The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-11-22
Making each other Miserable.
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

as II there were not trouble enough in this
world that come upon men without human
design, people set themselves to work to di-
mnish happiness and TO Increase misery
Phrenologists tell us that there is in man an
organ and faculty of destructiueness. that
when unregulated it inspires cruelty; that it is
the root of that horrible pleasure which the
old Romans had, and their modern descend
ants still have, in murderous gladiatorial
shows, contests of wild beasts, bull fights. etc
But there runs through modern civilized
society vein OF the same quality. People
that would faint to see a gush of blood. and
who think themselves Christians, have a live
ly enjoyment in witnessing pain, and culti
vate the art of infcting it. The mention of
few of the methods employed will make
good my remarks:
The delight with which many report bad
news; the eagerness with which they report
to people evil sayings which cannot but lacer-
ate the feelings, show morbid love of suffer-
ing This is not the trait of vlanous ma
lures. 1t exists in people of real kindness of
disposition. 1t is not anomalous, because il
is so widely extended as to seem normal.
Some people scatter pain-producing ele-
ments thoughtlessly, and are surprised and
sorry when they witness the suffering pro-
duced. Others do it for momentary pleasure
without meaning serious results. But now
and then we find persons who love to tor
ment a victim, They enjoy another's suffer-
ings. 1t is their happiness to see some one
made keenly miserable by their lancclike
tongue. They will smile, and talk in low.
sweet tones, and shoot out quivering senten-
ceS, poison-tipped, and cast a look sideways
to see if they strike, and at every sign of
pain their face grows bright.
In part this is latent ambition. People
thus assert their power over others. 1t rails
es one in his own estimation to perceive that
he can control the moods of another.
But there is still more common exhibi-
ton of the love of suffering. 1t is seen in the
| ignoble but universal art of Teasing.
We see it in sits most unregulated form
among children, who nip and pinch each
other, make up mouths, twist each others
clothes, run off with toys, push and 'Joggle",
point with insulting fingers, and in a hun
dred ingenious ways strive to make each 9TH
er miserable. As they grow up, it often hap
pens that young people carry on campaign
| OF teasing, each one vieing with another
which shall be the sharpest
1t does not cease with youth. Grown folks.
| good-natured, kind-hearted, well-meaning.
and full of benevolence, often show this peT.
verse spirit in the midst of all their kindness
| BY sharp speech, by veiled sarcasm, by excit.
| ing curiosity which they will not CRAFTY. by
narrating pretended facts, by sinister compli.
menus, py rallylng one when circumstances
forbid areply, by equivocal praise, by blunt
telling OF some truth that had been better left
unsald, and by hundreds of ingenious ways
which time would fail to tell, peopleinfit pain
upon each other.
THOSE who in the main are striving to
make friends happy, will have one black
thread in the web of white. Those who real
| ly love each other have a strange fondness for
stirring each other up.
There is an innocent and even pleasure
,ai,s:, % .hod ~. of rallying which, if deftly
and Gracefully done, heightens the enjoyment
Of sdc;atv One may touch dscord if it
fansos u so mo true chord. Sometimes, when
,apIh a have good news to tell, we are bewitched
'r;tb desire to open the matter as if it were
a GREAT trouble that we were about to break.
! There is a gentle badinage, an innocent ar
row-shooting, which flatters and charms.
| But lite is full of the other sort. II Darwin
| is right in thinking that men ascended from
monads by gradual evolution, then it is very
certain that some men came up by the way
of the mosquito, the flea and biting fly, and
that their ancestral traits still linger in the
blood.-[N. Y. Ledger.