The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-14
PROFITABLE FOLLY.

There are fools and fools One class of
| those who figure in the category of the
senseless often have more sense than their
accusers, but knowing that their interests
and temporal well being do not require
them to make display of all that they are
capable of in an emergency, they are also
wise enough to keep within their shells.
All of their folly is of the profitable kind
and they have no occasion and no DISPOSE
! ton to exchange it for the regulation
article of knowledge The other kind are
all-round simpletons, whose quality and
disposition are so well known everywhere
and by everybody that discussion of them
is unnecessary.
great many newspapers of late have
been leveling their shafts of criticism and
denunciatiOn at CARLISLE d. GRAHAM and
STEVE BRoDIE, two gentlemen who promise
soon to be as well known to fortune as they
are already to fame. The former re
Gently went over Niagara Falls in barrel.
In doing this he unquestionably performed
the greatest feat of the kind previously ON
record. And then the papers go on and
say, what good purpose has the feat served I?
the answer being none. What credit, then,
they ask, is he entitled to. and return the
same answer The claim is that he should
rather be condemned, unless perchance.
| the performance shall have cured him of
/ all desire for fame, in which case he him
| self may have been benefited, and while
| that fact is of little or no public moment his
wife may have cause to be thankful. He
has accomplished nothing" one of them
says, that will be of practical benefit to
himself or to mankind, and instead of being
permitted to carry out his insane idea. he
should have been given time to mediate in
| dungeon All of which, while true in
the abstract, requires some little qualifica
ton.
! A few days after GRAHAM had performed
his perilous feat, STEVE BRoDIE determined
! to surpass it and did The former went
over the Horseshoe falls in a barrel, the
latter encased only in a rubber suit. Both
were successful, in that they actually made
the plunge and actually got through it
alive. Now as to their folly, why are they
any worse than those performers we all 90
to see in the circus, who perform feats
which, if unsuccessful, would much more
certainly result in death than going over
Niagara in proper armor wouldi The fact
of the matter is, the public demand such
spectacles, at least they patronizc them
literally, and so Ions as this is the case
such feats will be forthcoming; more than
this, the inventive faculty will be
strained to devise new features
and still more perilous performances.
in order that the public appetite may not
be satisfied but anticipated. Just SO long
as there is money in such business, Just so
long will it be followed, and tits not the
fault of the performers at all, but of their
patrons that it is so.
In the case of GRAHAM, it is fact that
he received a gOodly sum for his perform
ance, as much, perhaps, as he could make
by hard labor in year. If such an act so
speedily accomplished be so handsomely re-
whose fault is it that 1t takes
place! AS to BRoDIE, he openly confesses
that there is immense profit in the bust
ness. He runs saloon in New York, and
when trade there getssa little dull he goes
off somewhere and jumps off high bridge
or over a water fall, and then people come
III lOT bHG sane VI once IN, UneV
can't decently go out without buying some
thing, and he is gradually but surely get |
ting wealthy. Not much fool there, as the !
world goes, one would think
The fact is, the human family are cen
serious at times when it is utterly incon- |
sistent to beso. If a man is worth mil |
lion or more, the inquiry as to where and |
how hegOt it is lost sight of in the fact |
that he has it. If BRoDIE or GRAHAM /
should become a millionaire through their |
jumping proclivities, those who are loudest |
in their denunciation now because of the |
means by which it is being done, would |
doubtless be the most willing to say moth
ing Of it then or course the occupation
is afoolhardy one, and, setting a bad exam
pie to the rising generation as it does,
through its being artistically and finan-
cially successful, should be suppressed. if
indeed suppression be possible. But. like
the clown, it is not those who engage in
such calling that are fools; it is those
who encourage them to do it by paying
hem for it and applauding them.