The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-02-02
cRANks IN THE PRESENT DAY
They Are of All Kinds, From the Harmless
Bore to the Criminal

This is not only the day of the mod
ern lunatic asylum of the new idea,
non-eoercive penitentiary, but it is
is an eruptive sore formed on the body
poliric through the change of the svs-
tenn from an arbitrary government to a
more progressive form, having liberty
as its foundation. One is apt to think
from a superficial view that the crank
is the result of more liberty. And this
is true, just as it is true that every
good thing is accompanied by certain
amount of waste, or refuse, and that
the more of the good the more of the
refuse.
There are weak brains that cannot
bear entire liberty, if too suddenly adj
ministered. These small brains break
down when any sort of a strain is put
upon them. Given prosperity they be-
come demented; treat them to an allo-
pathic dose of adversely and they be-
come either maniacs or cranks. There
isn't so much difference between the
lunatic and the crank. They are both
fitted with wheels in their brains which
move backward. The crazy man may
have a pleasant sort of mania, just as
the crank may be harmless and anus
ing. Every community has in it's midst
a number of wise men who are ready
at all times with their opinions and
prophecies; posers who dilate their
chests with the east wind and give of
opinions and counsel as the bellows
gives off that which it takes in. These
men have theories upon all subjects.
They smile at the wisdom of the
ages, and sneer at the patient calcula
lions of the trained experts and special
lists. There are medical cranks with
nostrums for every malady to which
the ignorance of the doctors is blind;
weather wiseacres who know in ad-
vance when the snow will come and
when the frost will whiten; prophets
innumerable, seers without end. There
are statesmen who would let the world
be convulsed with panic while they
experimental and speculated. On their
faces are craven the lines of perpetual
smiles at the follies of others. From
their lips fall immature words which
sound like wisdom, but which upon
analysis prove to be its opposite.
Once in a while, hardly one to the
century, the world has produced real
reformer: man with clear brain, a
sound heart and a courage sublime.
This man has worked with patience,
without the hope of selfish re-
ward. The world did not love
Nhn
men who tell the truth. In his day
and in his country he was without
honor, and over his head climbed
mediocrity and inferiority to place and
power. He was philosopher-that is,
one WHO despised theories improved
and hypothesis untenable. He wor-
SHIPPED the truth and swerved not from
its teachings, He was poor, because
he had no time to be mean; friendless,
because flattery dropped not from his
tongue, and when his body took on its
last chill and became mere house
from which the tenant had fled, others
took his words of wisdom and used
them for their own.
There is in the crank, often, spice
of the reformer-a trace, only, as it
were. They compare as the cobble.
stone compares with the obelisls, or as
the duck pond compares with the
mighty ocean. The day of the reformer
has passed, and is to come. The day OF
the crank is here. Usually he is harm
less, weak minded, sometimes nui-
sance and q bore, often amusing with
his airs and oracular utterances, frit,
terer away of his days when manhood
should sway him. living to tell at the
end of long, uneventful and unproft.
able life of the wise deeds and wise
sayings of his youth and adolescence.
The criminal cranks, with the brain
twisted by heredity and habit, so that
the goods and lives of their neighbor
are not considered to be of value, are
multiplying and increasing. Others,
cranks who live in their own imagina.
lions, are abroad. Their brains arr
puppet-boxss wherein there are shows
and transformation scenes continually
They see themselves clad in robes o.
power, and behold multitudes pros
trating themselves before them. The
erniile covers them as they give
weighty judgments from high judicial
bench; or the world tre mbles as they
lead great armies to conquest. They
are poets without rhymes, scu!pto s
strange to the chisel, inventors without
ideas. great writer's without words. All
their passions, loves, hopes and hatreds
are born In O dim, uncertain, unreal
light The brillianey of the day, t c
shadow of the night the sweet splen-
dor of summer, or the chill blasts OF
winter are not the realities of life tc
them. The sun only serves to show the
shadow of their enemy, and if the cold
bites them 1t is because others are in
their warm places.
This is the dangerous crank who is
having his day. This is a product OF
our civilization which must be taken
account OF. This is an evil which will
deal with US if we dc not deal with the
evil. We cannot terrify the monster.
To make public exhibitions of him, no
matter if in the hangman's wagon is
to glorify and exalt him. From the
gallows' stairs he will look down on his
brother, Who will envy him,
His mental state must be taken into
account. He is as incurable as he is
terrible; he is as incapable of improve
ment as he is appalling. There is no
disease stalking abroad that requires
such heroic treatment. Self-preserva-
ton requires the disappearance of this
crank. There seems to be no other
way to deal with the malady. 1t must
disappear. A false sentimentality will
hesitate to apply the remedy. 1t must
be applied, however, less worse betide.
Swift, certain, silent it should over