Life — October 13, 1910 — page 30: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

626 Life’s Family Album (The creative gift has always had an ex: traordinary interest for the human mind. When we see this gift d ed in a way that interests of moves us, we are prone to ask, “How did he do it?” We wonder what manner of man_he is who displays this power over us. The most difficult art in the world is the art of knowing how to amuse. because it carrics with it the knowledge of knowing wh omit, The fact that a thing may 1 detract from the quality week there appear i pictures from a. x workers, whose ge erring. precision thought, revealing hitherto. undefin nesses, reveling in some odd fancy or satiriz ing some social foible. ‘The object of thi department is to give the readers of Livy an opportunity to know something of the work and personalitics of the men and worn en who make Live.) with un Ramsey Benson M* SENSON runs a potato tarm in Minnesota. This is not to insin- uate that Mr. Benson is any small po- tatoes. During the last few years that Mr. Benson has been writing graphs for Lire he has also become 2 Hourishing author. But—- We arrived via Lirr’s aeroplane in Hutchinson, Minn., carly in the morn- ing of a bright June day. We discov cred Mr. Benson bending over his ‘po- into patch, modest and unassuming in his work, as he always is. “Good morning, Mr. said pleasantly.“ Would you kindly para- Benson.” we “LEE * tell us where and when you were born?" “With pleasure. February 24, 1866, at Anoka, Minn.” “And edu “In public including the University of Minnesota, where I was written ated 7” schools, graduated in on have things, we be- lieve? “Several unpopular novels, two of which, l Lord of Lands and Melchis dee, have had a chance to prove their quality by being published.” “Ts that all, Mr. Benson?” “That is all { can think of—now.” something of the sceret of your style, You know that so many of your trenchant ob- “We want to cony servations on current affairs—with a philosophical meaning—have Lire unsigned by deeper been published in you that we want you to tell us some- thing now th with the public “Cam afraid T haven't time. ‘These shall put you right potatoes —— We sadly embarked in plane, realizing that from a author like that nothing in the way of justice to himself was to be expected. Confidentially, have a admiration He has been wri our acro- modest however, we for Mr. Benson's ng for Lire great work for years, Fame NCE upon a time there was a1 fortune it was to have No dis: tinction whatever was his to start with So thoroughly and incluctably was this 1 fact that he couldn't even boast of by anybody ever whose been born intensely ordinary. being the loveliest bh: rtheless, he grew up beset by a thirst for fame which was consuming und incessant. And for the pursuit of fame there were but three fields open —namely, literature, polities and high finane In literature, as a cursory scrutiny of the conditions discovered, a book had to contain a 1,000 thrills in order to sell into the public eye. The man was perfectly conscious minimum of of his inability to amass more than 730 thrills, or Soo at the outside, and mak- ing the fullest use of gaps filled with s and so he crossed literature off his list of possibilities. In politics, as very presently trans- pired, it was necessary, in order to be at all famous, to have busted 25 trusts, published 100 volumes of nature stud- ies, of which at least 60 per cent. should be true, regulated football, families and falsifying; in short, to have done about everything and done it nobly. So the man crossed off poli- tics, too. That left nothing but high finance, and this he embraced with all the ar- dor of an ardent, howbeit smallish soul. But almost at once he was assailed by misgivings; it was so easy to suc- ceed at high finance. All you had to do, he found, was to be careful not to have your finance so high that it would be up to the criminal courts, and the rest took care of itself. Could it be possible, then, that fame was to be had le effort? His worst fears were soon realized. Ife became rippingly rich, but to no avail. Distinction had eluded him, So. many others of about his caliber had gone in for high fin that the rip- pingly rich, or divulsively wealthy, if you prefer, were in no sense a select with relatively group, but a mere mob, whence the individual might hope to emerge but hardly, if at all, The man, however, had a certain power of reasoning out things after his own fashion. When he perceived that the overwhelm- ing majority of billionaires with whom he found himself confused in a hope- less ruck were extremely honest he did not fail to gather the implications. “Fool that [ am to’ have shrunk from being a criminal, simply because that was the easiest way, forgetful that it is only through difficulties that we attain to the stars!” he exclaimed, and suiting the action to the word he lost no time in accepting some rebates from the railroads, was fined sixty millions and woke next morning to receive a carload of distinction from the clipping bureaus. And that was only the first installment, too. Moral: Fame is classes of acquired in some \ reserved for two men—namely, the wicked and the very few. Ramsey Bi very comicbooks.com