Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-03-06
MEN OF GENIUS.
THE CITIES INTELLECTUAL GIANTS
COUNTRY BORN AND BRED.

Leading Men and Leading Ideas Not Pro-
duced by the CIty-EasiIy Explained
by Natural Causes--Talents Frittered
Away in Excitements.
Experience teaches u.s." says Mr. Re
menyl, that the great centers of popu-
latlon are marked by lamentable ster-
llity in the production of men of genius.
Precisely as the city, with its 100, 600 in
habitants would have to starve if 1t did
not receive its regular supplies of food
from the country, SO it would suffer inter-
tellectual starvation if its mental supplies
were not, in all essential points, provided
from the country. Sometimes we find
miserable obscure country town pro-
ducing more men of original power than
half dozen large cities. Everything on
which our century prides itself, everything
that has made the age what it is, has
come from the country. The statesmen
and the soldiers, the artists and the in
ventors, the men of learning and the
men or enterprise, have all migrated
from some obscure corner of the
land to take possession of the
cities, as their barbarous ancestors mi
grated from savage wildernesses to take
possession of the seats of civilization. In
Paris, Berlin and Vienna the natives are
largely in the minority, and the immi-
grants fill all the streets and houses and
occupy all the public places. So it is with
the leading men and the leading ideas,
they all come from the country"
A REASONABLE EXPLANA TON.
Well, this seems a remarkable state
ment to make; but I think the author is
| right, and that his proposition will hold
good, not only in Europe, to which his
article seems chiefly to refer, but in this
country. Make out list of eminent
| Americans and you will find that very
few of them were born in the cities How
can this be explained? Mr.. RemenY has
10 explanation to offer; he has no theory
regarding it. ut has always been SO, -
he says, 'and will always be so; the city
| governs the fashions, but the village gov
erns the nation" 1 think, however, it
can be explained by natural causes.
In the first place, there are in every ma
| ton about six times as many people in the
country and in the country towns as there
are in he large cities. This is a very
striking fact of which everybody is not
aware. Many city jewellers imagine that
the majority of the population of the ma
ton live in the cities, like themselves; for
when they go to the country they see SO
! few people there it seems hardly popu
lated at all. In the next place, the ten
dency OF talent in every country is toward
the city, because, like the cabbages and
potatoes, it finds the best market there.
The young painter, poet, sculptor, orator
or writer naturally gravitates toward
those centers where his talents are most
valued and command the highest reward.
If the city jewellers are themselves not SC
richly endowed with genius they know
best how to appreciate it, and they pay
the best price for it.
EXcITEMENTs AND sCRAMBLEs.
In the next place, the inhabitants OF
cities are SO absorbed in multitudinous
occupations, in ambitious pursuits and
extravagant pleasures; SO crazy ia the
pursuit of wealth and so cranky in the
spending of it; SO full of newspaper tx
elements, and so fond of outside show
and glitter; so bent upon picking up
little of everything and much of nothing
that it is impossible they should have the
same chance for study for large menta
growth, as those who enjoy the slow
steady, quiet, leisurely life of the country
Their talents are frittered away in the ex
elements and scrambles of the hour, anc
| heIQOul QOeS Olc VI lllen lnluh Ol D6COHl
ing anything more than "a clever fellow
or ga good fellow" 1t is the old stor!
of the slow but steady going tortoise beat
ing the smart but superficial hare.
know from my own experience tina
when l was in Paris l found nearl,
every position Of any Importance or re
sponsibility filed, not by Parisians, WHIT
had too much amour and plaisir in thei
heads for business, but by young Ger
mans of good education, whose superio
abilities commanded good pay and pc
sitions in spite of the prejudices of thu
French. Genius needs time, pains, pa
tience, to develop; many of the riches
fruits grow in the shade; and the fines
talents mature in obscurity.
Lastly, the proposition is not univer
sally true: for there are many men o
genius, especially among the poets, VIII
were born and bred in cities. Dante wa
born and bred in Florence Lope de Veg
in Madrid, Milton and Spenser in Lon
don, Voltaire and Moliere in Paris, ant
as to Homer, "Three cities claimed hin
dead The city seems indeed NOR
favorable to poetic genius than to an
other, for it affords the best field for tn
observation of man in all ranks and con
ditions. Robert Walters in New Yor
Home Journal.