The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1921-01-03
IN Marnuerite Dan.


A RE you, ill2
"A AT least, are you something
less than the picture Of physi-
cal vigor? Do you have headaches.
backaches, detective eyesight. epi-
lepsy, tuberculosis tendencies. cont?
would you be what the insurance
companies designate as "a poor risk"
what the army authorities call '1in-
fit?
Then "thero is hope" for you-hope
that you are nothing less than q
genius in the making-a great soldier,
statesman, poet novelist or saint.
mo physical disablement is n bar-
rier to achievement. This is the glori-
Gus tact which tllustrious men and
women have proved beyond the pos
stbility of dispute. To cripple and
hunchbaCk, to blind, deaf and dumb.
to those chained to "a matIress-
grave" and to those who have been
mentally unbalanced, they have be-
queathed this precious legacy Of
Here is the reassuring message of
Mrs. Leo Everett, whose remarkable
little book, The Privilege of Pain"
has just been brought out by Small.
Maynard g. Co., ito prove to all in
yalids, but mere especially to those
living victims of the great war"
that physical subnormallty may
open, and not close, the paths OF
glory.
The press agents, of health are
many and never tail to procure a
hearing. Mrs. Everett, however, has
constituted herself the press agent
OF the casualty ward of genius-and
leaves us wondering II indeed any
nsrtgn TOD At
privilege of Pain" Is a bit depressing
to thOse of us who never have to nav
a doctors bill, yet who have NOT
given up all hope Of the laurel. How
ever, the rest of humanity-andt that's
az least nine-tenths of twill be-
cheered and encouraged. to learn Of
the fame won In the past by lame
dogs and ducks.
Alexander the Great" she writes
was an epileptlc So also was
Juilus Caesar. Alfred, so Justly
called the Great was stricken in his
"entleth year by a mysterious dis
eSse when caused him intense pain
ulIu from winch he was never after
WsIu IIee' Napoleon was an epilep-
of his efficiency, had lost an arm and
an eye and was sick every time he
went TO sea or whenever the weather
was exceptionally rough"
Great wits are oft to madpass
near aIlied"-and not only to MAD
HeSS Out 10 many other painful ana
serious maladies, according 10 t,a
roster OF diseased literary reniuses
cited by our author. Here is only a
ceryantes had completely shat
cred health when he finally Eat 49,,
to create his immortal Don 0riCtot.i
When Fielding wrote Tom JonoeS Re
Had Tor years been martyr 10 gout
IND other diseases" Sir Walter Scott
was lame from childhood and two ~
MS novels were dictated to amanu-
enses through fits of sufferdrbT 40
acute that he could not suppress cries
OF agony" The great Roman poet
horace was a man of feeble health:
Milton w-5 blind; pope deforTneJ.
Keats suffered from consumntion:
MIS-. Browning was a chronic Invalid
Monere Is the greatest name in French
literature. When he energies from
obscurity we find him already sub
1ect TO attacks OF blness and forced
10 limit himself to a milk diet. Helm
rlcn Heine, another immortal spent
elght years of his aEitated, struggling
ute on what he called a mattress
grave Rousseau's health was exc
IT,
OF MIN that he was born diving"
Robert Louis Stevenson's struggles
against tuberculosis are within the
memory OF our generation.
Among physically handlcapped
statesmen are Robert Cecil, Queen
Elizabeth's Secretary of state, de
formed and siclSly;" the two Pitts, the
elder and the younger, both sufferers
from hereditary govt, and Taueyrand,
famed for life" in early childhood.
faSteuT notes Mrs. Everett
was subject to fits of apoplexy and
IL Is curious that some OF his most
important discoveries were made inn
medlately after such attacks. Oar
win, from the age Of thirty, was a
great sufferer. DR.. Trudeau, who
worked such miracles for the cure Of
consumption, was himself consump-
tive"
Musicians apparently are an espe-
cially unhealthy lot Beethoven was
deaf. Mozart WAS delicate and sub
jeCt to feyers. Schubert was barely
hye feet one ana walked with
strange shuffling gait; his eyesight
was So defective that he slept in his
specLacles He suffered from diges-
live trouble and died young. So also
did Chopin having been an invalid
the greater part of his short life.
MeudelssOhn was very fran and deli
cate. Paganini, the most extraordl-
nary violinist the world has ever
heard, suffered from phthisls OF the
larynX and was constantly III.
james Watt, the inventor Of the
steam engine, was continually ailing
until he approached old age"
Truly as Mrs. Everett says, "the
vast majority do not seem to realize
what un extraordinarily large percent
age OF the greatest men and women
have been physically Handicapped"
And she points the moral Of her in
valid roll Of honor as follows:
I'VE can no longer plead our
iHfirmjties as an excuse fer our
weakness, our storility or failure.
For whatever may be our die
ablement NO can find IN history
parable A5aillsy t@Mv9hRatly
k-.-..,.ss,s ~ ;s..s, st=-s.ssAi n