ON BEING FAT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 4927, 22 January 1902, Page 4

ON BEING FAT.

Obesity ana good-humor are popularly supposed to exist in direct ratio, and it is probably an appreciation of the general righteousness of the theory which has induced the belief that a political importance attaches to being fat. Gffiaar evidently held this opinion if Sbakepere interpreted him truly, for be says :—: — Let me have men about me who are fat ; Sleek-beaded men, and such as sleep o' nights. Yon Cassias has a lean and hungry look ; He thinks too much ; such men are daDgerous. The typical Yankee has always been lean, hence, doubtless, his success it founding the greatest democracy on earth. Among the effete monarchies of the Old Werld, there is a tendency to greatness of girth which perhaps accounts for the somnolence which offends our trans-Pacific cousins. In this sense the King of Portugal is the

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greatest sovereign in Europe. He turns the scale at 13st 21b. The Kaiser has also a tendency towards the literal role of ' heavy father ' in the comedy of politics. Louis XVI. is supposed to have loßt his bead through a too protuberant figure. Tbe leaders of tbe Revolution were mostly of the Cassius type, ; it is impossible to conceive a Robespierre or a Marat as fat. Bismarck, too at the height of his power, had, like Cardinal Wolseley, 'an unbounded stomach,' but bis youth, fortunately for Germany, was a lean one. And who (asks the chronicler) can tell how far the maßßiveness of Lord Salisbury's bodily frame may bave helped to keep the peace of Europe by weighting the pushfulnees of leaver politicians P But tbis role of fat in politics defies the restrictions of an arbitrary formula. Roughly expressed, it suggests tbat thinness makes ftr revolution and fleshiness for repose, which, in ' erms of politics, means conservatism . Indeed, the phrase is already with us as a synonym for autocracy, for the ' fat man ' is the accepted colonial reproach for tbe selfishness of conservatism. Tbe ideal demagogue is lean, whilst the man of ' full, round belly, with good capon lined,' is, by the law of bis physical being, a Conservative, though be may delude himself into ( he belief that be is a Radical. Tbe 1 notable exceptions simply prove the rule.