The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-11-09
Some Curious Facts.
New York Herald


Some incidents which have made the
last few days conspicuous stand IN bold
and suggestive contrast to each other.
One cannot ponder them without 8
rather painful consciousness that the
world is queer place to live in; that
the human race has only half
learned its alphabet as yet, and that
the millennium is so far away that
the Lick telescope can make moth
ing better than nebula out OF
the fringes Of its garments. Cyncs
who delight to sneer tell US with
something Of assurance that society IS
still in the Hottentot cycle Of develop
ment aud that our boasted civilization
and refinement arc more or less OF a
sham and q humbug. Theincidents to
which we refer tend to corroborate this
theory.
I.-Mr. George William Curtis was a
man Of brains and in early life he
started out with the noble purpose of
achieving career by means of his gen.
ius. He won a popularity extending
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was
welcome visitor in every scholars
home both here and abroad, and
used his talents for the benefit Of his
kind.
If it be true that we really weigh a
man according to bis intrinsic worth
and repay his toll according to its real
value, Mr.. Curtis should have amassed,
not exceeding wealth, perhaps, but Ger
tainly an ample competency. In his
habits be was simple and frugal; in his
work he was industrious and aspiring.
We are indebted to him for enjoyments
Of the higher order and acknowledge it
with unstinted praise. Nevertheless,
after a life of constant and conscientious
endeavor, extending almost to the limit
set down by the Hebrew seer, he died a
comparatively poor man. Sixty thous-
and dollars was the sum total Of his
savings.
II.-Whittier in a ripened age has
also passed on, and when we inquire
concerning the financial results with
which the world rewarded his splendid
genius we find them very disappoint-
ing. We are almost forced to the con-
clusion that everything pays better
than ideas; that when man devotes
himself to literary pursuits he dooms
himself TO poverty: that it is more prof
liable from this world point of view
to be skilled mechanic than poet or
an artist. Whittier lived on slender
income more simply, less expen-
sively and surrounded by fewer lu1u-
ries than the confidential clerk in an
importing house or the keeper of a sue
cessful corner grocery.
III.-James Coreett achieved vic
tory which has made his name house
hold word. It was not contest OF
brains, but Of knuckles. His chief busi-
ness was to dodge the sledgehamm r
blows Of Sullivan and to pound the face
of his opponent out OF al! recognizable
shape. Having accoU plished both re-
suits he pockcted suug little fortune
of thirty FIVE thousand dollars and has
ever since been beseiged by offers Of one
or two thousand dollars for thirty min
utes exhibition. In word, he has
made in single week with his fists as
much as Curtis or Whittier made by
lifetime of Intellectual toll, and proba-
bly, more than any college president
could lay by in score Of years.
The inevitable conclusion is that
scholarship is the equivalent of martyr
dom. The world does not pay the lsrg-
est price for the most elevatiug kind OF
work or for the services of its most
gifted men. On the contrary, it is no.
toriously Indifferent to both. So uni
versal is this that if you find scholar,
q poet, al astronomer, you are sure to
find poor man. So far as money is
concerned it pays hundred times bet
ter to invent a new porous plaster than
TO write the best bookthat ever came
from the press. The most noted profess
sors in our universities would feel rich
with the salary which painted clown
squanders.
We make no comments on these
facts. That they are facts is itself a
fact as startling as it is disturbing. In
the course Of million years or more
things may be different and therefore
better, but for the present We must be
satisfied to know that he who appeals
to the nobler nature lives on a crust,
while he who tickles our risibles has
q coach and four.
We don't pay the sun for shining,
though we couldn't get on without
him; neither do We pay men for think
ing, though by means Of their thinking
we climb the golden stairs ofprogress.
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