The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1844-12-04
From Neal's Saturday Gazette.
THE DEFEATED ONE.

BY JOSEPH C. NEAL.

you are USED 10 II. Every DOdy KnOWS-Ior inc
phrase has become proverbial--that it is 'nolhing
when you are used to it,, whatever it may be.
BY the process of habitude, the disagreeablc To-
ses its poignancy, and pleasure fails in its delight.
Familiarity so domesticates the occurrence, that
at length, as a matter of course, it passes with
out note. A child is happy with its new shoes
in the morning; but before the afternoon arrives
the poetry of leather has evaporated. Milf
merry, when worn for the first time, has its bGsses;
and there is ecsfacy in furniture, when it has
Just come home. But the tendency is always TO
a level. Qualification has no endurance in it;
and the san is true of our sorrows. 1t is said,
indeed, that Mithridates had 50 accustomed him
self to the swallowing of p%oisons, thai malice
domestic ; could not dispose of him by a resort
to drugs and chemicals. A prescription, no
matter how carefully compounded disturbed
not the physical organization of this cunning
one of Pontus. He was doetor-proof-impreg-
nable to apothecaries, and t%riumphing over phar-
macy, by din of being used to it, And then,
again, when people are used to us, how depre-
eating is the effect. The most impressive and
majestic presence is soon uRnoticed. Instead
of inspiring awe and reverence at home, people
about the house do not hesitate to tell sublimity
himself, that they did not know he was there
that they thought he had gone out, or that they
were not aware that he had come in. 1t was
not so at first; but one may get used even to the
terrific.
Observe, moreover, when you have cause for
being coy to i~nvitation-when you are not in
costume, or look haggard for need of the razor
yet are pressed to 'come in under assurance
that nobody is there How often does it hap
pen, by the agency of use, that this nobody is
the husband or the wife, nobody perhaps, to
each other; but still a considerable somebody to
you, The unshaven gentleman, to his much an
%noyance and exceeding embarrassment, is en-
trapped into rooms quite full of nobody and,
like the incautious Braddock, falls by ambush,
Always ask who nobody is, when told that mo
body's there;' and inquire how many people con-
stitute nobody in that family. Dozens become
nobody by being used to them.
The world is right, then; there is nothing like
being used to it, The Asiatic devotee slept
soundly on the jagged surface or an iron bed, un-
til tenpenny nails were more soothing and de-
llghtful TO him than the sofiest foathers. With
a choice of pillows, he would have selected a
stovepjpe to repose his cheek. And Othello's
eainty ard steel couch of war was to him a
thrice driven bed of down.
Itmay be, however, that people in general re-.
gard political defeat, especially if the individual
himself chances TO be OIL the %treturns,' among the
killed and wounded, as not exactly coming I'M
der the head of the entertaining; but other peo-
pie know-we k~now-that even this is nothing
when we arc used TO it,. Here, as elsewhere,
She hand Of least employment hath the daintier
sense And then, the freedom from every tram
mel which it involves. Bless thee, friend, one
walks home, after such a disaster, with not the
shadow Of a real care upon his mind. Whate-
yer of sorrow he may suppose himself to have,
it is but a grief fiom the storehouse of magma
ton. He is exempt from all solicitude. He
can be,ake himself with confidence TO bed. A
minority slumber is but rarely disturbed by the
roaring shouts of a torch-lighl procession.
1t is not expected that he should shiveringly
arise at two o'clock in the morning, to make
thankful speeches for the honor which has been
done to him, or to invite Tom, Dick, and Harry,
to come in and soil his carpets and drink his wine.
He can take his meals, and read the returns in
quiet, unannoyed by either bell or knocker, He
is not required to give cold cut previously gi-
ven to him at the polls. When he walks forth,
his way through the streets is clear and une M
barrassed.-Nobody squeezes his hand and asks
for his influence. He is not obliged 10 perplex
his brain for the coinage of piquant replies, in
answer 10 fiat and wearisone compliment. Sue
cess must smile; but defeat may indulge in his
huTnor.
And then, what cares he for securities? He
is safe enough in himself His affairs, too may
stand as they are--no winding up and packing
up; no changes TO- disturb his household goods,
or TO distress his adhesiveness. No winter in
Washington or %sojourn at ELarrisburgh, to be pro-
yided for; no perplexities about othor peoples
business; no cogltations about how 10 remain
popular, and how to satisfy all the world and the
worlds wife. He who is defeated, may think as
he pleases, say what he pleases, 60 where he
pleases, and wear what he pleases. He is nei-
Their compelled to have opinions nor TO define
POSITIONS He has no dignity to support, pinch
him nnder the arms, and rendering him as UNI
comfortable as an unaccustomed coat; and whe-
Their he is aristocratic in his department. or other
wise, nobody knows and nobody cares.
Who, then, let us ask, who would not be a
defeated candidate2 Who would not be, like
Jaflier, lin love and pleased with ruin?' 1t is for
the constituency to repent of blunders, not for
him the free, the untrammelled, the independent,
the unvoted for. If the affairs of the republic
go wrong, lot others weep--'thou canst not say
| did it,
But the gentleman whose potrait is given above
(the Gazette has an apt and happy wood cat of
the Defeated One,' in an attitudeIefore his
glass; shows by the fierceness of his expression,
that he, at least, has not yet learned the philoso-
ply of politics. Hating before the mirror, from
his hasty taaversers about the apartment, he ex-
changes scowl for scowl with his image, as if
disposed to divide himself and 60 TO Bullets. He
would also see whether he is mis- taken in the