Wallowa chieftain. [volume] (Joseph, Union County, Or.) 1884-1909, 1902-01-02
LUCK Of FIRST-BORN.
OCCASIONALLY A LATE Conner
ACQUIRES FAME.
The Majority of the Worlds Distinc-
tions Are Shared Between the First
and Second Sons, the Lions Share
Going to the First Born.

! ehN NS~Ohu 1ohFg hhC ohaFc
Going to the First Born.
The law is by no means alone in IA
voring the first born of a family and
comparatively neglecting later comers,
for a careful examination OF the biog-
raphies OF our most eminent men will
prove that quite preponderating num-
Der of them owe their fame largely to
the fact that they made their entry
into the world in advance of their
brothers and sisters, says London Tit
Bits.
To such an extent does this appear
to be the case that, If dozen names
OF distinguished men are taken at ran
dom, it would be quite safe to assert
that four of them Tor possibly five) are
first sons; of the remainder three are
second sons, while younger sons, rang
Ing from number three downward, must
be content with dividing the small
amount of celebrity among them.
Occasionally very late conner ac-
quireS fame, but the odds are all
against him. Thus, Benjamin Frank
lin, the great natural philosopher and
! politician, had 10 fewer than thirteen
brothers and sisters in front of him.
Sir Richard Arkwright, the famous in
ventor, was the thirteenth child of his
parents. and Sir Joshua Reynolds was
number seven in his family.
Ruf nv for tu Of fhn
worlds distinctions are shared between
first and second sons, the lions share
going TO the first born.
Fame in the world of letters has gone
in quite undue proportions to the eldest
born. If we may take Dante, Goethe,
Shakespeare and Milton as the four
greatest names in the history of the
worlds literature we shall find that all
four, with the exception of Shakespeare
the greatest, it is true, of them all
were eldest sons.
This privilege Of the first born is
claimed for Shelley and Byron and
Heine, and in modern times, to mention
names without regard to relative mer-
it, by Ruskin, Max Muller, Lecky, Prof.
Jebb, Sir Lewis Morris, Frederick Har-
rison, Sir John Lubbock, Sir George
Trevelyan, Mr.. Pinero and others far
too numerous to mention.
Confucius and Mohammed, Talley-
rand, Rossini, Charlemagne, Luther
and Raphael were all eldest sons; as
also are such eminent statesmen of to-
day as Mr.. A. j. Balfour, Mr.. Cham
berlain, Mr.. Broderck, Lords Rose
berry and Goschen and Mr.. John Nor
ley.
Among the great soldiers we have
Lord Wolseley and Lord Kitchener;
among lawyers Sir Francis Jeune and
Sir Edward Clarke; in the church, the
late Bishop of London, and on the stage
Sir Henry Irving.
OF famous second sons the list Is dis
tnguished if comparatively short. for
We find such giants of the past as
Michael Angelo and Beethoven; the
Pope, Garibaldi and Pascal; Wallace
and Sheridan; John Wesley and Mon
taigne. OF famous statesmen of our
own time we have Sir William Har-
court and Mr. Asquith, as well as Lord
Salisbury, to mention only three
names.
The list of second sons contains
great soldier in Sir Redvers Butler, an
eminent Judge in Lord Alverstone still
better known as Sir Richard Webster;
clever actor in Mr.. Beerbohm Tree;
an artist in Mr.. Phil May, and men of
letters in Grant Allen and Sir Edwin
Arnold.
Nor are the third sons by any means
to be despised in point of quality, al
though the number is relatively very
small.
They include the greatest soldier of
modern times, the Duke of Wellington;
the greatest author of any time, Shak-
speare, and the most famous fiction
writer of the last century, Sir Walter
Scott.
Voltaire was a third son, and so were
G. ]. Fox, the famous statesman and
orator, Lord Lytton and Sir Robert
Walpole, while Lord Halsbury has
proved that a third son can fill with
distinction the highest place in the law,
and the late Sir Walter Besant that he
can win laurels in the field of letters.