AGE AND FAME

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1939, Page 9

AGE AND FAME

INTERESTING EXAMPLES. Kemal Ataturk was born in an alleyway to the wife of a little Government clerk. As a boy he cleaned out stables. At 40 he lead the Turkish revolution.

Reading these words in the newspapers set me thinking of a problem, says a writer in an overseas weekly. If a man is destined for greatness — by what age docs he generally achieve it?

Let us see what lessons the past teaches.

Take the case of statesmen first. Ataturk’s most important contemporaries in the ruling of the world were Chamberlain, Roosevelt. Daladier, Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini. Neville Chamberlain first won a Parliamentary election at the age of 49. Of three of Mr. Chamberlain’s pre-

decessors, Mr. Baldwin entered the House of Commons at 39, Lloyd George at 27, and Asquith at 34. Tn America. Roosevelt entered the Senate at the age of 28 and became President at the age of 51. Daladier became a deputy at the age of 35.

Stalin was leader of the Marxists in ! Tiflis at the age of 18. lie was sent to Siberia at the ago of 24. He emerged ; to greatness as Commissar for Nationalisation when he was 38. ' His predecessor was Lenin, who broke the Russian Empire at the age of 47. Hitler made his Munich putsch when he was 34. He was Chancellor at 44. Most of his lieutenants were on the road to fame young. Goering was leader of the S.A. at

| 29. and became Prussian Prime Minisi ter at 40. Goebbels was editor of the "Angriff" at the age of 30. He took up his task • of propaganding and enlightening the German people at the age of 36. Mussolini is six years older than Hitler. He found his destiny at 39. His lieutenant who is, at the moment. most in the public eye. Marshal Balbo, received his first big job as i Under-Secretary for National Economics at the young age of 29.

1 Ex-President Benes, of Czechosloj vakia. is a ruler who has just lost his 'job. A farmer’s son. he emerged to 'tame as Foreign Secretary of his 1 country at the age of 34.

| Julius Caesar invaded Britain at the I age of 47. J Pitt was unique in being Prime Minister at 24.

Napoleon, most conspicuous of all rulers, who rose from nothing, won fame by taking Toulon at the same age—24. Cromwell entered politics at 29. and Bismarck at 33. When we come to generals, we find

| that in these present days they are usually older than most people before 'they know whether they will rise out i of the rut or not. | Foch waited forty years for the war .he dreamed of. In 1911 he was 63. I Haig was 53.

j Roberts had his first independent . campaign at 46. j General Franco had to wait until he , was 44 to emerge from obscurity. | Molfkc. ti»e general whose battles

made the German Empire, did not light his first campaign until In? was 64. How different this is from olden times. Jenghiz Khan was ravaging the Asiatic plains at 15. Charlemagne was famous at 31. Marlborough won

his first notable battle at 35. Wolfe captured Quebec at 32. Clive had led an army to victory at 26, and Alexander as a youth of 20.

MO T ORING MAGN A T E S

' In Hie business world. Ford founded his first motor-car company at. 36. Morris made motor-cycles at 23, and ’ cars at 35. Austin was a director of 'the Wolseley Sheep-shearing Machine Company at 34. ! Among the inventors, the engineers and the architects, the cinematograph was invented .by William Friese Greene when he’ was 35. j The telephone by Bell when he was j 29. The gramophone by Emile Ber- ’ liner when he was 36. The internal I combustion engine by Daimler when !he was about 52.

I But Isambard Kingdon Brunel, who had designed the still-existing Clifton | Suspension Bridge at only 23, was appointed to be ‘he engineer of the new I Great Western Railway when he was ' 27.

■ One of the greatest architectural romances of modern days is the way Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was selected in a competition to design the new ’ Liverpool Cathedral when he was only

An extraordinary example of a man who came to fame late in life is McAdam. lie revolutionised road transport by using small lumps of granite to build Um first macadamised roads. But be did this when lie was 62.

i George Robey, now 68. whose mime wtr: original] - George Edward Wade, made his first professional appearance al, the age of 22.

But Shirley Temple looks like being the first person to make a million pounds by her own efforts before reaching the age of 10. Al 25. Shakespeare had written

nothing that would make him famous. His first play was written at the age of 27.

Francis Bacon, one of the greatest brains the world has ever known, published his first important book at the age of 44. although he had become famous in other spheres before that. 11. G. Wells, born to a professional cricketer in a small general shop, became a draper, a chemist’s apprentice, a student. He produced his first book at 29.

Charlotte Bronte passed all her twenties in a country parsonage and as a governess. Nothing further seemed decreed for iter. It was not until she was 31 that a novel made her famous.

Scott’s first poems were published when he was 31. Artists are difficult to investigate, because it is often so long before their genius is appreciated. However. Van Dyck was well-known at 21. Turner was an A.R.A. at 24. Sargent at 38. Constable painted his first really important picture at 35. Rembrandt, greatest of them all, was not rated very highly while he lived.

Walt Disney invented the comic mouse that was to 'delight every nation under the sun when he was 27. Of reformers —William Booth started the Salvation Army at the advanced age of 49. while Luther became famous when he was 34.