Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1902 — A GENIUS DISCOURAGED. [ARTICLE]

A GENIUS DISCOURAGED.

Dampening Bffwt of Knowledge of Be. marks Behind HU Baek. “There’s one thing, Eugenie,” he ■aid, "that discourages me. I try to keep it from doing so, but I find it Impossible. Ever since I can remember anything I have been imbued with a feeling that I was intended by Nature to be greater than the common run of men. There has always been a voice whispering to me to strive on, that I had a lofty mission, that X was created for a noble purpose.” ."It is strange,** she replied, "how old, childish nqtions sometimes cling to us.” “Eugdnie," he cried, half-inclined to be angry, “are you joking with met” “No; I assure you I wouldn’t try to do that But what were you going to say?” “I was speaking of the fear that sometimes comes over me. It seems that geniuses are, almost without exception, men who have queer ways. Many of them, I find, have depraved tastes; most of them are irresponsible fools, who aside from -the particular missions which they are called to fulfill do little good and often much harm. I have been reading about a number of great men lately, and they all seem to have had their failings. Wagner, Carlyle, Byron, Shelley, Poe—it was the same with all of them. But for the one streak of genius that made each of them great they would all have been in jails or madhouses.” “Yes,” she assented. "But what has all tjils to do with your case?” "I have been trying to study myself,” he answered; “I have been endeavoring to find out what kind of eccentricities I have to prove that I am a genius, and I cafi’t discover any at all.” “Oh,” she returned, permitting her dimples to assert themselves, “don’t let that discourage you. Go on and try to develop the streak of genius. If you could hear some of the things people say behind your back you would never let the fear of a lack of crazy streaks in your makeup discourage you again.” Yet for some reason he kept on doubting, and hated the girl from that moment — Chicago Record-Herald.