The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-03-04


Yoa meet them everywhere. At
homo and when visiting, in this city
and in that town, gazing wistfully at
mansion here, and popping down
an alley yonder., When you, take
vosSf ease at your inn, you dnd spec
linen in corner, looking moroscly
and sullcnly miserable, complaining
that his hot water is cold, his brandy
adulterated, his tobacco the worst he
has ever had, and doing the best to
make the company as miserable as
himself; if you are coming from
church you hear him passing ill-na-
tured remarks about minister, clerk,
choir and congregation, and winding
up by calling himself fool for going
at all. Attired in black frock-coat,
with shining elbows, and still more
shining buttons, a waistcoat ten years
old. with buttons of different sizes and
different patterns, and trousers, the
original color of which you cap only
guess; finished off at one extremity
by.a shabby greasy, nondescript hat,
and at the other by the still more
shabby remnants of what had once
been a pair Of shoes: this is the man
who will wonder where young Smith
gets all the money he spends, and tells
you confidentially that Llovd. Smiths
employer should have his books eX-
amined. lie would not give parties
to friends, decorate himself with jew
elry, and have a dozen suits yearly,
and SO he tells Smith.
"Sour grapes. my cynical friend, re-
plies Smith. This is the man who
wonders what J ones would have been,
if his wife had not brought him some
money how long Wiediug is going
to stand the extravaganza of his
daughter and the flirting of his wife;
and if Brown is not in trouble, what
he has mortgaged his honse for, and
given bill of sale upon his furniture;
who, forgetting that every man is.
fool at least once in bis life, has nude
his brain the dictionary of all the fol-
lies of the ueighborhood and retails
them out whenever he can find list
ener, insulating that a man who has
done wrong or foolishly once, must
of necessity be always doing wrong
and foolish things.
At q birth he will tell you that half
the human race die before the age of
five years, and repeat the same thing
more emphatically at the christening;
at wedding, he will subtly hope that,
as the majority of weddings are un-
happy, he trusts this may be an eXcep-
ton, and further hopes that the Di-
vOrce Court may have fewer cases
next year, for it is lameutable TO find
that the cases are annually increasing
and at a funeral, hint that the de-
ceased was none better than he, or
she, ought to have been. Sour in tenn
per, cynical III language, disagreeable
i'm company, feared by his wife,
summed by his children, hated by his
acquaintances, and sowing dissension
in himself, he is very miserable OBJ
ject indeed.
Such men arc often gifted with great
talents; clever almost TO a proyerb,
and accomplished to high degree,
they are, in their start in life, the envy
and admiration of the circle in which
they move. Some take the fiattery
of their friends for granted. fondly
fancying they are cut out for fortune,
and cease to exert themselves to hold |
i'm fact the position they have nomi-
nally gained by the gifts they possess,
and the laudationS of prejudiced |
friends. Some are too seli-confident |
i'm the commencement, and unsup- |
ported by experience, they fail; some |
marry young, and the money which |
should lay the foundation of fortune
is swallowed by the wife at first, and
the children .afterward; and some
spend their savings in gaity and dissi
patton, trusting to luck for future cap
ital. But by far the greatest rumber
pick out some line in which
TO employ their energy and their
brains, and work at that particular
thing with concentrated carnestness,
bent upon success. Whether it has
been by lack of influence, by casual
ty of birth. by combination of I'M
lucky circumstances, Or--mucl more
the competition of large
capitalists and social cliques, they have
failed. 1t is not in the nature of tie
Of even energetic men to
keep fighting against what seems curl
ously like the doctrine of fate.
1t is the good fortune of few men
10 be able 10 say with Delsraeli, Il
have attempted many things. and have
often failed i'm the beginning; but l
have never abandoned the final hope
of success" They have failed, and
are broken in spirit and effort, giving
i'm and settling down among disap-
pointed men. Why have they failed?
We see that they possess higher gifts
by nature than thousands OF wealthy
men. and as high ones as leaders of
the church, the State, of society and
of commerce. They have worked as
hard and as long as successful ones,
and handled the same too,s, traded IN
the same goods, and worked in the
same places. Why is it? We don't
know; they don't know,
But they think over it, brood over
il. puzzle their brains with the prob
lem, until 1t is bitter as gall and worm
wood. Gradually it saps their better
nature they magnify their troubles
degenerate from dissatisfaction TO pet
ulancy from being petulant get cross
from being cross, get 10 be intensely
a nuisance both TO them
selves and everybody else.
A Few Hints.
some gentle hints Oh manners are
v;yan l,v am exchapyp from which we