Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1890-10-04

Cranks are sometimes like the sharp pieces OF
glass that stand up viciously on an orchard wall
to keep the greedy boys out, or like the cyclone
that sweeps over the plain and annhilates hand
full of humanity here and there; but, after all the
one saves the boys stomachs untold gripings, the
other drives the germs of disease before it, and
carries purity into life. The great reformers were
such cranks.
History is but biographical memoir of series
of distinguished cranks, from Ewes time to the
present day. Eve was a crank of supreme emf
nence. Adam was mistake. Though he is
mentioned in history, it is as an ignoble tatter,
and he belong to the class of bores without
vertebr9.
TWAS the scientific crank that discovered this.
The scientific crank, by the way, is meek in
books, but, in the search for new specimen or
hidden truth, willingly dares the terrors of cann
basm among the savages where cranks are un-
known, or calmly picks his way among the ice
bergs of northern ATTITUDES. He is learned in all
the ologies from the ages before embryo man be-
came an unadorned polywog to the present era of
unblushing full dress. You will easily distinguish
this crank from one of his own fossils He is un-
labeled.
love of liberty struggles sublimely till it triumphs
over every human ambition or selfish passion. His
ASPIRATIONS his pleadngs his sufferings, enlist the
sympathies of even this pathetic age. He is the
impersonation OF liberty fighting oppression, and
weakening the ancient props of thrones by dash
ing his energies against them, until the icy hand
of death chills the fire in his speech and
blood and he is offered as sacrifice pro patria.
When you hear the echo of this crank's war-cry,
look to the mountainous half hidden in cloud
mists, and there you will see victory reckoning
him onward. But as the crank, like the brook,
goes on forever, it would be impossible to follow
him. Whether it shouts at you from the rostrum,
or shrieks at you from under au old fashioned
bonnet, you recognize the voice of the crank as
that of distinct specimen.
1t was to the courage and perseverance of
crank that we owe the discovery of this great
hemisphere. 1t was crank that gave us the
printing press, the cotton loom, the locomotive,
the telegraph. All the great inventors, from
Archimedes to Edison, have been cranks; all the
great philosophers, from Plato to Herbert Spencer;
all the reformers, from Lycurgus to Lady Habber-
ton; all the great preachers, from Peter the Her.
NIT to Henry Ward Beecher; all the heroes who
left their plows standing in the furrow while they
went to fight for liberty under Washington.
Let us cherish the crank. Let US cultivate and
corner him here in this land where blessings are
plentiful and curses few. He is being that never
lies still and never crawls. He may be kicker,
a bucking broncho, wasp or an eagle, but he is
never parasite or snail. Whether he play the
part of the pestiferous gnat or the trumpeting
elephant no man can accuse him of being sneak
nor an enemy in ambush.
He may be right or he may be wrong; he may
be necessity or nuisance, but he is always
frank, fearless and fighter striving earnestly to
enlighten and improve the world.
Reader, if you are crank, l am glad to have
met you. Permit me to thank you for existing.
THEREsE M. RANDALL.