SHORT STATURE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 649, 29 September 1933, Page 2

SHORT STATURE

NOT A HANDICAP TO REACHING GREATNESS. HISTORICAL EXAMPLES. Certain oceupations are for ever barred to the short man, but that a doctor should be handicapped by his lack of stature in applying for a public appointment is surprising. Such a suggestion was made in South Wales, recently, where it was thought that a candidate for the post of medical officer of health was not tall enough. A mental picture of the ideal doctor shows a man rather on the tall side, with slightly greying hair and a grave, though not niournful, visage. But like most traditional images, it does not fit the majority of cases. A short, stout man is just as capable of cultivating the "bedside manher" as his taller colleague. It has been proved time and time again that lack of inches is no bar to great achievement. Nobody has suggested that the work of some great little persons of the past would have been better if they had been taller. Y et the natural tendency to insist upon the average, the preference for coriformity to type, is so strong as to form a real handicap for those who fall short of it. Those who .are considerably shorter than the socalled "ideal" height of about 5ft 7i inches find life's battle rather more difficult than others of normal stature. Fortunately, shortness of stature does not connote lack of vitality, or the will to win. The short man is so apt to be over- ' looked that he oan only overcome the disadvantage by developing his personality and his fire. He has got to make people notice him, and in the process he often becomes a leader among people "big enough to eat him." The famous little man is usually an example of the triumph of brain over brawn. Eittle men, in fact, have been a conspicuous success in the profession of arms. Napoleon, of course, is the outstanding example. He was known, among other things, in contemporary phraseology as "the Corsican ogre," 'but "the little corporal" has proved t0 be the more enduring title. His short stature added to the effect of his colossal achievements. Aigiainst 'the sea forces of the short, stocky Napoleon was opposed the slight figure of Nelson, another great leader who was not a big man. Lord Roberts was a little man whose military achievements were on the grand scale, and his nickname, "Bobs," expressed at once both his diminutiveness and the affection which was partly derived from' it. In other fields of activity — in literature, science, statesmanship — the small man holds his own every time with the big one. There have been undersized statesmen who in their tim.es. "bestrode the world like a Colossus." To-day one of the most popular among lEuropean figures is that of Chancellor Dollfuss, the "pocket Chancellor of Austria." There is something impressive in the contrast of a small figure playing a larige part in events. The small person of Queen Victoria, who was under five feet in height, held sway for a whole era over the greatest Empire in history. She became the symbol of an epoch.