The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-04-04

Reto WHIST mtsgre dime,sious your goodiy gourd
viii shrink. The confident assertion drops into
timid refusafto take such serious responsibility
on himself lyon have prlcked your windbsg, dis
seoted your pumpkin. spsi hencsforih you know.
the precise weight Of substance remaining. Yet
mankind sees him exactly where he was before,
and be will 20 about the world ia bis large, loud
way, ssying to every one that n you had followed
his advice ron would hare succeeded-supposng
you have failed or, n you have succeeded, he
be who guided you, and showed you how to 90 in
and win. For himself, and bic own affairs, he has
no more moral stamina than he had leadership for
you and yours. The least reverse knocks him
s Ssss h u ID a: oo%p.sy as frost sSsss
the pumpkin; in every circumstance requiring
promptitude, or GOODNESS, or keen perception, or
just decision, our staggering man OF roth fails
proves without doubt that be was only pumpkin
Of imposing presence, good neither as meat nor
stat when the time Of trial came.
Very often the pumpkin has wife
whose fiber is Is close as his Is loose,
%ho
speaks little and bossts not at all, but who does
all what she wishes 10 do, and whose iron will
pins her pumpkin to the wall "a the spear Of the
Bushman pins the elephant or the rhinocsros. IL
man, who ID 80 loud and confident abroad, knocks
under at home and how the high-crested deport-
ment which carries thirgs with such lofty bear
Of the hsnpecked husband a. soon a. the house,
door closes him, and he Is subjected to the pitt
less anslysis Of bone. There 10 no question OF
flourish then and i by chance the ambitious crest
should ny 70 display itself the wife knows howt TO
lower IL BY q few cecsive words Of keen edged
kind, and her pumpkin IL made to feel sharply
enough the difference exiting between fber and
pulp. Yet il Ia almost melancholy TO see one Of
these fine fourishing fellows 30 subdued. Pump
kin as he may be, 1t is not pleasant to see him SO
cut down in bis pride; and involuntarily ones
sympsthies 60 with him rather than with that
tenacious, hard mcuthed wife Of his, who would
be none tbs worse perhaps sor little OF her hus-
bands softness. and with less than her own hard
ness. How often, too, these big fellows have no
physical sam,ps, as well a. bat very shaky moral
fiber. A small. why lightweight will do twice as
is wanted but vhegs the question Is Of endurance.
Large heavy men anock up far sooner than the
nghtweiEhss; a$d though size and weight
eoupt for something At certain times and on
occasions, fiber sand tenacity go for more
in the long run. In the Crmea, the men
who first dropped of from exposure and priva-
ton were the Dagnihcenty- built Guardsmen--
men apparently bed and fed to the highest point
OF physical peIfe6 tion; while the understood little
liners, who had D0thing to be admired in them.
stood the strain Fsmely, and were brisk and SER
viceable when tie others were either dead or Ia
hospital. So far as we have gone yet. we have
otsolved the problem OF how to combine tough
most part fail In the one IN proportion as we sue.
coed IN the other. Many OF the dark skinned races
are pumpkins In away. Their flashing black eyes
and snarthy skins seem to be instinct with pas
sion; they look like living furnaces filed with
flames and moIeI metal, terrible fellows, danger
opa 10 ueddle with, and almost impossible TO sub
due. But nine tisles out OF ten We ind them to be
marvelousy meek persona, timid, smenable TO
law unable to give onense, and incapable OF tax
ing it, lambs niasquerading in tigers skins. A
fsir.faced AnglofSaxon, with his sensitive blush,
good-humored fmile, and light blue eyes. has
more pluck and pith Ia him than brigade Of GER
tain OF these daTs skinned men. He has iess fero-
city perhaps thsh they when they ere thoroughly
aroused, Il oughlour good.humored Anglo saxon
il by no means destitute OF fefocify on occasione
when his blood 4 up but II Is ierocity OF the bru.
tai and bludgeqa stand-up kind-ths ierocity OF
strength fairly Put ont against an adversary, not
the tigerish crusily which Is almost always found
when moral wtakness and physical submission
have q moI4entary triumph and reaction.
Cowardly meF are like women In their
revenge when once they get the upper
hand and their revenge IL more
cruel than that VI the hsbitually brave man who,
after q fair fight, o7ertbrows his opponent. Some
OF the dsrkskinned races look the very ideal or
the melodramatc rufian : operative brgands
painted with brood black lines, aud up to any
amount of deecs Of daring and OF crime; bat they
are only pumpkins at the core. We need not go
so far as Calcutta 10 ind them; we get examples
nearer home, both IN Houndsditch and in Rome;
for both jews and Italians are soft cored men In
spite Of their passionate outsides, and both would
be better for Oh extre twist and toushness in their
fbers.
Intellectual pumpkins are as common as those
OF the more specially physical kind. You meet
with philosophers and " thinkersp-perhaps they
are poets, perhaps polticians-who flourish out
vague big defamation which, when you reduce IL
20 lis essence, you find 10 be platitude worth
nothing; WHIPPED cream, without any foundation
for a cold pudding II they are Of the philos0phio
sort, they quo.s you Fichte and Hegel, to the be-
vilderment oiyouT brains unless you have gone
into the metaphysical maze on Jour own account;
but they mieb+ have put all they have ssid into
half dozen words Of three letters, like chiId's
frat reading esson. The flourish imposes, aud
people who cannot analyse take the whipped
cream for solid pudding, and think that platitudes
snces worthy Of deep respect and admiring won
der. All the professions which talk, either by
word Of mouth or in print, are specially given
10 this manifestation OF pumpkinhood. Preach
ers and authors sprawl and flourish over
their small inheritance with tremendous
assumption Of vital force and vigorous growth;
and weak hands, with weaker heads, find support
and shelter ID their foliage. Poets too, with
knack for turzang out large moulds In which they
have run very small ideas, are pumpkins dear TO
afeminine mirsd. Have we not our rupperg had
we not our ''ey TAM Montgomery and few others
that we mjghf catalogue We cared for the task,
each with his multifarious female following, and
his spiritual bsrem Of ardent admirersl All artists
that IL, The men who create or rather who as
sumo to creAte-are liable 10 be proved pumpkins
when csedlcn TO show themselves solid wood.
They talk grsndly enough, but when they have TO
translate ths1 words into deeds, too often the no.
BILE aims and immortal efforts they have been ad-
vocatipg tail on into pulp and water. and we have
botctes and potboiIers instead OF masterpieces
and high ART Perhaps We may take II as rule
that ell doerh who talk much and boast grandy
are Of the ppmpkin order, and that art like nature,
Il beat elaborated IN silence.
Strong viteged women are often pure pumpkins
with very rough and corrugated outside. Il fs
astonishing how soon they break down, and for
ell their stem and powerful looks sink under bur.
dens under which frail little creature, as light
as thstledpwn, will glide along quite easily.
Women With black brovs and harsh voices
brigsndeeses by appearance. or like the typical
Herodiss Of unimsgnative artists--are often the
gentlest aDe most IIthless Of their sex. and may
be feen acting quite compassionately towards
their infenf., or vindicatiDg their womanhood by
meekly sewing on their husbands buttons. and
weeping as his rebukes, while q fair, silver
toDgued, laDguid LADY, soft as II she were made
Of nothing harder than the traditional cream and
rose-leayes, will give up her babies az q prey 70
unfeeliDg hHrses and let her husband 60 button
less and IN rags. while she lounges before the FIRE
fx.Itf "a. or1 al q.