St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-12
POVERTY AND GENIUS.

Poverty is not a condition that the
average man strives to attain, and yet
to poverty the world owes its greatest
achievements. 1t is unquestionabe that
without the stimulus that poverty gives
to effort, civilization would he belated
in its progress, literature would be vet
in its infancy, art would be but crude.
and the useful sciences undreamed OF.
Poverty is the handmade of progress.
If one glances over the lists of the
men whom the world calls great he viii
find that the vast majority were of OBJ
scure origin, born and reared in poverty.
striving against all adverse destiny,
continually fighting to keep the gaunt
wolf OF want from their doors. The
greatest sculptors and painters of all
ages rose from the lower classes. They
spent their lives in arduous toll and
study, and died IN poverty Posterity
has given them niche in the temple of
lame, but men ScOrned them in life.
"a hundred cities strove for Homer dead,
Through which the living Homer begged his
bread"
Genius Is seldom appreciated during
the lifetime of its posSessor. The fame
of Michael Angelo, of Canova, Rubens
and Correggio. now so great. was but
lll-rewarded in their day and genera
ton. Their beginnings were humble.
and they were always harassed by
poverty. The greatest dramatists and
poets were not appreciated until their
bones were moldering in the grave.
Inventors were ridiculed and repressed,
but left to their children Iegaces of
boundless achievement in the world
or mechanics and science. Their chill
dren enjoy their fame and the material
results of their genius; put as rule
their lives were spent in constant fear
of want. 1t is true that some in our
own time have achieved wealth. and
greatness, but the majority have had
no such rewards. Others have reaped
where they have sown. The recogni-
ton that they sought in life has been
bestowed only after they have ceased
to be.
The acquisition of wealth by genius
seems often to destroy all incentive TO
sustained and systematic effort to excel
The very agency-money-which can
be best employed to foster and encour-s
age the creative powers of the intellect
often destroys them. There was. a few
years ago, no more charming humorist
in the world than Mark Twain. His
quaint conceiUs kept the whole country
IN good humor. He was Door, but IN
moment of abstraction married a rich
wife, and has been able to live in luxury
ever since. From that moment all sense
OF humOr deserted him, and the little tie
has penned since his wedding day has
been but faint suggestion of his for
mer brilliancy. Bill Nye was once
clasSed among our most talented humor-
istic writer's, and grew rapidly rich.
As mis- wealth increased mis- fund of wit
vanished, and for years his writings
have been as barren of suggestion as
/ the bosom of a placid frog pond. Ar
temuS Ward was always delightful and
always poor. So with the Fat Contrib
utor," Josh Billings" and John
Phoenix" The "Detroit Free Press
man" began to ''peter out" as soon as
he began to accumulate money. and the
"Oil City Derrick man" lost his grip on
the public as soon as his creditors ceased
to bother him.
And so it Is i'll nearly every depart
ment of human progress. Men cease
to be aggressive or creative when the
wolf ceases to howl at their door. The
innate love of ease and luxury is fatal
to genius. There are, it is true, men
of letters, of art and of science who
have never known poverty in its gen
orally accepted form, but these have
not been pioneers of progress. They
have followed in the paths that pow
erty has outlined, and have discovered
many new beauties along their margin
The men who have been spurred on by
necessity, however, have been the
greatest discoveries. They have plant
ed standards in the unknown wilder
nesses; they have cleared the thorns from
the untrodden Businesses of thought;
they have reared monuments upon the
rugged mountain peaks that were in
accessible to those reared in luxury.
The world owes to poverty a great
measure of that which it now possesses
in art, in the drama and general litera-
ture, and in invention. Aff1uence be
gets Incidence; poverty stimuli ates en-
deavor in every walk of life. The two
are seldom combined.