Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-04-20
PATENT IDEAS.


think one of the strongest points in .he
Darwinian theory of evolution lies in man
kinds universal and undoubted apishness;
his proneness to do thing for no better
reason than that some one else has done it
before him, or others are doing it around
him. The originators of ideas, fashions or
notions are as one in a million. 1t is so
much easier, you know, to think in groove
that has been worn smooth and nice and
even for one by generations OF previous
thinkers, with never the possibility Of a
mental Jolt or a moral bump, than ii would
be TO blaze ones path through the dark and
trackless wilderness OF speculation, with all
the while an uneasy undercurrent of doubt
as TO whether our own feeble efforts will
eventuate in a broad and safe thoroughfare
or leave us in still duskier depths and more
trsckless wilds.
II is true some one had to originate, but
then there will always be found few
pioneers of superhuman will and energy,
who love such. hard and thankless tasks as
groove-making and path-blazing! 1t is SO
much more comfortable to sit in the same
pew and kneel on the same cushion and con-
fess oneself a poor, miserable sinner out of
the same prsyer-book that have been family
institutions immemorially, than it would be
TO go uprooting the whole wide field OF
theological why's aud wherefores, with
troublesome and impairment insistance con-
corning the especial tenets OF that especial
pulpit, all to no end but to make others un-
comfortable and to hear yourself called
queer"
Where the use of our Judges and justices,
our doctors of divinity, law and physics, our
legislators and our editors, with all the other
sorts of educators whom we place In proml-
nence and pay we'll to attend to our moral
and mental welfare, if one has to be bothered
H.,
detriment Of certain larger and more absorb
ing schemes for eating, drinking and being
merry?
1t is said that the pasha of Persia, when a
guest at au entertainment in England where
dancing formed the principal feature of
amusement, expressed unique surprise that
any one should take the trouble to labor 80
hard for his own amusement when he could
hire dancing girls to do it for h N so much
better THAT outside barbarian evidently
wasted his time doing his own thinkingD
Some funny ideas, which have OF late be-
come fashionable, suggest the fear that il
those who have charge OF our thinking de-
partmeut will allow so many queer notions
TO become patent, we will have TO hire out our
dancing and go TO thinking some for our
selves.
All of which sage ~ reflections are the
outcome of 4 paragraph notifying the public
that the latest thing in subscriptions is fund
Tor the widow and children OF Jesse James
that has been set afoot.
One of the patent ideas of the period
seems TO be lei, man die violent death,
let him be shot or hung, or be put out of
harms way by any one of the many processes
known to the keepers of the worlds peace;
let him have been a martyred hero, an err
ing simpleton, or an outlawed desperate,
gush commands that indiscriminate pity
shall open wide its expansive arms and take
into comfortable keeping the survivors of the
so deceased or disposed OF, shelteripg them
from the possibility of future want, even as
hen sheltereth her brood from the storms
Of heaven. And a mild sort Of blackmail
is instituted to force the public TO subscribe
10 fund" irrespective Of any personal o