The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-09-19

urx WHO LEAD AND MEN WHO LAO IN I'll
xIrNnANE SPHERE.

MEN WHO LEAD AND MEN VINO LAO IN THIS
MUNDANE SPHERE.
Keep I'D with the procession, my boy.
Don't hang back in the breeding. You
NAV be able 10 make things drag a little,
but YOU can't stop the team, and you'll
have 10 come along. There was man, an
eminent mathematician, Or. Lardner, OF
England, who published a treatise TO prove
that no steamship could ever cross the At
Iantic ocean, and the steamer Sirius few
years later brought the first copies OF his
pamphlet TO America.
This same eminent scientist also "staked
his reputation as a man OF SCIENCE" be-
fore the House OF Commons, on his state
ment that no railroad train could ever go
faster than ten miles an hour, and the
slightest curve would invariably throw II
off the track. Babinet, the French calcu-
iator. declared that no telegram could ever
he transmitted from Europe through the
Atlantic TO America. There was man
here in America, only 100 years ago, who
opposed the rebellion OF the colonies be-
cause he knew IL would be failure.
There was q man who laughed himself
sore at Fulton's absurd ideas about
steamboats,. There was member OF Con-
cress who wanted Morse shut up in an
telegraph, which was an impossibility.
There was a man who said you could never
build bridge across the Mississippi.
There was a man who said you could never
raise wheat on the great American desert.
There was man who that "knew" nothing
but steam-horse could ever trot inside OF
2.4O. There was man who "knew
YOU couldn't make the sun draw your por-
trait. There was man who "kncw !" you
could never find better light than whale
oil lamp. There was another man who knew
You could never beat lard-oil. There
was another man who said Colonel Drake
was gibbering idiot because he
said ne could pump a better oil than lard
oil out Of the ground like water. There
was another man who had said Edison was
insane when he talked about an electric
light. There was another man who said
the telephone was clever trick OF ventrilo-
Qlijsm. There was q man who said the telc-
phone was n newspaper lie. There was
man in England who led mobs Of agricul-
tural laborers to destroy threshing-ma-
chimes. There was man in America who
"knew" the invention Of the sewing
machine meant starvation for the poor
seamstress. There is man who "knows"
the Indians can never be civilized. There
is man who "knows" we have reached
the limit OF human progress. There Is
man who "knows" the people are help
lessly ensayed, and will never rise to assist
themselves. There is man who "knows"
that all politics are corrupt, all politicians
mercenary, the civil service rotten to the
core, and our social life is honeycombed
with decay.
Now, my dear boys, there's only one way
for you to escape that mans whining, and
obstinate, mulish opposition to everything.
Keep so far ahead OF him you can't hear
him. And do you keep moving and drag
him along. Rasp him with the double
trees; he has to come, for the old chariot
never stands still a second. The difference
between you and that man. my boy, is that
you run and he is dragged. You spring
along with your eyes open, your head
erect, and you help TO keep things NOV.
ing. He has his feet set in the road,
his eyes shut tight, his back up to his
shoulders and his heart under the wheels.
Every time you make leap you throw the
dust back in his face. Don't, my boy,
whatever you do, don't get back beside
that man. Don't have any breeding on
your harness. Pnt on breast collar, and
that is enough; you'll run more lightly
anu itSi llttls lCt tllc HAL III thV DltNSu-
ing hang back. All that you have got to
do is to step out, keep pace with the times,
sing as you march, and keep the man in
the breeching so covered with dust the
world Will only know he's there by
the dirt around him. 1t may be, Tele-
machus, you will run little fast some
times; it may be that you will kick
over the traces in your eXuberance of
spirit you may sometimes want to strike
2:i0 gait on a 3:30road; you may need more
curb than a whip, but 60 it, my boy. There
is a good driver on the seat, and firm
hand on the lines, and I'd rather see you
coming down the long vista Of history with
the bit in your teeth, your heels in the air,
the brake-rod sprung, and the dashboard
flying, than down on your Launches, your
eyes shut and your back bowed, the lash on
your ilanks, and your collar up to your
cars: your legs set like crowbars, and the
dust of the whole team flying i'll yoUr face,
while you hang back in the breeding and
only come along because YOU can't help it,
Biydett.