The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-10
Joys AND SORROWS OF oBscuaIry


obscurity Is "a condition. not a theory.
ut hurts too bad to laugh at It," and wbe,
we are old enough to feel its sting we ara
ttoo old to cry And for this fact OF oh
scurity I am disposed TO think that tho
most OF us are generally to blame If a
man is conscious of ability he ought 10
obey our Savior's requirement, Hide M,
your light under a bushel, but put II ON
a candlestick that II may light the whole
house, If a man persists in settling down
at the crossroads in Wayback township.
he will have forgetfulness for his lot One
of the finest inteuects Indiana ever saw
was the late Senator Daniel ID. Pratt Sup
pose instead OF leaving Indianapolis In
1886 to spend life in little village of five
hundred people. and which he never lived
to see number seventy-five hundred he had
STAYED at the capital. How much moro
life would have been worth to him and TO
the world! The place for man to be Is
Sin among the throngs of men" This
running away from opportunity and hid
ing your head like an ostrich, in the sand
is the quickest and most effective way to
cultivate obscurity. 1t costs the seeker
after fame no more effort to get into the
capital city newspapers than into the two
rival organs of the remotest village, with
the result in the one case of ten thousand
readers and in the other of hundred II
largely depends on the way one starts in
life whether he or she VIII remain in the
shade or get up near the music and the
electric lights. If young man voluntarily
takes a back seat the world will let him
enjoy his solitude all to himself and
straightway forget him in favor of an in
ferior man who has the courage to set him.
self up in front.
The sorrows of obscurity are endless-its
joys can be told on our fingers. Who
knows or cares for the great unknown who
do the worlds drudgery-who hew the wood
and carry the water? 1t is amazing how
namelessly vast is this army of the useful
unknown. What private or petty officer in
the gigantic armies of Napoleon, and who
fought in his tremendous campaigns, has
handed his name down to us? Ninety per
cent-yea, 99-of the brave men who make
up great army, are never, heard of. Col
lectively, we speak respectfully and CRATE
fully of them-personally they are, alas! in
history's estimate, only food for powder"
Thousands, yea hundreds of millions, per-
ish for other apparent purpose than to
make a pathway out of their torn and
agonized bodies for some successful captain
to ride over it rough-shod to fame.
But this is not the worst of obscurity's
sorrows. We have millions of singers with
millions of great splendid people who lack
the gift of expression.
ALAS for those who never sing,
But die with all their music in them"
The heart of the great army of plain
people has depth and Wilderness in it like
the depth and Wilderness of the sea. But who
knows anything about them? The people.
until less than one hundred and twenty
years ago, were an unknown element in
the great world history. Throne and altar.
for unnumbered ages have been in
organized conspiracy to crush down and
luxuriate upon the unpaid toll and merit
of the great unknown masses of obscure
common people Only a trifie over a GEN.
tury ago was this fearful abuse broken by
that most tremendous event in human his
tory-the French Revolution. L have al
ways had, and still have foregiving side
for the great masses of France who rose
in their blind and furious rage and cut
the threats of the royal lice and prosti-
tutes. and those Christless priests who for
centuries had robbed them and lived in
outrageous debauch upon their poverty and
hunger Louis Capet and Marie Antoinette,
and their fiunkies, got no more than they
deserved. The world in 1872 needed some
royal blood-letting. 1t was in 1895 that
the power of the great obscure-the plain
people-first made itself felt. While no
one justifes the French reign of terror,
yet it had it's good results, and one of
them was the grdle of republics that now
clasps the happy circle of hands and
hearts and the whole earth with their
songs of Peace on earth and good will
towards man.
One of the bitterest of human trials is
for the obscure man conscious of superior
merit, but without the tact or force neces-
70 b.
the warm and cheerful rooms peopled by
those less talented than himself, and hear
their happy laughter, but alas! obscurity
shuts him out. He sees his intellectual and
moral interiors blandly smile and hooking
ly say, "Too late, We cannot enter i'm
Looking to the shining palaces which dec
crate the golden heights of success he finds
every hall "thronged with suitors and
opening only to the golden keys of noto-
riety or accident. Well, it is a hard lesson
for the modest to learn. But it must be
nastered-this lesson of how to elbow-how
to toady--how to cheek it-otherwise the
penalty is obscurity.
1t is constant subject of homily what
mean men Intellectually and morally, in
this great republic OF ours foist them
selves in conspicuous offices, yet it is.
One can go out upon Washington street
any pleasant afternoon and pick out go
able men as are to-day in the lower House
of Congress-the remaining twenty-five
could, perhaps, be found in the city,. but
not upon the streets. Rejecting upon these
well-known facts, one cannot help thinking
that Madame Roland made mistake when.
looking up from her scaffold at the great
bronze column of liberty, she did not say:
20 Brass. what crimes are committed in
thy name" For who were her murderers
except the great brass pieces, Robespierre.
Danton and Marat, who by sheer ippudence
seized the power of France and murdered
her Gironde?
Let us turn for moment the other page.
Obscurity is not without its joys. What
cares the happy, barefoot boy, with his
cheeks of tan, for "the prison cells OF
pride" of his rich brother boy riding in his
carriage? What care the poor for the rich
mans Injuries? A good strong stomach
that can digest anything-sleep that mocks
at doctors rules-has as good time
those pampered children of luxury. AS
good sleep can be got out of corn-shuck