The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-11-15


one asked me out.
In Chicago the railways come almost
into the center of the city on the north,
west and south, and when you have bathed
your features and looked under the bed
for burglar, and rummaged the drawers
OF the dressing case for forgotten hosiery
and the bric-a-brac of departed guests, the
porter knocks softly at your door and
wheels in on a rubber-tired truck your
welcome trunk. 1t is very great comfort
and delight.
Last week l met man on the train who
got even with me in way | despise. He
had been my guest once at home for week,
and certainly tried to make 1t pleasant for
him during that time. He remained at the
house as much the proprietor as was. He
got up when he felt like it in the morning,
and his breakfast was ready for him. We
saved out the tender corner of the steak
for him, and though we didn't always like
to do it, We refused the second Joint of the
fowl because we knew he liked it, and his
nerves were not quite strong, being sort of
genius-the kind of genius that does not
think it has to be responsible; the kind of
intellectual child wonder that ignores the
dull detail of receipted bills and just
equivalent to people who have no genius.
You have seen such genius. 1t exists
in every profession. He is the kind of
man who walks over the PROSTATE bodies
of his friends and regards his wife as a
misguided being who has been merci-
fully permitted to stand around and
admire him and reach up under his
vest for stray suspender that he cannot
get hold of. He does not hold himself
amenable to the laws which govern other
people. Being genius he takes three
pieces of pie and then expects the family
to sit up all night and hold his head for
him.
He is the horror of business men, the
bete moir of commonplace people. He has
been spoiled by q little notice in the paDer
and should be bedded down every night
with barley straw and fed on corn in the
ear. Genius is a good thing, so | am told,
and do not despse it myself, but when it
Is made to take the place of common de-
cency and snaps its fingers at friendship.
would rather not see any signs of it in my
children.
This man was one whose work had adj
mired. | could not see how his heart
could be otherwise than pure and unset
fish. His words had called up the tender
ness which is common in the hearts of all,
even in the coarse nature of funny man.
| read his beautiful lines, and | said to
myself: Here Is one whose soul is all
aglow with divine sunshine. He lives in
a perpetual Indian summer of gladness,
and the birds and the angels love to ASSOC
ciate with him."
His soul was all aglow with sunshine
when things went his way, but when they
did not it was aglow with red reiiec-
ton from the great coke works where the
worm dieth not and the tire depart
ment is an ignominious failure. | would
not advise a tender, trusting girl
to marry a genius like that. Marry
plain, open-faced mechanic who is willing
To submit to the laws which govern hui
manity in general. rather than the spoiled
pet of pelt-hunting public which adores
at distance and despises at short range.
Very few men of unusual ability and
genius are firm friends or domestic sue
cesses. Why is it?
In my judment it is for the simple rea-
son that in the matter of praise they fin
ally get 10 preferring quantity rather than
quality. They would rather get a column
of the most obvious rot than a paragraph
of genuine endorsement. They need it by
the bale and so they must iiil up on the
cheap and non-nutritious tatfy of strang-
ers, when If their taste had not been de-
stroyed by gorging, u valuable simile from
a valued fried would go farther than the
ringing applause of q thoughtless multi
tudc.
| saw my gifted friend last week, and
somehow as We rode along on the train il
seemed to occur to him that he ought TO
"get even with" me in some way for past
Inequalities. | did not look at it in that
way, but he did.
20 TIC Iic 10 uAllc Win uilu-cH II
buffet car.
We had tomato soup-canned; picked
lambs tongues-tinned; Bert's justly cele-
brated Belgian crackers. canned pudding
and revised coffee. Gle had waited till we
crossed the line and got into a state where
no liquors are sold.) Then We had cigar
cite, and his obligation TO me as a host was
wiped out.
Genius is a good thing, but if it should
break out in my family | think | would
call in the doctor before il got much OF a
start. All the way from Edgar A. Poe To
Blind Tom the history of genius has been
clouded by ingratitude. domestic infelicity
and cruelty. Let us each and every one,
as we crouch around our own firesides to
eat popcorn and Spitzbergen apples of
mediocrity, remember that there is sweet
and beautiful flavor to a square and yet
uneyentful life which the pampered chill
dren of abnormal and oyergrown talent
never know.
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