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Cvpjnght, Wl2, International Newsservice
EEADERS, in al! the writing that men
do just three things are important.
First, you. must attract attention.
Second, you must make your
meaning clear.
Third, you must convince, or in
terest, or instruct those to whom you write.
The picture at the top of this page is published be
cause it will FIX ATTENTION.
Nobody will pass this picture without a glance of
inquiry
The woman kneels upon the sand, controlling the
fire she has created, and the monkeys, bewildered and
puzzled, look at her, very much as we human beings
look at this picture.
We are as yet not so very far from those mon
keys, with their wrinkled foreheads and their long
arms.
The artist who made this picture calls it “The
Unknown.”
What ideas were in HIS mind when he presented
the woman surrounded by the .nonkeys we do not
know. And we do not very much care.
We use this picture to call your attention to the
fact that the monkey, like the man, is filled with won
der, surprise, curiosity and INCREDULITY when he
confronts that which i- new to him.
Even though the object presented to his sight may
be natural, inevitable, the product of growth, ignorant
monkey or ignorant man will suy, “No, that cannot
be. It is unreal, unnatural, I don't believe it.”
The monkeys look at the woman with her smooth
skin, free from fur, and her long hair, and her white
face, and the eyes that are big, and the forehead
smooth and straight, and the power that shows in the
face and the development of the body—and they say:
“That cannot he.” To them it seems too much like a
monkey to be unreal, and too much UNLIKE A MON
KEY TO BE REAL. It i- an impossibility, false and
absurd.
AAA
Leaders, as the woman stands among the monkeys
so a NEW idea stands among human beings in general.
Many of us contemplate a new idea as a monkey
contemplates a human being.
The human being is ahead of the monkey—al
though it is, according to scientists, the descendant and
the direct result of the monkey.
The new idea is ahead of human beings, and be
wilders them, alihouph it is the result of the energies
and antecedents of human beings.
Monkeys and men alike are frightened and of
fended by that which is strange to them—and they
want it removed.
AAA
If you saw these monkeys and if you could talk the
monkey language you would say to them: “Poor lit
tle monkeys, why don’t you recognize something bet
ter than yourselves when you see it ? Why don’t you
go up and talk to this lady, and shake hands .with her,
if she will let you, and find out tha» it is possible for
two-legged beings to be infinitely above you and all
of your concept tons?
“Why don’t you cas* aside your suspicions and
This Weird Picture of the Monkeys That See a Woman i
for the First Time Is an Excellent Illustration of That ,
Wonder and Dread with Which Weak Minds Always Greet i?
the Unknown. h
The Chattering Monkeys Look at the Kneeling Woman
in Surprise, in Curiosity, Halt in Fear. She Is Unreal, J
Impossible, Strange and Unbelievable to Th em. And Yet, *
as Every Scientist Knows, the Woman and the Man Are the j
Natural Outcome and Growth of the Short-Legged, Long- ■
Armed, Low-Browed Monkey. How Many of Us Look Upon ;
That Which Is Natural and Inevitable with the Ignorant !
Fear of These Monkeys That First See p Woman? I
doubts and misgivings, and call upon this lady and
learn from her and those like her what wonderful
progress is possible among the two-legged animal
tribes?”
A A A
We can tell the monkeys how to behave when
they see a human being for the first time. But we are
less ready when it comes to telling ourselves and
other human beings how to behave IN THE PRES
ENCE OF A NEW IDEA OR A NEW TRUTH.
When Galileo announced the fact that a round
earth circled around the sun, a great central globe of
fire, humanity was horrified—as these monkeys are
horrified when they see the woman.
And those in power compelled Galileo, on his
knees, to deny the truth—THE TRUTH THAT HE
HAD DISCOVERED.
In big things and little things, men with monkey
minds have denied, hated and feared what was new.
Poor Columbus was put in jail by ignorance when
he had returned from America, rendering the greatest
service to human kind.
And old Vanderbilt laughed at the idea of an ele
vated railroad in New York, sayingt “The Americans
are pretty big fools, but they will never be such fools
as to ride on stilts.”
I'he unknown frightens us. And often the greater
and more valuable the truth revealed the greater the
fright and the hatred.
Men of genius hrve given to the world one great
invention after another. Each as it came was de
nounced and hated. The steam locomotive was to
put small, poor stage-coach drivers out of work and
send men to the poorhouse. As a matter of fact, it
gave work to tens of thousands more than had had
work before and at higher wages.
The spinning jenny and every other device for
clothing human beings better and more cheaply met
with hatred and suspicion. It was necessary to oper
ate the new machines in factories built like forts. For
again stupidity was frightened by the unknown thought
that the machines would diminish the amount of work.
Instead of that, the number of workers was multiplied
by thousands—and again for better pay.
Even at this day a new machine that saves labor
is greeted with hatred and the suspicion of the un
known. Workmen that should know better, forget
ting that every labor-saving device increases the gen
eral wealth and benefits the whole world, oppose the
new idea and fight against the unknown.
The sewing machine treed millions of women from
the slavery of the needle in its most tiring form. The
sewing machine gave clothing to millions that hadn t
it before, lengthened the lives and multiplied the pow
er of all the mothers in the world. But it was hated
and opposed because men and women thought that it
would deprive poor women of a living—and the first
inventor of the sewing machine was persuaded to
break his model and abandon his idea.
Now that machine, run by electric power, does the
most painful work for women. And where formerly
they stitched, slowly, with breaking backs and tired
eyes, one stitch at a time, they now guide the cloth
below the flying needle, and can make one thousand
stitches where formerly they made but one.
Not only in the materia! world but more espe
cially in the abstract world of ideas and speculation the
unknown is feared, looked upon with suspicion by
those that are called educated, looked upon with
hatred by ignorance.
Those that call themselves educated look upon the
mystery of the unknown, and upon all effort to solve
the mysterious, with suspicion and contempt. And
the ignorant see in new ideas only that which is hate
ful and dangerous.
It is difficult to believe, but it is true, that when
science first discovered anaesthetics, the possibility of
making human beings unconscious so that they would
not feel the pain of surgical operations, certain clergy
men—hating the unknown in tl eir ignorance—actu-
ally denounced the invention as blasphemous.
They declared that «'t was an interference with th*
will” of God, who wished men to suffer and become
better by suffering. Rather a foolish suggestion from
one supposed to believe in the omnipotence of God.
For pf course if an omnipotent God didn't want chlor
oform used in surgical operations He could easily
stop it.
a a *
Nine-tenths of all human beings on earth live in a
state of worry, anxious as to the future, and more or
less distressed in the present.
The lot of man as a rule is unhappy. Old age
frightens him, and after old age death is there with its
terrors and mysteriep.
Yet if any man suggests the possibility of making
prosperity and peace of mind universal, if any one
dares to say that human beings, having already ac
complished wonders, will do greater things and be
come a happy race—the ignorant and the educated
alike denounce the suggestion.
The man who talks of a civilization that will be
free from care, poverty and selfishness is surrounded
like the woman in this picture by a ring of monkeys
full of contemptuous curiosity and haired.
Look at this picture and think for yourself what
thoughts, fixed, confused and dull, are probably pass
ing through the minds of those monkeys. One mon
key thinks the woman is horrible because she has nc
hair on her face.
And another monkey thinks that this woman is t
fearful, degenerate creature, some kind of monkey go
ing to seed, because she cannot climb a tree properly
being unable to use her feet like hands.
And the lady monkeys in the circle probably thin!
still less of this woman, who represents advancemeal
and thousands of centuries of cultivation—and they
despise her from every possible point of view—they
despise particularly the fact that her nose isn’t flat.
After you have thought of the things that the
monkeys probably say to themselves as THEY LOOK
UPON THE LJNKNCWN, make up your mind that
you wdl not act in the oresence of the unknown, in
the presence of the NEW IDEA, as these monkeys act
when they see the woman.
Keep your mind open to al that
s new
Give everything a hearing
Never believe a thing s false or
bad because you have not seen it
heard t before
And remember what Napoleon
said whenthey praised himto’’cross
ng the Alps n Winter
"I deserve no praise for crossing the .lips But I
do deserve praise for not believing the foils who said it
could tot be done "
“Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.”
Don’t be afraid of the unknown Everything that we
have worth while to-day was unknown a few years
or a few centuries ago, from the wheelbarrow to the
flying machine.