The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-01-20
GENIUS AND SUCCESS.
GENIUS IN ART is NO BETTER PAID
THAN IN OLD DAYS.

literature as a Profession the Most Prof.
able of All Arts-Fame and Wealth the
Goal Authors Desire to Reach Why
Writers Have Harder Time Than
Other Professional People.
Formerly it was an opinion generally
accepted that genius could not exist long
with turn of affairs. To "gnaw a
crust in garret was looked upon as
the natural and fitting thing for poet
to do while spinning the golden cocoon
Of art. Times have changed. and we
have changed with them to such de-
gree that nowadays the muses. are ex-
pected to endow a genius with the
knack of turning q shilling as adroitly
as he is expected to turn the stylus or
WELD the plectrum. Art, and especially
literary art, is at this moment of all arts
the surest in financial footing in other
words, the literary genius is better paid
than any other worker in a purely artis-
tic vocation, and yet it is not hun
dred years since the days of his starv.
alton.
We hear a good deal about the unre-
liability Of literature as profession, but
the bottom fact in the matter is that the
profession is as reliable as any other to
those who can master it as a business.
In the business of letters there is no way
of avoiding scrutiny and exposure. All
the world is the writer's critic. It is
not SO with the physician he can look
wise, pour out three drops of sweetened
water, feel his patients pulse, and go
his way. Even the lawyer has many q
short cut by which he can escape detec.
tion when he blunders, but the writer
must meet every demand or he must
fall.
A moment or two of careful think.
ing will disclose to any mind the ele.
ment which distinguishes literary and
art life from every other field of human
experience and aspiration. To succeed
in the best sense of any calling you
must have genius, but success to-day
is measured by money, and we may as
we'll for the moment take the best pos
sible view of this criterion-the golden
yardstick. We may take it as a gen.
eral rule that every person entering
upon the profession of literature has in
view two things-fame and money,
with heavy balance of preference to
the credit of the latter.
In this view of the case can we safely
say that genius succeeds better than
mere agile and clever talent ? Take
the successful novels, for example, pub
lished during the year, and what will
be the impression :? With one excep.
ton, the most popular and paying nov.
els of recent issue have been of poor
workmanship and have appealed to hu.
man sympathy through other channels
than art ; but they have been written
by men and women of genius who were
willing to cater to vulgar taste for the
sake of success. The reader who runs
is not apt to make note of this clever,
if debasing, trick of the literary pro.
fession. nor is it our purpose to analyze
it. What we have in mind is to point
out why it is that writer's have harder
time of it than other professional peo.
pie.
Some one has said that genius is pa
tience, but the saying will not hold
when applied to the irritable, restless,
Unsuitable knights of the pen. The
time has passed when the poet, the nov.
elist or the essayist was content to delve
for the applause of posterity. Success
must be immediate or some other string
must be pulled fame and money forth.
with is the demand but if fame can
not be had, then notoriety and money,
money at all events.
We called attention not long ago to
the system of literary booming which
is but part of the general scheme in
which literary effort has involved itself
of late. Even genius has been hustled"
into it to such an extent that one re.
CARDS askance every sudden apparition
above the literary horizon.
To set our own opinion in plain
words. We seriously doubt whether gen.
ius in art is better paid to-day than it
was in the time of the garret and the
crust, save where it truckles to more
popular demand. The money-making
genius watches the weathervane of cur.
rent taste as a broker watches the move
uloubb VI uuduCldl WSutuefCOCkS, ana
strikes for the lucky lead. He deals in
literary margins, he bulls or bears the
market, he takes a chance on every
change of the wind. Perhaps this is
why there are so few genuine creations
in literature at present.
The poet writes to suit the needs OF
the magazine editors, so likewise does
the prose writer, and in this way Jour-
nalism is shaping both men and htera-
ture. Genius is no longer Proud and
fond ofsavage liberty, or, if it is, the ex-
igencies of life overpressed with the
weight of artificial needs and dazzled by
the glare of gold shut out the possibility
of entertaining lofty ambitions. The
French, the English and the American
authors seem to be in a mad chase after
great incomes, rather than in search OF
the muses.. Genius succeeds, hut at a
loss. no matter what are its receipts in
bills and chooks.-Chautauquan.
Severity of Punishment.