St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-01-18
GIANTS IN OUR DAYS.
Great Men Of This Age Excel in
Wisdom and Goodness.
rhoae who Attained Fame ard Em-
Anence In the Remote Past Not
Up to Latter-Day Re-
Quirements.
rsnec,a, washington Letter.


the past, and listen to
their quotation of the saying:
There were giants in those days, 1t
almost makes me lose my temper"
says Senator Stewart, of Nevada,
ssThere never was time when
there were greater giants physically
and mentally than there have been
during the recent years and centur-
ies," he continued. "We have the
skull measurements of some OF the
greatest men who lived in those good
old days and they are no larger or
better proportional than the skulls
of the men of our generation. The
Pharaohs were great rulers, and the
worthy workers in scientific inves-
LEGATION have only been able to por-
tray to us small portion OF their
glory. We have invaded the tombs
of the Pharaohs and we know their
physical stature, as also their brain
capacities. They were greater than
the chosen of Israel; greater than
their greatest. Yet the men OF to-
day are bigger than some of them,
and have brain capacity better than
most of them"
This was in casual conversation,
but it was SO interesting that the sem
ator was requested to give to the
writer more elaborate expression OF
the views which were manifestly the
result of years of observation and
careful deiberation. The dear old
statesman is one of the most genial
and kindly men in public life, and al
ways not only willing but anxious to
aid the newsgatherers of this capital
city. He said: II am always willing
to answer the questions of you fell
lows who do so much to injure public
men by your carelessness; but who
do more than all others to help public
men and help the great republic by
endeavoring to do the right thing. !
have been in public life ever since Me-
vada was admitted to the union, in
1863, and am under great obligations
to the good fellows in the newspaper
profession who have kept me before
the people.
''This subject of the great men OF
recent years and recent centuries, a.
compared with the men who attained
prominence in the affairs OF the
world in the historic past, and in the
prehistoric past, has occupied my
thoughts often, and I have sometimes
spoken my views publicly. I believe
that the men of the world are pros
crossing all of the time; land, OF
course, do not exclude the women.
''The world is always interested in
its greatest butchers, whom the peo-
pie call soldiers. Rameses, Sennache-
rib, Darius, LeonidaA Caesar, Antony,
Pompey, Alexander and all Of the
conquerors of all the ages, were but
pigmies as compared with Napoleon,
who belonged to the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. The science OF
war was born in that man, because
he was an instrument in the hands OF
the invisible powers which are devel-
oping this world. Waterloo was fore
ordained to be his last battle, be.
cause he had done the work allotted
to him in changing the face of civil
ization. Not one of the giants OF
those other days could be compared
with him; they might rather be con
trasted with him.
"The poets of all the ages were
dwarfed by Shakespeare; the his.
torians were but little fellows when
compared with Macaulay, Prescott o.
Bancroft. In the arts and sciences
the men of the remote past were no
bodies when compared with Calico
Copernicus, Newton, Franklin ane
Agassiz. There was never such nav
igator as Columbus, and he belongs
to our age of the world. The golden
age of thought began with the fit
teenth century when the compass