Des Arc weekly citizen., 1869-02-23
TI,e Growler.

Of the human species the variety growler is pretty large one. It i; not confined to the dog species. Dogs
 as general thing, growl good deal
 It is very natural way of spending a few hours of each day, not so much perhaps because they expect to do any good by their growing. but because they enjoy the business for it's own sake. A dog must take considerable delight in this amusement. 1t gives him an air of independence and ire proachability. It is a sort of warning to all the world, that all the, world lad better let him alone, or else he win go for them. He stands upon his dignity he wags his tail to no one; he would dig at the brooches ofking or began he is at enmity with all humanity, and the only vent his rage can find, is in snapping and snaliing at everybody. There is n community of feeling ex- isting between the man-growler and the dog growler. Both are actuated by the same motives. In both the ami mue is materially the same. The man. growler growls because it is natrnal for him to growl; it is characteristic peculiarly; it is as agreeable q, pas. 1 time as to cat; indeed he would die il he could not growl. He is a misan- thrope His mind is in state of con tinued ill-will toward everybody n Nothing meets his approbation.l His argumcnti. sheer. his conclusion 6 sarcasm.
 Old Diogencs is tho historic repre- sentative of this class. He sat in his tub and growled at all who passed He growled at the. men; growled al the priest and growied at the liberties
 growled at religion and growled d politics; growled at the customs o dress. In his view, the world wa; full os absurditv. t He never stopped to think that perhaps the absurdity lay in him more than in the world; but like the insane man he imagined him, self the embodiment of ail sanity and propriety, while the rest of the world had all gone as,ray.
 Tho habitual growler is the mos' opinionated and obstinate of men Do you call thing white, he insists upon it that it is black do you pro. nounce a thing all right, he is more than sure that it is all wrong; do you favor particular ideain religion poll. tics or science, he lets fly at you dul
 broadsidc of his sarcasm. You be, licve yonr ancestors were pure men he knows they were raseals you have faith that there is virtue in the world to him the world is 2 hell, and the men and women devils; you think there is soma sauctity about religion, he pronounces it superstition and char latanry.
 There is a great distinction between a growler and a reforner, and yetboth have many things in common. A re- former, like g growler, is very severe upon what he considers ridiculous, and has battery of sarcasm for theo- ries and customs wbich lie considers absurd. But the growler hates be- cause he is a misanthropist the refor- mer because he is q philanthropist
 the growler tears down for the sake oi tearing down--thc reformer, that he may build Q iairer structure. The growler is an iconoclast--the reformeI an artist.
 The world needs the reformer, and can well afford to listen to his ridicnlt
 of social absurdities, or his sarcastic attack upon those worn out and de 1 funct ideas which still stick to human
 ity like plague spots. His object is tt elevate men, to destroy the fortressei
 of superstition, and to inaugurate th' rein of the best of monarchs, the liu lman reason. But the growler--wha
 cares he for reform? He condemn advance as much as retrogression h hates changes as much as stagnation
 He is bilious, morbid and scnsitivi nondescript, q dissatisfied, disguste'
 and disgusting variety of the genu
 homo, an aimless and refomless fault
 finder, an intolerable bore. W