Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-03-12
BOLD iNNovAToRs.


They Have Hard Work to sect the Stupid
Public by the Ears"
When the bold innovator comes, who
is there to determine whether he is
profound thinker and true prophet. or n
half-crazed enthusiast? His zeal and
sincerity are no evidence, for the de-
1uded 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 and
sustained the despairing Wagner; as
Hunt appreciated the gifted but obscure
Millet, whose smallest picture now COM
mands more than a hundred thousand
dollars. though he worked once, with all
his genius, on the borders of starvat on.
And as the original philosopher seldom
meets his peer. as Wagner and Nfil1et
did, he must be content to struggle and
to wait the slow progress of the race
wait Tor 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 Dr. Thomas
Young. The German scientist. Mar
graf, made the discoveries which be-
came the foundation of the beet-sugar
industry, worth hundred millions a
year to Europe; but, alas, he met with
the usual blindness and stupidity (as
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,
if Arcbard had yielded to the large
bride offered him in behalf OF the
cane-sugar interests. to report against
Margraafs discovery. Transcendent
genius always fails of popular recogni-
ton. The distance is too vast between
it 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 s225 year, and might
have ended his life in despair mad 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 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 ap-
pea1ed, 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 that
simple mechanical inventions would
escape the hostility of fools; but they
don't. So simple an invention as the
percussion lock. which has superseded
the old flint lock, was invented in 1907,
but it was thirty years before it could
be introduced into the English army
How difficult was it to introduce coal or
even to introduce gas: the candle still
survives in England. When the first
oil-well was sunk in Pennsylvania by
Colonel Drake, it was considered so crazy
an affair that he had great difficulty in
getting men to do the work When
anthracite was discovered in Pennsyl-
vania, near Pottstown, he tried to sell
load but got discouraged, dumped it in
the river, and emigrated westward.
When Robert Morris and others secured
a large tract of coal lands expecting to
make fortune. they failed to introduce
it and gave up their scheme. When
coal was first introduced in London
(ear1y, 1 believe, in the fourteenth cent
ury) it produced great outcry, and
= law was passed against it max
ing the burning of coal capital
offense. 1t is said that one man
was executed, but this is hard to
believe. Some persons were so hostile
to coal that they refused to eat any food
cooked by a coal fire. The opposition
was not quite as great to the introduce
ton of gas. The first cargo of ice sent
to New Orleans was driven away by the
mob. 1t was imported something like
seventy years ago. by Judah Touro, and
being put into an ice-house in Congo
Square. before 1t was completed, mob
rushed in, drove off the workmen. de-
molished the building, and ordered the
captain to leave the port The ice was
sent to the West Indies, and the news
papers next day were fierce against the
Importation of ice.-Arena-
The Longfellow Family.
The most interesting spot in Cam
bridge is the old Longfellow house.
where Miss Longfellow. the eldest
daughter, and Rev. Samuel Longfeilow.
the brother of the poet, now live The
house looks exactly as it did in the old
days when the great poet received his
friends with sweet and gentle courtesy
His spirit seems to haunt the rooms and
halls, and will be ever present to those
who had the privilege of his friendship.
The two younger daughters, Mrs Rich
ard Fl. Dane and Mrs Joseph G.Thorpe,
Jr., have built houses adjoining the old
estate, so that the Longfei1ow sisters