Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1890-07-31
BOLD lNNovAToRs.
They Have Hard Work TO ssGet the stupid
Public by the Ears"

W NAC A~sAAs
When the bold innovator comes, who
is there to determine whether he is q
profound thinker and trae prophet, or
half-crazed enthusiast? His zeal and
sincerity are no evidence, for the de-
1uded are Jealous and sincere. Society
10 incompetent to determine. Only men
of the same capacity for profound
thought can appreciate the original
philosopher, as Liszt appreciated and
sustained the despairing Wagner; as
Hunt appreciated the gifted but obscure
Millet, whose smallest picture now COM
mands more than q 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 and
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
duce 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-
ploys seven millions. Even then the
truth might have been crushed again,
IL Archard had yielded to the large
eribe offered him in behalf of the
cane-sugar interests, to report against
Margraaf's discovery. Transcendent
genius always fails of popular recogni-
ton. The distance is too vast between
1t and what Douglas Jerrold calls 1.-The
average stupidity of mankind" Wag-
ner, in 1S49, 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
LisEt 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
1 in the future he might, as he expressed
| it, get this great stupid public by the
| ears" Carlyle and Hugo could find no
booksellers to publish their first works.
Milton, Brougham, Macaulay, jeffrey
and many others, could testify as to the
difficulty of procuring any recognition
| of a great authors first works, a diff
Guilty still greater among great scient-
lists. Calico, Kepler, Harvey. Galvani,
Columbus, Swedenborg, Gall, Fourier.
| Priestley and Fulton could give some
strong testimony as to the stupidity of
the educated classes, to whom they APP
I pealed, and Hawthorne once said that
he had enjoyed for twenty years the
distinction of being the most obscure
| literary man in America! The pro-
founder and more original the thinker
| the greater is the barrier between him
self and the learned and unlearned
multitude, whom he would appro ach
Every advanced thinker must meet his
obstacles. One might suppose thai
simple mechanical inventions would
escape the hostility of fools; but they
don't. So simple an invention as thu
percussion lock, which has superseded
the old flint lock, was invented in 1907
but it was thirty years before 1t cou!t
be introduced into the English army
How difficult was it to introduce coal oil
even to introduce gas; the candle still
survives in England. When the frs
toil-well was sunk in Pennsylvania by
Colonel Drake, it was considered so crazy
an affair that he had great difficulty il
getting men to do the work WheI
anthracite was discovered in Pennsyl
vania, near Pottstown, he tried to sell {
load but got discouraged, dumped it il
tho river, and emigrated westward
When Robert Morris and others secured
large tract of coal lands expecting Il
make fortune, they failed to Introduce
1t and gave up their scheme. WheI
coal was first introduced in Londol
(early. believe. in the fourteenth cent
ury) it produced a great cutlery, ant
q law was passed against it max
ing the burning of coal capita
offense. 1t is said that one maj
was executed, but this is hard t,
believe. Some persons were so hostile
to coal that they refused to eat any foot
cooked by coal fire. The opposition
was not quite as great to the introduc
ton of gas. The first cargo of ice sen
TO New Orleans was driven away by thu
mob 1t was imported something lik,
seventy years ago, by Judah Touro, anC
being put into an ice-house in Cong
Square. before it was completed, a mol
rushed in, drove off the workmen, de
molished the building, and ordered tn,
captain to leave the port. The ice wa
sent to the West Indies, and the news
papers next day were fierce against tn,
importation of ce.-Arena.