Certain Men of Mark Author:George Makepeace Towle Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: n. BISMARCK. '"TPHE rough and rugged majesty of Bismarck's person and bearing is a fine external typi- fication of his mental and moral calibre. He belongs... more » physically, as well as intellectually, to the race of the world's giants. The Branden- burgian breed of men is neither very tall nor, among other Germans, mentally superior. But the Bismarcks have been for centuries stalwart personages, stern and strong of feature and character. They have long towered among their Pomeranian countrymen; the present Bismarck has only carried upon a far vaster field the power and influence locally wielded by his ancestors for many generations. There is always a sense of disappointment and, in some sort, of astonishment, to find in a famous man of whom one has long read or heard, a diminutive person, an insignificant face. On the other hand, you are gratified to observe such a man to be as marked and superior to others in physical form andexpression, as he is in the qualities that have made him great. It is not pleasant to think of poets like Pope and Scarron, warriors like Luxembourg, as pitiful and sickly humpbacks; it adds something to our estimate of men like Washington, Napoleon, Cromwell, Chatham,— and we may well add, Bismarck, — to know that their very personal appearance carried something exceptional and distinguished in it. No one would pass Bismarck, even in a crowded assemblage of celebrities, or a court gathering of statesmen, soldiers and nobles, without pausing to look a second time. In stature he rises quite to the lofty height of his imperial master, and that master's equally tall heir apparent. His herculean shoulders seem to have been framed and knitted to bear the burdens of war and empire. His haughty, erect bearing, the chest full and solid beneath the tightly buttone...« less