Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/714

* CROWD. 618 CKOWELL. vanishes." A half-dozen individuals gathered togellicr may become a crowd more easily tliuii liiiiidreds assembled ac-cidentally. The most distinctive characteristic of a crowd is that the individuals composing it do not think and act as each one would think and act inde- ])endcntly. Back of the avowed causes of our acts are unconscious motives or forces that defy investigation, and these are the mainsprings of crowd activity. They are the common character- istics of the race, and it is in these points that people are more alike than in the acquired char- acteristics which result from education. It is owing to the fact that these forces which are requisite for crowd or mob activity are the primitive ones, that crowds are incapable of rising above very mediocre intellectual attain- ments. This also explains why the crowd de- scends in the scale of civilization below the average individuals composing it. If this were not true, it would be impossible to explain the conduct of otheruLse respectable people at lynch- ings and the degrading forms of torture imposed by them. The causes which determine the appearance of the cliaracteristics of the crowd are: (.1) a sentiment of invincible power; (2) suggestion; and (3) contagion. Through the mere force of numbers, and also through the irresponsibility of the individual of the crowd, a feeling of in- vincible power takes possession of him. Nothing is permitted to stand between him and the realization of his aims. On this account the soldier in battle, acting under a common impulse, is braver and stronger than he would be other- wise. By means of suggestion, contagion in the crowd is produced; the individuals are more or less in a hypnotic state; and the individual will and personality disappear in a common purpose or aim. Crowds are not premeditative ; they are im- pulsive and mobile. Aroused one minute to acts of generosity and heroism, they may descend the next to acts of extreme violence and torture. They are credulous, believing things wholly in- comprehensible to those outside of crowd in- fluence. Much difference of opinion prevails concerning the riile which mob action is to play in the civili- zation of the future. Gustave Le Bon, The Croud (Eng. trans. London, 1900), asserts that "while all our ancient beliefs are tottering and disappear- ing, while the old pillars of society- are giving way one by one, the power of the crowd is the only thing that nothing menaces, and of which the prestige is on the increase. The age we are about to enter will in truth be the era of crowds." Professor Baldwin, .Socio? and Ethical Interpretations (New York, 1897), diflfers widely from this point of view, claiming that "the at- tempt to build a fruitful conception of society upon the actions of the crowd under the influence of these imitative suggestions, seems to be crude and unphilosophical in the extreme." See Sociology; Socim. Psychology. CROWD, CROUTH, or CRWTH (from Welsh crwth. Gael. emit. Olr. crot, violin; ulti- mately identical with Welsh crwth, bulge, on account of the rounded shape of the instrument). A musical bow instrument, of Welsh or Irish origin, and probably the oldest European instru- ment of that class. It is mentioned as a chrotta by Venantius Fortnnatus in 609, and from then till the beginning of the nineteenth century, when it was still in use, seems to have preserved its form. Originally its body was square and was prolonged by two iwrallel arms, connected at the end by a cross-bar. From this bar a narrow linger-board extended to the middle of the sound- box. The strings, originally three, later six in niutiber, were stretched from the top of the j)arallel arms to the bottom of the sound-box and were supported by a bridge placed between two sound-holes. For illustration, see Mu.sic.L Ij;.STRrMENTS. CROWDE'RO. A flddler and leader of a rab- ble met liy Hudibras in Butler's Rudibrus. CROW-DUCK, or Sea-Crow. A coot. CROWE, krO, C.ptaik. In Smollett's Sir Luuncelot Greaves, the captain of a merchant vessel, who becomes Sir Launcelot's squire on his journeys as a knight errant. CROWE, Catherine (c.1800-76). An Eng- lish author. She was born at Borough Green, Kent, and lived chiefly in Edinburgh. Her prin- cipal work, entitled Tlie Xight Hide of y'utiire (1848), has perhaps never been surpassed for weirdness of conception. In her novels, among which may be cited Adventures of Hnsan Boplcij (1841) aiid Lilly Dawson (1847), she showed much skill and ingenuity in the development of the plot. CRCWE, Eyre (1824 — ). An English painter, born in London. He was a pupil of Paul Dela- roche in Paris, traveled in the United States as amanuensis to Thackeray in 18.52-53. and was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1876. He was also appointed an inspector of the science and art department of the South Kensington Mu- seum. His pictures include ''Goldsmith's Mourn- ers" (1863), "Friends" ( 1871 ). "The Rehearsal" (1876), "Forfeits" (1880), "The Brigs of Avr" (1894), "The Gipsv's Rest" (1897), and "James II. at the Battle of La Hogue" ( 1898). He pub- lished With Thackeray in America (1893). CROWE, .Joseph Archer (1825-96). An English journalist. He was born in London and began his journalistic career as foreign editor of the Daily Xews. During the Crimean War he was the correspondent of the Illustrated London yeics, and he acted in the same capacity for the Times during the Indian Mutinj-. While in India he was also director of the Art School at Bombay from 1857 to 1859. In the following ear he became Consul-General at Leipzig, and in 1S70 he was again correspondent of the Times during the Franco-German War. He thereafter became Consul-General at Diisseldorf (1878); secretary and protoeolist to the Danubian Con- ference, London (1883); and British Plenipo- tentiary to the Samoan Conference. Berlin (1889)'. He collaborated as co-editor with G. B. Cavalcaselle ( q.v. ) . CROWELL, krcVcl, Edward Payson (1830 — ). . .merican scholar and educator, born at Essex. JIass. He graduated at Amherst Col- lege in 1853, at Andover Theological Seminary in 1858, and in 1859 was licensed to pieaeh by the Congregational Church. From 1858 to 1864 he was instructor in German and professor of Latin at Amherst. In 1864 he was appointed to the chair of Latin languages and literature, and in 1.880-94 was dean. He was also elected a Representative in the State Legislature of