The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1873-06-07
The Grat9nbLer.

WAC en- describe him. There is no language
sas. 30 justice to Iim-no supernatural
foresight which can predict where his next thrust
will fall, from what unsuspected corner he will
send his next arrow. Like death, he has all sea-
sons for his own his ingenuity is internal.-
Whoever tries to forestall or appease him might
better be at work in Augean stables; because,
after all, we must admit that the facts OF life are
on his side 1t is not intended that we shall be
very comfortable. There is terrible amount of
total depravity in animate and inanimate things.
From morning till night there is not an hour
without its cross to carry. The weather thwarts
US servants landlords, drivers, washcr-women,
and bosom friends misbehave clothes don't fit !;
teeth ache stomach gets out of order newspa-
pers are stupid; snd children make too much
noise. II they arenot big troubles they are lit
tie ones. If they are not in sight, they are hiding
have wondered if the happiest mortal could
point TO one single moment and say, 'At that
moment there was nothing in my life which l
would have changed" | think not. In argu-
men;, therefore, the grumbler has the best of it,
1t is more than probable that things arr, as he
says. But why say it? If the three be already
unbearable, SO much the worse. If he is uncom-
Portable, it is pity; we are sorry, but we can't
change the course of nature. Weshali soon have
our own litde turn of torments, and we do not
want to be worn out before il comes by having
listened to his; probably, too, the very things of
which he complains are pressing just as heavily
on us as on him-are just rs unpleasant to every
body as to him. Suppose everybody did as he
does Imagine, for instance, a chorus of grum-
Bile from ten people at breakfast table, all say
ing set s--Fae, or Immediately after each other,
tThis coffee is not fit to drink" Greatly the at
tendance in this house is insuferably poor" I
have sometimes wished to try this homeopathic
treatment in bad case Of grumble. 1t sounds
as if it might work a cure. If you lose your
temper with grumbler, and turn upon him sud-
denly, saying, "Oh, do otspoil all our pleasure.
Do make the best of things; or, ct least keep
quiet p then how aggrieved he is; b Nv unjust
be thinks you are to make personal matter of
it! "You do not surely suppose an response
BILE for it, do you p he says, with lofty air of
astonishment at your unreasonable seEsiiiveness.
or course, we do not suppose he thlnEs we are
to blame we do not take him to bea '''nl as we'll
as grumbler But he speaks to US, at as, be-
fore as about the cause OF his discomfort, what
ever il may be, precisely as be would il we were
to blame; and that is the one thing which makes
bis grumbling so insufferable. But this he can
never be made to see. And the worst of it is
that grumbling is contagious. If we live with
him, we shall sooner or later, in spite Of our dis
like of his ways, fall into them. There is no help
for this have seen it again and again. have
caught it myself One grumbler in family is
as pestienta thing asa diseased animal in herd !;
if he is not shut up or killed, the herd is lost.