The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-30
BOLD INNOvATORS.
They Have Hard Work to "Get the stupi'
Public by the Ears"

They Have Hard Work to "Get the stupio
Public by the Ears"
When the bold innovator comes, VINO
is there to determine whether ne Is
profound thinker and true prophet or
half-crazed enthusiast? His zeal and
sincerity are no evidence, for the de-
Iuded are Jealous and sincere. society
is incompetent to determine. only men
of the same capacity for profound
thought can appreciate the original
philosopher, as List appreciated ana
sustained the despairing Wagner; as
Hunt appreciated the gifted but obscure
Millet, whose smallest picture now COM
mands more than hundred thousand
dollars, though he worked once, with all
his genius, on the borders Of starvation.
And as the original philosopher seldom
meets his peer, as Wagner and Millet
did, he must be content to struggle ana
to wait the slow progress OF the race
wait for the applauding voice OF pro-
found thought and generous sympathy,
or the slow process of scientific expert
ments that one by one verify his con-
illusions as they did for DIR. Thomas
Young. The German scientist, Mar
graf, made the discoveries which be-
came the foundation of the beet-Sugar
industry, worth hundred millions
year to Europe; but, alas, he met with
the usual blindness and stupidity las
did John Fitch in endeavoring to intro
duse steam navigation) and the coffin
had long closed upon his remains, when
another chemist, Archard, by the order
of Napoleon, took up the subject and
introduced the process which now en-
plovs seven millions. Even then the
truth might have been crushed again,
if Archard had yielded to the large
bribe offered him in behalf of the
cane-sugar interests, to report against
Margraaf's discovery. Transcendent
genius always fails of popular recogni-
tion. The distance is too vast between
it and what Douglas Jerrold calls the
average stupidity of mankind" Wag-
ner in 1919, said at Paris: ITO sell my
wares in this market is impossible to
me-" He would have been glad to sell
his services for 1925 year, and might
have ended his life in despair had not
List lifted him out of obscurity and
penniless poverty. Washington Irving,
after he had given the public some OF
his best writings, could only hope that
in the future he might, as he expressed
it, get this great stupid public by the
ears" Carlyle and Hugo could find nc
booksellers to publish their first works
Milton Brougham, Macaulay, jeffrey
and many others, could testify as to thu
difficulty of procuring any recognition
of a great authors first works, diff
Guilty still greater among great scient
lists. Calico, Kepler. Harvey, Galvani
Columbus, Swedenborg, Gall, Fourier
Priestley and Fulton could give SOM
strong testimony as to the stupidity O
the educated classes, to whom they ap
pealed, and Hawthorne once said tina
he had enjoyed for twenty years tn
distinction of being the most obscur
literary man in America! The pre-
founder and more original the thinker
the greater is the barrier between him
self and the learned and unlearne
Every advanced thinker must meet hi
obstacles. One might suppose thu
simple mechanical inventions woul
escape the hostility of fools; but the
don't. So simple an invention as TIL
percussion lock, which has supersede
the old flint lock, was invented in $50
but it was thirty years before it coul
be introduced into the English arm
How difficult was it to introduce coal I
even to introduce gas; tho candle sti
survives in England. When the fir
oil-well was sunk in Pennsylvania
Colonel Drake, it was considered so era
an affair that he had great difficulty
getting mon to do the work. Wht
anthracite was discovered in Pennsy
yania, near PUttstown, he tried to sell
load but got discouraged, dumped it
the river, and emigrated westwar
When Robert Norris and others secur
large tract Of coal lands expecting
make fortune, they failed to introdu
1T and gave up their scheme. VIII
coal was first introduced in Lond
(early, | believe, in the fourteenth Gel
ury) it produced a great cutlery, a
law was passed against it ma
ing the burning of coal a capt
offense. 1t is said that one m
was executed, but this is hard
believe. Some persons were so host
to coal that they refused to eat any &c
cooked by coal fire. Tho OPPOSITE
was not quite as great to the introd
ton of gas. The first cargo of ice 81
to New Orleans was driven away by
mob II was imported something i
seventy years ago, by Judah Touro, a
being put into an ice-house in Coz
Square, before it was completed, n
rushed in, drove off the workmen,
molished the building, and ordered
captain to leave the port. The ice '
sent to the West Indies, and the ne
papers next day were fierce against
importation of ice. Arena.
Servants in the Austrian Capital.
The servants and mistresses of vi