Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-06-26
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THE GIFT OF GENIUS.
A CLAIM THAT IT Is NOTHING lF
1T is NOT ORIGINAL,


Two Examples of Characters Well Known.
Blind Tom and His Wonderful Gift a.
a Piano Player-Emerson as Repre-
sentative of Another Class.
1t may be said, in general way, that genius
Is creative: that talent is productive or repro
ductive, and that taste Is simply appreciative
or critical. But generalization is nearly always
q dangerous process, and it is very apt either
to go too far or 90 fail short in dealing with
those fine traits and subtle powers which are
at once so READ and SO elusive 1t is better,
perhaps, DO begin, at least, with actual and
specific instances. Let us begin with very
humble one
BLIND, IGNORANT AND SLAVE
Some years before the late war of seces-
Sion, a little negro boy, hardly more than an
infant, used to sun himself and ioll on the
steps to the gallery In front Of an old fash
toned planters house in one of the southern
states. He was blind and unable to join in
the sports of tho children of his own age
about the place; bat tt was bis delight to
listen to the piano music which the daughters
Of the household played daily IN their parlor.
Shut out from all the visible beauty of the
external world, without intelligent instruc-
ton Of any sort. this poor urchin found yet
open 30 him one avenue communicating with
a world Of perennial charm. But what nore
was it TO him than the jingle of a baby's
rattlei Did he understand the music, or so
much as catch the rlInel
One day new touch was laid upon the
Keys of that piano. The young ladies in an
adjoining room took note of it, and wondered
whose it could be. They opened the door,
and there upon the piano stool was perched
Blind Tom. His little fingers were too short
10 span an octave, but from the first he
played in chords-avoided discords. In
little while the boy was famous, and he was
applauded by wondering audiences in many
cities
We called Blind Tom a genius because
there was no other way of accounting for
him. But what was the modus operandi Of
that geniusf Did Blind Tom compose bar
monies, as a bird builds its nest, under the
guidance of an unconscious instinct The
bird shares its constructive instinct with all
of his species. He gets it by Inheritance, IN
impaired and unimproved. He has no origin
ality, no inventiveness. But Blind Toms
parents were what we call common field
hands, and, so far as can be aseertained, en-
sirely devoid of any exceptional endowment.
THE OTHER EXTREME.
Passing from one extreme to the other we
find genius again in Ralph Waldo Emerson
He was born into an old and educated family
His youth was passed m an atmosphere of
serious thought. He was supplied with the
best books and with all the appliances Of
culture which his country could afford at
that time. Later on he enjoyed the ad-
vantages of foreign travel and personal in
tercourse with some of the most eminent
thinkers and literary workers of the age. He
was always under one sort of external in
spiration or another But does all this &C
count for him? Can we say that he was the
product of his time and his surroundings
Those things might have made him an ac-
complshed scholar and a graceful writer.
But Emerson was more than an accom-
plished scholar and graceful writer. He
was, we are inclined TO think, the most
stimulating writer that America has ever
produced He did not so much instruct as
inspire his readers His thoughts CLEANED
like scattered crystals on his pages. He pre-
sented you with no well formulated system;
but he touched, as it were, at random upon
chords of far reaching suggestion. He could
say more than any other man could say in a
There was often but little apparent connec-
ton between them, and he said himself that
they were infinitely repellant particles. He
was not given to argument; his strength lay
in the intuitive faculty of pure reason rather
than in the logical understanding. He diff
fered from other men not so much in the
degree as In the quality of his intellect. We
7annct class him
&c blind Tam IN Err1ar-
son, but they both had that gift which we
name genius Blind Tom was all genius. He
had no learning and no talent; he was almost
an idiot. Emerson was eminently sane and
widely reed What was it that those two
human beings had in oonmons 1t was origi-
nality, not eccentTictty; insight without in
struction, invention without guidance, an
innate power of going straight to the ideal.
OF course, Blind Tom was not always crea-
tive. He played other peoples music; but he
was a composer, too. We may say the same
Of Emerson as poet and philosopher. He
was always willing to learn and he was won
derfullY alive to the good work of others;
but he belonged to no school, he was nobody's |
pupil and nohody's imitator.
We will not contend with those people who |
deny the existence of genius, or who assert |
that there is no difference between genius |
and high degree of talent highly cultivated. |
Fortunately the thing is here in the world to
speak for itself. 1t came without a herald,
and it remains without an explanation 1t |
plays new tunes on the old strings, it says |
new things on the old subjects. and when il |
sets itself 10 noble tssks il kindies new and /
fadeless lights IN the armament of art and I
letters 1t gives us new servants, new in
struments and new methods Ii is nothing If |
It. is not orighial-New Orleans Picavume.
Where the Uncle Came From.
The term uncle's as applied 10 pawn
brokers' shop, is said TO be pun on the Latin
nncus "a hook. Pawnbrokers employed a
book 10 lift articles pawned before spouts
were adopted "Gone to the uncus," there
fore, is exactly tantamount to the more mod
ern phrase, up the spout" In French the
concierge Of a prison is called uncle because
the prisoners are kept there in pawn" by
government In the Seventeenth century a
Insurer was called my uncle" III the Walloon
provinces because of his near connection with
spendthrifts, called in Latin nepoteS, nepheTs