The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-02-05
Morning Star. and. Catholic Messenger.
MISCELLANY.

Good Humor a Duty.-Can any ono de-
fine good humorf We all know what it
is. We can feel and enjoy it, but it is hard
to pin the thing down to any formal def
milton. The good-humOred man is at all
events a happy man, man to DO envied,
a man on whom troubles sit lightly, and a
man who confers as much happiness as he
enjoys. He radiates it, as it were, and his
good humOr becomes an atmosphere In
which other peoples good humor, latent or
pined halfto death, comes out, revives and
hourishes. Good humor can scarcely be
called moral virtue. 1t depends perhaps
rs much on disposition and the perfect &C
ton of the liver as on anything else.
good humored man must be .pso .tacto a
eapeptic man, a man who enjoys a good
dinner. Now, q quality which depends
upon the action of a mans liver can scarce
IL be high moral quality. And yet has
any man q right to be dyspeptic. Is it not
q moral duty not to BET Setting aside the
rare cases of inevitable misfortune, is not
dyspepsia a mans own fault, generally
the result Of his gluttony, his iaziness, his
stupidity, his carelessness or his lgnOrance1
And are these things moral virtuesf Has
. man any right to make himself wretched,
to people himself with horrors, to make
himself nuisance to himself and every body
Scout him, because he lacks the sense to
control his appetite or keep his iver
healtbyf One of these days we shall
come to the conclusion that the snarling,
fretful, ill-tempered or complaining and
depressed victim is not merely to be pitied,
but deserves to be punished as he is. He
may be very devotional, in his way. He may
make high 3retensions to plety and re-
ligious feeling, but he is none the less
nuisance; and on the whole, dyspeptic
piety is as unhealthy as any other dyspep-
tho thing.-Erchange.
Sugar.-Sugar is of modern use only.
The ancents were unacquainted with it as
an article of commerce or of common use.
What revolution in our household affairs
would it occasion to strike sugar from the
list of dietary articles! 1t is Il necessity,
not q luxury. Within the last four hundred
years it has grown from being an article of
curiosity or luxury to be one of the great
staples of commerce. 1t enters every de-
partment of domestic economy. Humboldt
says that in China it was known and used
in ancient times; but if known ut all i'll
western Asia or Europe till within the last
few centuries, it was only as travellers
brought it as remembrances of foreign
chimes aud distant travel. There is some
foundation for the idea that it was not en-
tire1y unknown to the ancient Greeks We
find in the classics mention made OF honey
that the bees did not make, and honey from
reeds-the sugar cane being a reed. From
their expressions, it is thought that sugar
is meant, as all sweet articles were included
in the term honey in early days. Pliny |
says, there is a kind of honey from reeds
which is like gum, and it is used as a medi- !
cine. Some illusions in the Bible seem to
refer to sugar and honey. In later times,
it is said that the Crusaders found sweet |
honeyed canes growing in the meadows of
Tripoli that they-sacked these canes, and
were delighted with tho operation that
these canes were cultivated with great care,
and, when ripe, were pounded in mortars,
and the juice was strained and dried to a
solid, like salt; that, mixed with bread, it
was more pleasant than honey. In 1920 the
Portugese brought the cane to Spain, Ma
deria and Canaries, and thence it was
carried to the West Indies and Brazil. In |
these countries it found the conditions for |
its rapid development and the world was |
soOn furnished with the products of these !
countries so that sugar assumed q place
among the chief articles of commerce..
A Man Who Has Dug His O,rn Craze
An Indianapolis correspondent of the Gin
einpati Commercial tells the following story
of q man who in this connection has rather
q suspicious name John Dye, an old and
respectable citizen of Hancock county, in
this State, has had his grave dug for o
. number of years. He accomplished this
with his own hands, excavating the earth
bottom, and walling up the sides with
brick. A similar slab is intended to cover
the grave, and, what lis singular, MIR. Dye
has scooped out from the neither stone q
hollow for his body to rest in, with an ele-
walton in which there is another hollow for
his head. 1t is his desire that when he dies
he shall be dressed in certain specific
clothing, and that blanket shall be laid
in the tomb upon which his remains are to
be laid. Another blanket is to be spread
over him, and the large slab of stone placed
on the tomb; the earth filled in above. 1t
will be seen that he does away with the use
of q coffin entirely, and he further requests
no burial service be used or sermon
preached, and that no monument be erected
to his memory. Recently heavy rain
caved in the earth above the tomb, and Mr..
Dye set about repairs with vigor which
was surprising. To prevent recurrence of
the accident he has walled the grave up to
the surface of the earth, and carefully
covered it with boards and sod. The
grave is on his farm and within a few feet
of the railroad. Mr.. Dye is not yet an old
man, having barely passed three score. He
is hale and hearty, and lives in the old
tavern stand, where tho mail-wagons in
winter. and the CAV STAGE coaches in Rum-