GREAT MEN INDIFFERENT TO COLD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 40

GREAT MEN INDIFFERENT TO COLD.

Lord Blessington was so susceptible to cold that Count D'Orsay used to declare he could detect a current of air caused by a key being left crosswise in a lock 1 Christopher Nprtb, on the contrary, thanked Heaven for winter, and wished it would last all the year long. Great men are more of the North than of the Blessington constitution. Bismarck has an immense amount of vitality. So bad Moltke. Of tbat good soldier many stories are -told analogous to one related of Wrangel, a Prussian field-marshal, who, if he had taken care of himself, might have become an old man instead of dying at the age of 91 1

Wrangel, when pretty much advanced in years, was seen in the streets of Berlin on one of the coldest winter days — the temperatnre was so low as 40deg Fahrenheit— without great coat or wrapper. On the following day he drove to the Crown Prince's in an open oarriage .with the same scanty proteoticn as usual— a thin military undress coat— apparently quite indifferent to the cutting icy blast.

Victor Hugo likewise showed Johnsonian contempt for those who are over solicitous about the weather. The day on which M. de Lesseps was received at the Academy was very cold ; yet, after leaving a close atmosphere, the poet stood perhaps more than 10 minutes with his head uncovered because ladies ran up to speak to him. On another occasion, when the thermometer was as low in Paris as in Russia, a friend saw him watching some skaters.

" Master," said the friend, "is it not imprudent for you to expose yourself to this cutting blast 1

Victor Hugo said that he had not felt it, and that he was so used to cold that he did not apprehend evil effects.

"Although you wear no great coat ?," "Nor flannel either," answered the poet. " See for yourself," opening as he spoke bis shirt front, between which and his chest there was nothing.

There Is a parallel anecdote of Mr Gladstone. In the grounds of Hawarden, about three years ago, the ex-Premier was explaining to a body of Pilgrims the whole art and mystery of tree-felling. As the shadow of evening fell, and the air became chilly, one oE the listeners asked whether the host did not run the risk of a cold by being out of doors uncovered.

" No," said Mr Gladstone calmly, " I never take cold by exposure ; " and Mrs Gladstone, who was present, smilingly nodded an affirmative.

It is a pity, for the sake of uniformity, that, as regards cold, America's grand old man cannot be classed with the other grand old men. - I)r Holmes is, in point of faob, quite the antithesis of the others. He knows tbat pneumonia is the deadly foe cf old age, and to ward it off takes every precaution known to medical science, even to stopping in bed until his room is of the proper temperature.