THE UNWRITTEN SIDE OF GREAT MEN.

Southland Times, Issue 2146, 5 July 1875, Page 3

THE UNWRITTEN SIDE OF GREAT MEN.

"We always tliink of great men in the act of performing deeds which give them renown, or else in stately repose, grand, silent and majestic. Anil yet this is hardly fair, because the tnosL gracious and magnificent of human beiugs have to bother themselves with the little things of life which engage the attention of us smaller people. No doubt Moses snarled and got angry when he had a severe cold in the head, and if a fly bit his leg while he was in the desert, why should we suppose he did not jump aud use violent language, and rub the sore place? And Caesar— isn't it tolerably certain he used to become furious when he went up stairs to get bis slippers in the dark and found that Calphurnia had stowed them under the bed, so that he had to sweep around them wildly with a broom-handle. And. when Solomon cracked his crazy-bone is it unreasonable to suppose that he ran around the room, and felt as if he wanted to cry ? Imagine Georgo Washington sitting on the edge of the bed and putting on a clean shirt, and growling at Martha because the buttons were oft"; or St. Augustine with an apron around his neck, having his haircut; or Joan of Arc holding her front hair in her mouth, as women do, while she fixed up her back hair ; Napoleon jumping out of bed in a frenzy to chase a mosquito around the room with a pillow ; or Martin Luther, in a nightshirt, trying to put the baby to sleep at 2 o'clock in the morning ; Alexander the Great, with the hiccoughs ; or Thomas Jefferson, getting suddenly over a fence to avoid a dog ; or the Duke of "Wellington with the mumps ; or Daniel Webster, abusing his wife because she hadn't tucked the covers at the foot of the bed ; or Benjamin Franklin paring his corns with a razor ; or Jonathan Edwards, at the dinner table, wanting to sneeze just aB lie got his mouth i'ull of hot beef; or Noah standing at the window at night throwing bricks at a cat. — Max Adler.