Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1891-04-01

great men for acting the fool.
From patriotic and reverential
reasons it is natural to omit eminent |
instances, among them the fathers Of
this republic, who now and then re-
Taxed with wholesome folly. The
country has eyinced a great ability
for making respectable showing in
the time under consideration, since
the day Of those reyered ancients.
Jackson, the organizer and oracle of
modern democracy, and to tell the
truth very great man understood the
art of acting the fool as if by inSpira-
ton. Whether as soldier or politician
shooting Dickinson or Offering to
shoot some one else; threatening to
hang Calhoun and Southern tariff
nulliiers or Nick Biddle and Northern
bank nulliiiers; Cursing Adams and
Clay breaking furniture over the
French minister's head, defending
with "A pistol his dead wifc's honor,
discharging a cabinet like so
many day laborers, on account of
Mrs. Eaton's social troubles-in
il all, and nearly all the time he kept
a crowd of solicitous people endcayOr-
ing to soothc him, and begging him to
consider the looks of the thing, and
he was not alone, in his own time,
among friends and foes, in folly.
Clay, Webster, Randolph, Benton
all, except Calhoun-were continually
in what is nippantly called "a stew"
| from acting the fool in public, for
ends Of their own-sOmetimes success
fully, frequently failing. Calhoun was
a model of propnety always, and less
is known Of him than any of the
others. His name is mentioned as
among the great wearers of the tOga,
and yet few stop to ask themselves or
any one else, Why?
Horace Greeley was an example Of
what little judicious folly can do to
advance a mans interests among other
men, and he is also a bright example
of how the thing may be oyerdone, as
at last it comprised his death. He
not only built up great newspaper,
but though it became a mighty factor
in organizing the party which saved
| the nations life, and then he fOOlishly
abandoned it and was killed in his re-
treat from disaster. In all the labor
Of body and brain necessary to the
wonderful work he did he found time
to advocate Fourierism, Grahamism,
| WOman's Rights, Free Love and every
other monstrous and foolish abSurdity
that his fancy becamcenamored withal.
The opportunities for acting the fool
to advantage in public and private
life are innumcrable, and there are
many persons who avail themselves of
them to a great, and sometimes to a
startling, and even alarming extent.
| Every man or woman who has hobby
and rides it, full-tilt through society,
is engaged in acting the fool with the
hope Of attracting attention to him
or herself. This class embraces some
rcligiOnists and moralists, as well as
some reprobates and sinners; the
curled darlings as well as the rejected
wanderers, and sometimes It seems as
if the necessity for being some sort of
a fool were imperative. In the latter
light it is only necessary to recall, or
imagine a thoroughly honest, sensible,
modest, amiable man, who speaks can
didly, always tells the truth. scorns an
advantage that would injure another,
gives to all who need, and acts,
as nearly as possible, the chm
acter of the great Nazarene.
Such an one would soon be in His
condition as to earthly affairs and
have mot where to lay his head"
He would be feeced by scOundrels,
condemned by hypocrites, snubbed by
simpletons and made a convenience of
by everybody, so long as it were posi-
bic for him to be even so slight a
thing as a simple convenience. No
Importance would attach to what he
might say; his integrity would not be
credited nor his comfort considered.
lie would be merely a nonentity and
would be thought Of, if thought of at
all, as an upright, downright, natural
and inevitable fool who could not con
trive and act part. He would be
an unmasked spectator at a masquer.
ade to be Knocked and chartered at
grinned at and leered at and chuckeC
under the chin by the entire motley
crowd, the identity Of all the persons
of which would be carefully concealed
and altogether his life would be a mis-
take, a monstrous absurdity, burden
and a calamity. He would be the big
gest fool of all fools, and there are
fewer Of that kind of fools than al
others in the world, more's the pity
But such will be angels in the sweet
bye-and-bye. They will wear crowns
made TO fit them like the hide on &
Mexican dog, they will play beauti
fully on the harp, without a teacher
and they will pillow themselves on The
fleeciest clouds when they are tired.
EUROPE
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