The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-10-02
CONCERNING THE CRANK.
The Genuine Article Is Boon to ANY
Community-He Never Lies Still and
Never CrawIs, and Is Always Frank,
Fearless and Fighter.
kate Fields Washington.l

when the urSC nuiIldA S'nlni~A Will {"
BRAIN appeared. He astonished his
fellows by being dissatisfied. In fact,
he invented discomfort, and out OF its
birth was evolved progress.
Civilization produces cranks, but the
crank first produced civilization. He
is O. mastodon among molecules, and IS
furnished with originality, muscular
Jaw and well-developed vertebEe. HIS
originality individualizes him. lie
thinks. This is what distinguishes
him from the imitation crank, whose
head is merely swelled by the con-
stan:ly expanding vacuune within,
and who is therefore bore. There
are people so obtuse that they cannot
see the great difference between this
tiresome talk-you-to-death and the
man of ideas and these people call all
cranks bores.
The genuine crank is boon to any
community. New England, being the
native home of American intellect, Is
the nursery where the species is reared
successfully. Let the thoughtless SCOT
fers of society laugh, the crank can
afford neither to notice nor to MIND.
He, at least, is in earnest, and mas
something besides vain words to bring
forth when he talks. He may be like
one of those disagreeable ruts in the
road that shake you up so painfully, or
like the nettie that stings your hesl-
tating fingers, but he never resembles
the indistinct grain of dust blown
hither and thither along the way, or
the trembling blade of grass that grows
up only to be cut down by the scythe.
He may stick pins in your inflated
vanity, he may look at your diminish
ing proportions through the small end
of pocket telescope; he may prod
you and punch you without regard for
your weaknesses or well-veiled defornl-
tiles, but he is your benefactor for all
that. He makes you ashamed first,
and then brings you out, forces you to
grow. You uproot and cast aside the
weeds that sap the nourishment from
the soil of your wit, which, if it be a
healthy plant, is to that extent bene-
flied by the existence of the crank.
Cranks are sometimes like the sharp
pieces of glass that stand up viciously
on an orchard wall to keep the greedy
boys out, o. like the cyclone that
sweeps over the plain and annihilates
handfukof 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 u biographical memoir
of series of distinguished cranks, from
Ewes time to the present day. Eve
was a crank of supreme erninence.
Adam was mistake Though he is
mentioned in history, it is as an ig-
noble tattler, and he belongs to the
class of bores without vertebr;e.
1t was the scientific crank that dis
covered this.
The scientific crank, by tue way, is
meek in books, but, in the search for
new specimen or hidden truth, will
iugly dares the terrors Of cannibalism
among the savages where cranks are
unknown, or calmly picks his way
among the ice-bergs of northern lati-
tudes. He is learned in all the olo-
gies from the ages before embryo man
became 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-
tabled.
Then there is the patriotic crank, in
whom the love of liberty struggles sub
timely till it triumphs over every hui
man ambition or selfish passion. His
aspirations, his pleadings, his suffer
ings, enlist the sympathies of even this
apathetic age. He is the impersoDa-
ton of liberty fighting oppression, and
weakening the ancientprops of thrones
by dashing his energies against them,
until the icy hand ofdeath chills the
fire in his speech and blood and he is
offered as sacrifice pro paria.
When you hear the echo of this
crank's war-cry, look to the mountain
tops half hidden il. clouds and mist,
there you will see victory beckoning
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 an old
fashioned bonnet, you recognize the
voice of the crank as that Of distinct
specimen.
It was to the courage and persever-
ance of a crank that we owe the dis
covery ofthis great hemisphere. 1t was
a 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
Habberton /; all the great preachers,
from Peter the Hermit 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 Lere in this
land! where blessings are plentiful and