The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1908-03-27
fBy Grier Kidder).

~ y 49,
science. Even then few can tell which
he was until he is dead. Such an out
look would daunt anybody who was
not wound up TO mind other folks bus
iress. But reforming offers unique
features and regulating your neiglbor's
affairs provides its own stimulus.
People oppose novelty because they
are welded to the old and shrink from
the ridicule inseparable from the new.
Nothing new is comfortable and an
old fogy advocating change would be
as great an anomaly as an automobile
Eearse leading an old time funeral pro-
cession. He is brave or foOling who
wakes sleeping conservatism: it is no
light thing to irritate an old mistake
with q new correction.
To the average man, what
is unknown is unknowable. Every gen.
GRAFTON considers itself the high wa
ter mark of "know it ALL"
Conceit is our most marked inher-
itance, and, combined with off iousn IS
is the source of half our trouble. 1t is
q hard thing to think that you know
everything and at the same time doubt
that you are loaded TO the muzZle with
tidings Of great JOY. The country Is
oyerrun with messiahs lodging cru
cifxion and martyrs shying at mar
tyrdum-
The crank is born and not made and
the artificial article would be a contra
diction. He is intensified pOsitivism
and Il negative crank would be equiv
alent to a stagnant mountain torrent
or a conventional genius. His own am
bition is to oppose the majority, he is
an eternal affirmation to the worlds
negatiOn, and everlasting No! to ev-
eTybody else's Yes! He thrives on
strife. He smelleth the battle afar off;
and is as quick to find a fight n Is
as slow to find out hat he is whipped.
He poses as the under dog" and, to
do him justice, he never tires of that
monOtonous role. So much has been
said of the crank being ahead Of his
time that every crazy wind spodter
whose tongue keeps pace with his i'm
agination considers himself an inspir-
ed anticipator of the tagging future.
a heaven helped herald of the coming
dawn.
The practically of a new idea is not
guaranteed by specious theOry but the
popular acceptance. The fruit won't
"a "h1AA AApS "AN
good a thing is, it waits on the YER
die of the majority. Many Of our So
called inventions were ~repudiated by
our ancestors: as many Of those we
repudiate will be accepted by our pos
terity. Everything is a failure until
it dovetails with the age. Even a lun-
attic must fit the public idea OF insanity
or be voted a misfit. Conservatism
accepts under protest and nothing sur
wives what prejudice can kill. The
steam engine appeared and disappeared
before Watts appeared. Philosophers
believed in 'Darwinism' when telling
what they knew Beant more than rid
icule, it is only of late that difference
OF opinion has only been punished
with indifference. The crank Of yore
cot ali that he was thirsting for The
majority shapes the customs and from
the tvrant custom there is no sudden
appeal. The majority may be wrong
but disciplined and and veteran error
has ever withst0od the onset OF d1v1d-
cd truth, until determined by evolution
And what is evolution but a lagSaro
spurred by cranks!
Urged on ty hea1lOng enthusiasm
and settled convictions, our friend as
S9lIS All IllS WIN ftlICLACAANS, IN AAN~
wells that he lays up sorrow unto MS
Cwn soul. Who wants to be conVlnc-
ed in an hour that he has been a fool
all his life? How many are deslrous
tn trade off an ancestral blunder for a
strange truth? Some? yes but some are
a very few. Reforming a man lault9
rarely gets beyond convincing MIN
that he has faults. And when you as
sail somebody else's false judgment ne
forgets every thing but the assault. IL
is human to err; equally human 10
keen tab on the other fellows errlng
Everybody is tinctured with MISSION
arw enterprise and :he man VINO can
stumble on something new without q
desire to r~ejuvinate his felloWman is
unborn 50 far
The crank not only has this desire
hut he advertises it. He is blind to his
own faults. because to hlm, notnlnS
is faulty but the old; all new pecaoll-
loes are necessarily gilded by the sun
rise.
Yet the crank is useful, though we
DO not relish his spasmodic methods.
But divest him of what we dlsapprove
of and we subject him him to norman
conditions. We must take him as Ne
is for, in truth, he Is often tAe uh-
compromising foe Of stagnation; the
very essence of healthy and progress
Rive discomfort. ,
We hate his dogmatism object
10 what is often his oficious and vul
gar ZEAL; but we must applaud his per-
sistency while condemning his lncon-
~sistency. And inconsistent he is;
never displaying more intolerance thar
when combating intolerance; never
more vicious than when fighting vice;
never attempting to reform abuse
without lending additional terror to
reformation. Nor does he take into
account that an unsound opinion, like
an unsound tooth, while a bad thing to
own. is a worse thing to lose sudden
". f.,
The crank infests all Departments and