The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-11-28
POVERTY STRUCK GENIUSES.

Some Instances of How Those With Gen.
ms have Enabled Those without 1t Co
Make Money.
New York Star.
"The woods are full of" g~eniuses, to
employ a popular and expressive phrase.
And they are all poor; that is, with
very few exceptions. There r Erics-
son and Edison; they are both pretty
we'll fixed. But a thousand other in
ventors have died poor, or live in pow
erty to see ignoramuses profiting and
growing rich on their ideas.
The producer lever or rarely reaps
profits. The farmer has all the toll and
all the risks, while the mere trickster
or knave who corners the market makes
a fortune in an hour. The publisher
who has a little money and some
low cunning buys the idea of the
poor genius, and on it POUNDS a prop
erty in a magazine or in the stereotype
plates of q learned work that is an ex-
haustless fountain OF wealth. In litera-
ture and art it is the intangible idea
that is worth money, and that lasts and
grows after the genius who has evolved
it has squandered the dole pinched out
to him in repayment for the happy
thought. For instance, there was
Benefits first managing editor-the
man who gave him the idea of spicy
personal journalism. He put Bennett
in a new path and he pursued it. The
ground he covered, and the edifce he
was enabled to rear on that ground,
were in no part the property of the dis
coverer.
Although the rule is that the discov-
erer of a new idea fails to reap the
profits, it is pleasant to contemplate
first the lucky few who have surmount-
ed the impossible and defed the laws
Of Fate.
Mark Twain, for instance, was a
genius from the start, but of his early
ideas not one to-day brings him in a
profit. Yet there are people profiting
and growing rich by them. Successful
newspapers have been founded on them;
publishers have built up fortunes on
them. When this had gone on for some
time and there was a prospect that
Mark would go down to the grave o
wretched played outgenius, leaving the
Jeremy bidders of the world to grow
rich on the new ideas he had evolved, he
got a sudden revelation of commercial
wisdom.
He detected that an idea did not cease
to be property after it had been put on
paner and sold; that it grew and eyo-
luted in imperishable shape and repro
duced itself OFTEN o thousand-fold
Then he began to plot that he might
secure a grip on the ideas he brought
forth. The interested world howled
that he was ceasing to be a genius AMI
was becoming a peddler, q dealer in no
tons, a mercantile individual. But he
preferred to hold his grip and secure the
profits, though he might lost caste as
genius.
de held az interest In the house he
quilt from that time, and to-day is the
wealthiest author Won can find in ajour-
ney around the world. If the publish
ers do not like, but decry him, it is be-
cause he has mingled their commercial
cunning with his talent, and they view
MN as a queer fish-a genius IN his
,aie, but a financier and a peddler in
his head.
Another is the richest Of modern dra-
matists-long BARLEY Gampl Ell. He
Started as q typical genius. He built
Up Two newspapers on novel plans of
ms own. and when they were built
found he hadn't q corner in either dom
icile for himself, nor owned stick nor
stone In the palaces he had erected.
1nen he developed dramatic instinct.
ne modestly set forth the merits of his
work, and q minstrel manager, Dick
uooiey, seized the idea and its author
ana % playing the genius for all he
was worth in new notions estab-
nshed Hooley's Theatre in Chi
cago' which has been a paying enter
PRISE ever since. OF course the genius
i,aa no share in the proceeds, and
United out on the cold world in due
Ame. de began to have a sad expert
snce alter the manner Of geniuses gem
s.a,ly. he wrote plays and coaxed
Dwight managers, igorant but cum
~ fellows, to play them. He sold
~larnas 20 stars, taking for his work
~nat sum would satisfy his immediate
paessing wants. Then the hy.by-night
managers AMI the SCARS went out and
naae fortunes on the work of ill-paid
genius, who got some praise. much pity
~ = ii1tie rldicule as his share.