The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-12-03
HAL
BOYLE
SAYS
NEW YORK R-People are GET

w
ging bigger-if not better.
AS the world gets smaller and
smaller the folk who live in it are
growing taller and taller.
| I don't envy them. Height is los
ing its glamor. Every growing boy
yearns to be a big, strapping six
footer-plus, who goes through life
bowling DULLES out of his way right
and left.
But when he does reach maturity
he finds things aren't that simple.
If he is over six feet and shoves
somebody, right or wrong the cry
goes up, Look at the big bum
throwing his weight around" The
crowd is against him.
Every inch a man grows over
six feet today is a handicap in
stead of help, unless he is bas-
ketball player or a cop directing
traffic.
The tall man finds he is some
thing of misfit in a civilization
tailored to people of smaller size.
He bangs his head getting in and
out of motor cars, he can't sleep
in regulation size 74-inch bed. he
finds it hard to buy suit off the
rack, and when he sits on a stand.
ard living room chair-which is 18
inches off the floor-hiS chin bumps
his knees everytime he opens his
mouth to say something. That is
one reason why tall men aren't
laxative.
In a crowded world he simply
takes up too much space. No ordi-
nary man or woman will sit behind
him in a movie or at prize fight
without grumbling loud enough for
the complaint to reach his ears.
and if he lives in boarding house
the other roomers resent his reach
at the table.
AS result of these physical dis
comforts and the steady criticism
of smaller folk, many a tall man
gets an inferiority complex. Far
from taking advantage of his size,
ne is more likely to submit to pub
lie insults and ridicule thar a sub
five-footer. He is often afraid to
stand up for his rights because he
knows that most people instructive
ly feel sorry for a midget but dis
trust a giant, and will gang UP
against him.
His altitude troubles of peacetime
are doubled in wartime. David long
ago disproved with his slingshot
the saying that, "a good big man
is always better than a good little
man." The invention of the pistol
and rifle made extra-size not only
something of nuisance but also a
positive danger to a warrior.
He still holds an edge in brute
strength in actual hand-to-hand
combat, but there isn't much fight
ing like that anymore. The more
body surface a soldier has to ex-
pose the more likely a target he
is for sniper's bullet or enemy
shell fragments. 1t even takes the
tall man longer to dis himself a
foxhole to protect him from artil-
lery bombardment.
The implements of war-ships.
tanks, planes, ieeps-are built to
house the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
fellow. The U. S. Navy doesn't
want anyone over six-feet-four, and
both the Army and the Air Force
turn thumbs down if he towers over
six-and-a-half feet. The only thing
a supply sergeant hates worse than
an ordinary recruit is tall recruit
requiring extra-size shoes or uni
forms.
/ was pointing out these height
hazards to a walking human Alp
| know. He grinned and said toll
erantly:
Everything you say is certainly
true. But you left out one thing.
There are still an awful lot of girls
who like to lean on a tan mans
shoulder, and there always viii
be-"
~-~-~~~-----~-~ -
Ancient Egyptian plasterers used