The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-02-02
HUNTING SOMETHING.

real tnleI, having got OH ny al drttul uOpSe,
returned and joined in the cry, the author
pauses in a moralizing mood and observes,
There is a passion for Hunting something
| deeply implanted in the human breast" Mr..
| Dickens's early vocation as a press reporter
| must have introduced him to many striking
as well as repulsive exhibitions of this passion
cropping out among the promiscuous masses
of London. Its manifestation will always
recall to a reflective mind, with startling force
| the theory which holds man to be a micro
cosm in which is resumed, not alone "the
ornaments, the strata, and the lights" but
"fish, fowl, and beast. and insect-all their
| trains of curious life" Is it a development
! in humanity of the pursuing instinct of such
! animals as the dog, the wolf, and the jackal?
Must the cruel frenzy of mobs whose deeds
| have stained the history of the most civilized
peoples, though language is accustomed to
! describe it as brutal and therefore unnatural
! and inhuman, be pronounced by philosophy
! TO be, after ALL as natural as eating and sleep
| ing, as love and pity, as JOY andsorrow, and as
human as hypocrisy and chicanery, as cupidity
! and venality, as ingratitude and SANDER? For
tunatey, however though humanity may
inc ude brute nature, brute nature does not
include humanity. The passion tor hunting
| something happens TO be one of the elements
J which is common to both natures. But, while
| it is displayed on the part of brutes in I'M
changeable forms, it is developed on the part
of men in forms Of almost infinite variation
Most of the spiteful gossip which is so apt
to season the social reunions of the gentler
sex, is due to lupine propensity to discover
and follow the track of some imprudent or
| hapless character. These amiable creatures
having once opened on the scent of bleeding
reputation, really surpass in persevering
ferocity the wolves that pursued Mazeppa,
With their long gsllop which can tire
The hounds deep and hunters ire."
And woe to the poor fugitive, if they succeed
in hunting it down. The appetite of ghoul
is delicate by the side of the voraeity with
which they rend and crunch the quivering
victim.
Among men and women alike, there is
always a disposition to unite in pursuit of
something or somebody, off-hand and without
inquiry, and to destroy the game, when
caught, without pity or remorse. Every one
will admit to himself that this is an ignoble
tendency. Perhaps every one believes that
he is superior to it, PROFESSIONALLY all who
are not hopelessly base will strive to subject
it to the control of reason and of the higher
sentiments. But here it is, nevertheless. in
human nature at large, implanted for some
wise purpose no doubt, but perverted to null
tifarious evil, as every attribute of humanity
is liable to be perverted. One of its most
common perversions is that which furnishes
easy expedients by which Pharisees of sundry
classes may
" Compound for sins they are inclined to,
By damniDg those they have no mind to-"
The human seape-goat is a result of its per-
version. The worlds great criminals, thanks
to the scapegoat, go for the most part scot
free. But for the safety-valye which is thus
afforded for virtuous indignation, the mag
nificent humbugs and the consummate knaves
who adorn the surface and blight the heart of
society would be in danger of sharing the fate
of the comparatively petty cheats and villains
who are condemned to the penitentiary or the
gibbet. In fact, if society were compelled to
adopt dir, ct instead Of yicarious method of
indicating its virtue, it is to be unprecedented
that capital punishment would attain such an
extent as to resemble a social hari-kari.
Nowhere are the effects of the passion for
hunting somebody or some institution more
visible than in politics. 1t serves as one of
the most powerful weapons OF the demagogue.
Excited by him, it produces what Carlyle,
Anglicizing an expressive German word, calls
''swarmery." The whole movement in the
North, of the past quarter of a century,
against the South, has been prolonged swar-
merry. Slavery was only the occasion, philan-
throphy was merely the pretext. The true
secret of the fanatical combination and ag-
erosion was the need which unscrupulous
politicians felt for developing in Northern
communities the passion for hunting some
thing. The South happened to be the most
convenient game, and so the hunt was COM
menced against the South. All the political
Pharisees in the other section joined Justify in
the cry against her. Every political knaye
saw in it the means of diverting attention
from his vile personal designs. Mammon-
worahiping preachers took to it as naturally
as the devil takes to pitch and sulphur, and
they roaIed and beloved to iucite the furious
pack, because they saw money in it.
The rank and file Of the swarmery, Tray,
Blanche and Sweetheart, little dogs and ALL"
untiringly followed the trail in the exulting
belief that they were engaged in a mission of
virtue, the accomplishment of which could
absolve them from every sin in the calendar.
As for the particular sin which they fancied it
to be their duty to reform, being outside of
the calendar, they could not conceive the pos
sibility Of dissolution tor that. So the hunt
went on with progressive fury until the game
was run down. Now history begins to re-
view the proceeding, and mankind to perceive
that the philanthropy by which the leaders Of
the hunt protested to be inspired is a cruelty,
and that, instead of vindicating justice, they
have made the whole country a prey to I'M
precedented corruptions and atrocities in pub
lie affairs. 1t is hoped that the next develop
ment in the United States of the passion for