The sun., 1919-01-12
Infants OF 1919.

One hundred years after Il man
birth ii is fairly safe--eXcept In the
case of an Old Parr--to size up his
forgotten. or established. or being re-
discovered or. after some little fame,
gradually fading out of the world 5
memory. The estimate ut the end of
the century is not always fair how
ever. If YOU ask a middle aged Eng
lishman who il was that Queen VIC
roRIA married he will tell YOU in
stantcr. but if you ask him who dis
covered the planet Neptune he is
likely to be stumped: yet Prince Al
PERT and JOHN Couch ADAMS were
born in the same year. 1919. The
compensatory side of it is that the
Englshmans grandson may know
more about ADAMS than he knows Of
Prince ALBERT.
That same year. 4 century ago. pro
duced other English men and women
who are even more widely remembered
to name four distinguished in liter
ature. JONI RUsKIN, GEORGE Eliot,
CHARLES KINGSLEY and ARTHUR HUGH
CLoUGH 1t was also the birth year
Of FRASER the metaphysiCian Nc
CLISToCK. the explorer. and the sol
dier Duke of Cambridge 1t was a
which produced DARwIS, TENNysoN
GLADSTONE and ELI2,B.TH BARRETT
p BROWNING in England. and In Amer
lea LINCOLN. HOLMES and CYRUS Nc
CoRMICK. The Americans born in
1910 form remarkable company
Among them the names that are IA
miliar in England, rs In America,
probably Outnumber the names of the
celebrated BritonS born that year:
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. THOMAS
DUNN ENGLISH. JULIA WARD Howe
T.. d. +. y. SoUTHwoRTH, CYRUS w
FIELD. WILLIAM T. G. MoRToN, WILL
JAM WETMoRE STORY, WALT WHIT
MAN, ]. G. HOLLAND. HERMAN MIL
VILE. SUSAN WARNER, CHARLES a
DANA. ELIAS HOWE. THOMAS BALL.
OF tho fourteen men and women in
this list only two. THOMAS Dunn ENG
lIsH and Mrs. SOUTUwoRTH, were
horn outside of New England and
New York. territory which in ISIS
held about 5000 zoe souls, as against
the 100000 of England and tho
1S.O00OOO of the British Isles. How
came If that such Il little people pro
Guced so much talent? In the case:
of LOWELL and Mrs HOWE it wa:
largely Il matter Of culture. If liter
AIRY talent is Unbeatable, heredity may
account for Susan WARNER and that
curious work of hers, The Wide
Wide World" which made TAINT
marvel over the fact that two cont
nentS devoured II three volume move
devoted to history OF the mora
progress of girl of 49," HERMAN
MELvILLE's father also was Il writer
but "Typcc' and its successors may
better he attributed to the fOrtuity
of a ship captains brutal treatment
of the youth and the hospitality OF
the MarqueSas natives. MELVILLE
went out and stumbled into literature
DANA and ENGLISH went out 10 seel
It after they saw that 1t suited them
WHITMAN wandered, as printer, car
penter and respectable tramp, anC
made his own measure of life. FELL
and ELIAS HOWE were typical farm
crs' boys who slipped into their places
in history through inclination and In
dustry: and MORToN. who made thu
dentists chair painless for democracy
may he classcd with them as exam
pies of the Yankee passion for ad
vance in science. Every second AmerI
can in those days seemed to he an in
Ventor or the hacker of an inventor
Mrs. SoUTHwORTH Is on tho list be
cause of her novels, but authors VIII,
ship folded manuscripts should no
forget that she claimed to be tn
originator Of the box envelope,
The raw country had good dea
to do with growing this particula
crop of useful people. In Europe maj
had conquered Nature. Here Natur
was not even groggy. America cart
and man, was alive. Europe whppe'
NAPOLEON and lay back for snoozs
very tired. After what PERRY an
JACKSON did, America cracked it
heels together and the following ger
Grafton WAS stimulated by n spirit o
victory. The infants Of 1919 cam
up in lively land. The first steam
ship crossed the Atlantic In the yea
of their birth. The Erie Canal fir
ished when they were 8, connected tn
sea viii the Lakes where steamboat