New-York tribune., 1920-04-25
By Arnold Prince

Al the Book Of Common Pray
~ er, but who can doubt that
the most devout orison that
middle age sends up to the throne
Is this supplication Of Hamlet's:
80, that this too too solid flesh
would melt!'
For Of all the ills that flesh is heir
TO the greatest Of these-is flesh!
Years bring weighty honors to some,
but to most they bring only weight.
There be many who go more hun
sry than Cassius ever dreamed of
looking, but they fail even then to
achieve that leanness that was the
distinctive characteristic of the first
Roman Bolshevik.
The Changing Contour
Most men, as do most women.
gain in weight as they lose in youth
and physical vigor. With each
graying or vanishing hair comes q
more or less perceptible change in
the figure. The day dawns when
the polite clerk in ''men's wear" gen.
tly murmurs "stout" in measuring
the waistline. Slenderness vanishes
and convexity takes the place-of it.
A fortunate exception is Lieu
tenant General Robert Lee Bullard,
q. S. A. commanding the Eastern
Department, with headquarters on
Governors Island at New York.
After thirty-five years of continu-
Gus service in the army he is one of
the very few officers of his rank in
the military-if indeed he is not
the only one-who in his sixtieth
year is still able to wear a uniform
Of the exact dimensions he wore
when student in the Military Acad-
emy at West Point.
In these days, when any dawn in
Central Park will reveal at least a
half dozen earnest, but flesh bur-
dened souls running conscientiously
about the reservoir or along the
bridle paths in an effort to bring
their figures back to something like
former proportions, and at least
half Of the world seems to be in
revolt against the handicaps of
obesity, this is looked upon as some
thing Of an accomplishment.
General Bullard has managed it,
to certain extent at least, by not
taking his profession Of fighting too
seriously. Or, in any case, he has
Kept the fighting out Of his private
life. Being a Southerner of the
type which has made real hospitality
famous, he likes to tell a good story
for one thing, and this has helped to
keep him from becoming mentally
soggy, II nothing else. AS for the
physical part of it, he owes some
thing to his father, who was six feet
two inches tall, with strength to
match, and who had a superabun-
dance Of virility to bequeath to his
children.
Time for Play
The rest General Bullard man
aged for himself by never permit
ting himself to become 80 engrossed
ii fighting that he had no time to
play.
AS this statement might give rise
70 wrong impression, it should be
explained that nowhere in the files
Of the army is there any record Of
General Billiards. having shirked his
duties. On the contrary, some
rsther complimentary things have
been said about him in connection
sitn his military activities He was
graduated from West Point in 1885.
dn first active service was in the
indian uprising, led by Chief Ge-
ronimo.
Three years afterward he con-
ducted himself so satisfactorily as
major Of the Alabama Volunteers
"a the Spanish War that
ne was officially praised by The War
department and was appointed a
colonel by the President Of the Unit
ed States.
Five Years in Philippines
Still later he was for about five
.ears IN the Philippines, where slosh-
Fitness ia supposed to be endemic,
'as he had plenty Of work on his
aanes, Argt as colonel of the 39th
'alantry IN the campaigns against
ae insurgents Of Southern Luzon,
aaen as military commander in open
ag the hostile Moro country, and A.
aS'sy as the civil governor Of the
Moro province.
ne Was officially commended for
~ SerYice In the phiI;unirea. and