The people of this country should identify themselves with the army and take an intelligent interest in what the army has to do, and not regard it as something quite outside the national life; and this they would certainly do if military training became universal and rifle shooting a national pursuit.
We need not be afraid that such training and a generally acquired efficiency with the rifle would result in a spirit of militarism that would make us anxious for war. I believe, and would I could persuade haters of militarism to believe, that there is no surer guarantee of peace than to be prepared for war; and if every able-bodied man is prepared to play the part of the strong man armed, his own and his country’s goods will remain at peace.
Those who cry out for greater military efficiency and those who argue that less attention should be given to the things of war are seeking by opposite means the same result—the abolishment for all time of “that mad game the world so loves to play.”
What the Big Newspaper Writers Are Saying
Napoleonic Theory of the Relations of Man’s Stature and Genius—Iconoclasts vs. American Traditions—Time is Ripe for a Substitute for the Saloon—The Cash Value Placed by Law on the Life of a Man—Manual Labor Makes New Converts—Girard a Shining Model for Philanthropists—Advantages Resulting From Wealth’s Marriage Into “the Working Classes”—Does a Stepmother Make a Good Mother?—American Stomachs Are Not Deteriorating—Influence of Hate on the Efficiency of Armies—Early Risers on the Defensive.
Compiled and edited for The Scrap Book.
RELATIONS OF A MAN’S STATURE AND GENIUS.
Evidence Produced to Disprove Napoleon’s Theory That Short Men Are the More Intellectual.
What is the height of genius? How do its physical inches correspond with its altitude of mind and soul? These questions are a subject of curious inquiry with the Boston Herald.
Napoleon the Great, a short man, surrounded himself with a staff of short men. He did not care to look like a pygmy among his subordinates. Doubtless vanity contributed to his preference for few inches. He said of General Kléber: “He has all the qualities and defects of a tall man.”