Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-07-12
CRANKS.

1t has become customary OF late to
speak OF the person who proposes to per-
form some hitherto difficult feat as
crank, and thereby class him or her as
wanting in good sense or mental balance.
From the days of Blondin, the great
tight-ropc performer, whocrossed Niagara
Falls on rope, down to our day, many
men have conceived the idea OF domina-
ting the mighty current OF that river, and
have regularly been classed as cranks Tor
their pains, excepting in the case OF Cap
tain Webb, who lost his life in the at
tempt, and then the public said he
acted altogether on scientific prin-
ciples and should have succeeded.
The aptitude OF the paragrapher on
journals which employ large staff, and
therefore afford their writer's plenty OF
time 10 pick up any floating subject and
class him or her as a crank, has crept
into the pens OF the men OF the interior
press, and so to the people OF the whole
country, until il is now a sure thing to
call man crank who has the hardi-
hood to propose something new, and it is
all the more strange as the present age is
developing more new inventive genius
and reaping the benefit OF il than ever
before was known. AS natural conse-
uuence, Graham, the Philadelphia coop
er, who made known his intention OF
going through the rapids and whirl-
pool in barrel, was at once declared
crazy and a crank, but now that
he has successfully accomplished
the feat, he will be lauded as a hero, and
be i'm demand as an attraction in all the
museums in the country. To prove he
was not crank, but u level-headed, cool
and calculating man of good grit, he
built barrel calculated to remain buoy
ant in all the varied waters it was TO en-
counter, and it worked TO charm. He
was not troubled in his attempt, for the
reason that but q few people knew OF il
and they kept it quiet. Hence he ap
preached his task without hindrance and
had plenty of opportunity to make his
preparations. 1t is claimed by men who
attended the recent fatal attempt to juml
from the Brooklyn Bridge in New Yorl
harbor, that if the jumper Odlum
had been permitted to make hi
jump in cool and deliberate manne
he would have succeeded. Avoiding tn,
police flurried him, and he had to juml
without time to calculate his distance o
position, thus being sent to his death b,
men who were far more deserving of thu
name of crank than was Odlum. Mel
have gone into the air thousands OF feet
suspended by their toes on bar swun
under balloon inflated with heated air
and they have not been molested, whel
in fact the act is far more dangerous thar
jumping from the bridge or shooting thu
falls. In the case of Captain Webb it i
now plain that his contrvanc
was not fit to withstand the fall
and he perished for that reason only
The men who perform these acts ar
by no means cranks in the common nc
ceptation OF that term, but men of cour
age and skill, who can find no outlet il
the common opportunities OF every-da
life for the daring that is in them, an,
who naturally cast about them for
suitable chance to give it play. Mel
who lead forlorn hopes in battle ar
classed as heroes because the objec
sought is beneficial to mankind from thei
standpoint, and the object, not the act, i
considered, The men who perform thes
perilous feats in the piping times OF peac
are equally deserving of the name o
heroes, and not hall as cranky rs the
idiots who thus stigmatize them. The
serve to keep alive the valor and grit q
the race.