna-
tons in his conversation, of great, lofty |
sublime thoughts, which, Sainte Beuve
says, were worthy of Vico, if not of /
Plato, with pleasantries. jests and buff |
fooneries the able said of himself. you
see that l am two different men kneaded
together, who, nevertheless, do not en-
tirely occupy the room of one. William
Mathews in Saturday Evening Post.
Stale Bread Economy.
I'll - H.