The Topeka state journal., 1897-08-23
1t Represses and Ch0kes Out
Western Genius,
So Says G. C. Clemens; Who
Draws a Comparison
Between Small but Intellectual States
and Great Empires-An Inter
esting Theory Entertain
ingly Presented.
G. c. Clemens writes as follows:

Tile SGStCIn press dS AuAtOA'
the risible possibilities of. the thing!
To people who read nothing but Iunny
things reproduced in New YORK greal
newspapers from Stereotypeo piates
found in the tombs of the Pharaohs
and who have not the slightest doups
that Populists are comb1natlon' oi
bad grammar, vagaries, Wh1skers anu
be-patched, second hand CLONES, Wnae
could afford more merriment than the
very idea of a Populist presuming 10
write in the interest of art and let
ters?
'eThe idea is not wholly original with
me. / only recall it; for history makes
it perfectly clear, and historians ands
men of letters have not failed TO point
Scotland with England was under dis
cussion in the Scottish parliament,
Fletcher of Salton eloquently opposed
it upon the very ground 1 am going
to consider. He declared that Edin-
burg would become provincial town
instead of a brilliant capital-would be-
come like Lyons, Tolouse or Venice;
Scotland as nation known to the
world and able to give its men of emil
nence world wide fame, would BE no
more; and that, in future time, the
traveller would visit Caledon1a,s clan
nish scenes as he visits Venice or Fer
rara-'to lament the decay OF human
genius which follows the union or IN
dependent StateS.'
TT is in small states, Allison said,
and in consequence of the emulation
and ardent spirit which they develop,
that the human mind arrives at its
greatest perfection, and that the freest
scope is afforded both to the grandeur
of moral, and the brilliancy OF lntellec-
tual character.
'I cannot refrain from laughing my
self when / think how ludicrouS 1t
would seem to some people that a dis
heVeled PopuIist should hold in his
ham-like hand an old volume of the
Edinburg Review, presume to read 1t,
and actually understand it.
Now, will not what have read heIp
to explain a fact conspicuous in this
country today? Who has not read the
English taunt that, since the passing
of Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier,
Holmes and Hawthorne, America has
given no sign their places are to be
filled? How many ever think of the
cause? May not that cause, in the
light of history, be seen in the fact
that for 80 years we have been spelling
nation with a big N?' That, since the
rise of that constellation of which
Holmes was the last star to sink below
the horizon, this country has, by cease
less encroachmentS of the federal gov
ernment upon the states, become one
vast consolidated empire, and that in
such empire genius languiSheS and
dies? Art, letters, eloquence-whence
come the great in those? While little
Athens was producing her Pericles, her
Aristotle, her Plato, her SophocleS, her
Demosthenes, her Praxiteles and her
Phidias, whom but a great butcher of
men did the vast Persian empire pro-
duce? From the rise of the Gracchi
Rome was for generations in almost
ceaSelesS inSurrection; and during that
period of rebellion which amounted to
temporary independence Of the pro-
vinces, Rome gave to the world her
Cicero, her Virgil, her Juvenal, her
Horace. After the consolidation of the
great authors! After Athens became
a mere Roman province, of what great
Athenians did the world hear?
England and France have long held
col a hoy
great empires; but they do not contra
dict my premises, for England and
France themselves are not large coun-
tries, and England and France-not
their whole empires-have been them
selves the nation. Isolated and inde-
pendent England produced Chaucer,
cray, Eliot. France-not the empire
France rules-has given US Rousseau,
Voltaire and Racine, and later Dumas,
George Sands and Hugo. But what has
art or literature heard from the colonies
of England or of France? Has genius
never visited Canada or Australia?
Why does the world hear nothing from
the provinces ruled by England or by
France?
I'm Americas heroic day, when her
states were free and independent repub-
lies, the legislature of Massachusetts,
contained Sam Adams, Hancock and
Otis; the legislature of Virginia had
roe and Patrick Henry. Then each state
was a nation, and who achieved emf
nence in his state had won general emf
nence, as one eminent in London now or
in New York city is known all over the
world. Were a second Patrick Henry to-
make as great speech in any state
legislature today, might he hope to see
it in the school readers of the future?
Would his picture get upon the box lid
of new brand of cigars? Would the
orators name be heard away from
home? Not unless it should please New
York newspapers to give him fame
John J. ingalls, was the very same brill
liant man quarter of a century ago
that he is today; yet who would ever
have heard of him had not his election
to- the senate given him a chance to be-
come sufficiently conspicuous to win at
little country that rules the states as
England rules her provinces?
New York city is America today as
Rome was once the world; and, outside
of New York, no American may hope
to win name in art or literature
Away from the Atlantic seaboard still
things. Eking out a bare existence in
newspaper offices, in law offices, in
studios given over to the drudgery of
painting animated portraits of DUH,
souileSS clodS, geniuS-yes, let eastern
newspapers laugh IL they choose-gen-
ius lies buried in obscurity because New
York has not heard of it, and without
New YOrk'S recognition American gem
iuS cannot hope to be known to the
world There are everywhere local ira
d11onS or these choice spirits; of men
and women who should have been free
of the republic of letters or of art but
whose genius was represented by the
crushing weight of an immense coun-
try, and who were doomed to die with
all their music in them. OF the United
States west of New York, another Gray
might sing:
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial
fire:
Hands that. the rod of empire might have
swayed.
Or walked to ecstacy the living Tyre.
kansas has been able in recent years
! to become known and to make some Of
| her people known. Why? Because she