ARE SHORT PEOPLE TO BE PITIED?

Dunstan Times, Issue 3145, 27 November 1922, Page 8

ARE SHORT PEOPLE TO BE PITIED?

(My Cecilia Hill.) If by wishing man could add one inch. to his stature the human race would long ago be tall as trees. * Eor since the world began the baby buy aspires to be a grenadier or a hall 1 porter only because those are the tallest < men he knows. And the joy of being carried on his father's shoulder lies in crying. "I'm a bigger man than Dad- - dy!" (Jirls. too. are measured back to back with their contemporaries, while their taper lingers or long leys are pointed ] out as hopeful «ign«. "Von see. she will be tall," the mother savs. "Wo ," had to lengthen all her skirts'.'' ( Until they are "grown up," as long | as there is hope, hoys and girls are I bribed to go to bed because they grow. | in bed; to lie down ilat. it make's them s grow: to hang from bars, to run out I in the rain, to eat milk pudding--and i il there were machines to stretch and t elongate them painlessly, its inventor v would soon become a millionaire. i What then? Is it disastrous or dis- c graceful to be short? No; but the wish s for height is natural and ineradicable; I because we instinctively connect men's I bodies with their souls, and what we n most admire in man is greatness. Are I not gods and heroes always painted l tall? And do we not express contempt in tonus of size? We say. "He has a little soul." "Her mind is dwarfed." hj .Mut be that as it may. shortness is >' undeniably a handicap in actual human. " intercourse. For to be short implies at ■' first sight insignificance; being perpetu- " ally and literally "looked down upon" '' by other people. Whereas to he tall is ° to be "divinely" tall, self-possessed and , digniiiefl. V The Emperor of l.illipui was taller '', Mian his courtiers by the breadth of a, nail, "which alone'." says Gulliver, "was enough to strike an awe into tin- !', beholders." | ani sure high heels weninvented because some king was short. '. And do not most men look for height in their ideal woman? Short husbands < seem especially to choose the tallest i wives. ,' So much for glamor, and lor a certain <y decorative value. If wc turn to facts, and work. what, do we see,? Thai the greatest men in ,| history. Napoleon. Nelson. Beethoven - ~| I quote at random were short men. So |.. «'ais Keats. So was Lord Huberts. j'| Among women. Queen Victoria and f„ Queen Elizabeth \vr\\! short. So wa- ~], Elorence Nightingale. y, Even as I write, visions float across n , my memory of tail, lanky friends with 'ound backs and narrow chests like s li weeds on long stonis. And then the «] short ones trip into my mind. trim. do ictive. holding themselves up to ev/>r\ w: lemi-,-en;i cubit of their height. * ' si< And I remember how a great war ce. irganiser told me tha.l in choosing his wl issistants. if other things wurv equa' 10 never gave the preference to tall ap- tii ilicants. # "For you get twice the work lie ind efficiency from the little people." ha ic assured me. wl Even bodily it would seem that they pr< re sturdier: short men endure hard- I"'' htlis better than the tail ones. It is ho '- if Hie lamp of life burns stronger, (,|; > nd gives power intensified to small n . :l 'odie.s. sin So hold your heads up high, you short ncs. even ii' the fashion plates ignore ] \ L "' 0li : I" the long run it's more con- j io) enieiit lor to go unnoticed through ";' he world. It's better to look up than "' own. In nine cases out of ten it's you '!' ho are the big ones. ''" ■^—^-r-L- lie

mo A remarkable scene was witnessed ai ai lie ol the New York steamship piers. '"."J pcently when a -hip from (irecce ;ir- l- "' ived wall nearly two hundred "picture . , rules." AvJro W coming was awaited by ," crowd of impel nous bridegrooms. The ' ion had been placed in commimication ''''• itb their prospective brides by matri"niiii! agencies, and each carrk'd a botograpb as a means ol identifieat'OM. I'lien the girls lauded the bridegroom- fnn is hod •frantically about, peeri'ng info lim ie i';:ci-> ol eaeb brilliantly clad young tiol (uiian they encountered until the itlen- *l'l< lications were completed. Wa lire The Rev. I)r Cody, rector of St. b' aul's Church, Toronto, who was uoini- Xoi ited for the Archbishopric of Mel- lam mine, wbx) stands in ihe front rank tan religious and national leaders of easi iinula, preached before Ibe King and bmi neeii in the chapel at Rockingham nbti ilace recently. Me was Minister of in t liicatimi for Ihe Province of Ontario this bile still holding bis rectorship, and tbn - ebiireh its thronged every Sunda;., cut! e ha.* a particularly keen souc-o of sum inior, and there is nothing be lovo;; on i Iter than a good joke. ro.su