The semi-weekly messenger., 1908-03-13
HUMAN ECCENTR|CS
Term Applied Only to The Foibles Of
So-CalIed Men OF Genius, But Gall
ed insanity In Others.
CRy NJ Grier Kidderl

(By II. Grier Kidder)
No one knows where eccentr1city
eLds and insanity begins, any more
than where monkey stops and man
starts: there is nothing abrubt In ma
lure; nothing jerky about evolution.
None OF us think ourselves lacking in
mentality. though several own to 4
few idiosyncrasies OF genius. Every
body seems TOO busy diagnosing every
body else's mental symptoms TO spare
judgment for his own. Strangers are
crazy, friends peculiar; ourselves or g
inal. We laugh at strange actions I'LL
greatness follows. then ape them
ecoff at the insanities OF medlocrity,
worship the eccentricties OF great
ness.
Genius is rarely affected; the arti-
fetal belongs to the shallow; the nat
ural to the profound. The eccentricties
OF the great are generally due to the
fact that few great men have time to
De conventional. l hope this explains
my Indifference to some details. FROM
The ordinary folks nothing heterodox
is tolerated and pronounced individ-
l;ality in the average man Is soclal
sscrilege Nobody can AFFORD 10 De
o. crank unless he is reinforced with
prestige I know of no more pltlful
object than an unrecognized genius
lying to teach a community some
Thing that he doesn't want to learn.
Websters are absent mindeu; The rest
of US forgetful. Webster once con-
suited his watch to see If he had time
to go home and get it. II a "nigger"
displayed 50 much preoccupation, he
would be called lunatic. Which goes
to prove that an ignorant mans rep
.;tation, like a poor mans or a wom-
ans is a very delicate thing.
The great DR.. Johnson couldn't pass
a fence without touching every tenth
picket with his cane Stonewall Jack
son thought one of his legs was get
ting shorter than the other. Both OF
these gentlemen could have been cur
ed with Christian Science. So when
your intellectual grandeur finds relax
alton in tallying fence pickets or to
making a darkey pull your leg to
counteract it's fancied shrinkage, with
out risking your reputation for in
sanity, you are great. But first achieve
Don't like. too many of US, turn dam
fools to advertise your wisdom.
The mind below mediocrity has no
more patience with the mediocre mind
han the mediocre mind has with the
mind above mediOcrity. We as nat
rrally consider what is mentally be-
low US stupidity as what is mentally
above us extravaganza. The laborer
can't believe that professional men
work. To him, there is no exertiOn
unmarried to a shovel; nothing ardu-
Gus divorced from a pick axe; nothing
productive implanted in the earth and
watered with sweat. Don't the So
cialists tell US ''the working man
produces the wealth" OF what use is
the engineer doesn't the engine do the
work? That the brain can be harness
ed to achieve the real, the mind geared
up to produce the substantial is be-
yond the faith of those who believe
what they imagine and doubt what
others think
So it is with those of average in
telligence who sees brutality in the
great unwashed who grovel beneath
them and insanity in the genius
whose originality invites him to soar
above them, rather than to crawl with
the mob or walk with the crowd I
don't claim that eccentricity is an in
fallible sign of genius, the 1unatic asy-
lum, and the socialist party would re-
fute that.
Two-thirdS of the eccentricities <Se
born of affectation married to self
cOnceit. Every great man or woman
is duplicated in some mad house. ASo
body ever did anything extraordinary
who wasI'a aped by extraordinary
fools. When Lord Salisbury once Wis
tied an insane asylum the attendant
glanced at his card and said: You
will have to wait for a vacancy We
are overstocked with Lord Salisbur
ies."
Delusion is nothing more than ov-
ergrown eccentricity. A fool initiates
the unconscious absurdities of the wise
because it is his only way Of ap-
pearing wise. Sometimes his imitation
condenses into a speciality and, by the
way it takes a mighty smart spe-
cialist to keep sane. When you meet
man in whom wish fathers belief
or hope begets expectation, watch him
Variety is the spice Of mind as well
as OF life Specialities are prone to
grow into runaway hobbies and run
away hobbies generally head for con-
genial company.
Thousands outside of Beldam ape
the pecularities of their mental bet
ters: natural asses exploiting art1h-
cial assinity. / know a man who
thinks he looks like Napoleon because
his head resembles a prize pumpkin
in size as much as it does an exhaust
ed receiver in other details. This hy-
drocephalic polywog, like Lord Thur
low, looks wiser than any man can
be-" He simply outs Napoleons Ma
poleon in his posings and escapes free
board in a lunatic asylum, solely on
account of his appetite. Then there
is my friend C. who persists in dig
ging me in the ribs with his elbow