The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-11-23
"A REMEDY For 1l2AlNlz.S
A. Chiefly tie roduct sc Hard Liping, Oppres.ion and
ignorance ~ Public School and tie Ne,Dspabber 8
81 Friends of Order and Sanity zaSssHz 4= h
-. Qg 2 Z ~, - 40 llNS.7 "a III ~
BY MARGARET Il, SANGSTER.s

/ ~ ~
BY MARGARET s, sANesTER.. /.
The word crank has crept into com
mon speech and naad itSaf q part of
our vocabulary while yet, If limited
to its dictionary meaning, IT would be
turned out Of doors. sFastidious per-
sons may. still hesitate to; adopt a
word which is closely allied .togslang
and may object to talking aa lapH aftas
II it had the right Of way among
words of greater dignity. Ezs s'5 !.
The root meaning Of. crank Is
something bent or twisted, something
: crooked or something unsteady 5and
: wavering. A glance is fsMHcient to-
show that this description applies
with singular force to the people
whom, lacking better term, we de-
nominate cranks. Sometimes they,
are fanatics, sometimes they have dali
lied with the fixed idea |, until they
have almost. crossed the magical sbor-
der-land between sanity and it's oppo-
site. Invariably they have lost their
poise and1;Ihave been somewhat
thrown from: their proper mental bal
ance. j
Dickens who exceeded Others in
hitting off the peculiarfties of people
who were little out of drawing, al
though they might be harmless land
we'll disposed, introduced a good
many cranks into the wonderful gal
lery of his characters. Who can. for
get Betsy Trotwood's friend, Mr..
Dick, or Little Miss %Muffet, or Jenny
Wren, the dolls dressmaker? These
were cranks of mild and inoffensive
type. Quilp, on the other hand was
crank of savage and repellant nature,
and Sally Brass was not a. whit be-
hind him. The renowned Mr.. Micaw-
Der, too, with his sanguine tempera-
ment and unfailing optimism, and the
genial Harold Skimpole who could
never pay his debts, were cranks of
another variety.
Defined according to popular senti-
ment crank is person who may be
harmless, but who is liable under ex-
element to become dangerous to the
peace of society. AS in the hurry and
stir of events there are ill-assorted
people who never find their rightful
niche and who go. about with an in
tellectual screw loose, there is always
the peril that at some unexpected mo-
ment a catastrophe may occur
through their means.
Being, so to speak, s1ack-twisted
mentally or having no power of dis
crimination where strange doctrines
, are proposed, the inoffensive crank of
one day may be the red-handed as
sassin of another. Hence, where So
cialism and anarchy have their advo-
Gates, there is apt toesbe a: following
of partially taught and illiterate PEG
pie who may easily at a later date be
come cranks. For, this reason, Id "a
state of society where the old, order
is constantly changing and giving
place to the new, we have needt of
safeguards once thought unnecessary.
The multiplication of secret service
men when the president of the Unit
ed States goes from place to place is
an innovation undreamed of in safer
and simpler days. The watchfulness
exercised by some of our millionaires
lest their homes and Offices shall be
invaded by cranks is also something
entirely new.
/ !,
What is the remedy for cranks?
How are we to get rid of them?s The
inquiry is pertinent. They cannot be
restrained by the police unless they
commit some overt act of law break
ing; they cannot all be shut up in
asylums and insane hospitals; they
are often not in the least insane, &C.
cording to medical diagnosis: they
are merely odd, queer and eccentric;
The best way, of course, wouldi be
to make them happy and contented,
but this is too utopian to be regarded
as practical. The crank is never quite
happy unless he is able to exploit his
peculiar notions, and contentment is
not characteristic of his class. Dis
content, indeed, is his accepted badge.
Find a man who is never contented
with things as they are, who always
SCOTS at religion and order: and
right, and who spends his time in
loaflng and criticising instead Of lin
honest and diligent work, and you
find fanatic in the higher sense: and
I a crank in the lower. He may never
become an assassin, but he win: al
ways: be "a menace. How shall we
! help him to a better condition OF
living? i ,.':AfF
Here we touch the kernel of:a.the
difficulty: The crank is half educated.
He seldom has any *relig ion; he is 4out
of conceit with the social order. He
does read, howeyerp and we mustItry
to educate him by good literature of
| the sort that will, appeal to- his Hun-
derstanding and by the friendly, com: