Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-03-28
Making Each other Miserable.

| As if there were not trouble enough
in this world that come upon men
without human design, people set
themsclvs to work to diminish hap
piness and to increase misery. Phren-
ologists tell us that there is in man an
organ and faculty of destructiveness
that when unregulated, it inspires
cruelty; that it is the root of that
horribid pleasure which the old Ro-
mans had, and their modern decend-
ants still have, in murderous gladito-
rial shows, contest of wild beasts,
bull-fghts, etc.
But there rms through modern
civilized society a vein of the same
quality People who would faint to
see a gush of blood, and who think
themselves Christians, have n lively
enjoyment in witnessing pain, and
cultivate the art of infiicting it. The
mention of a few of the methods en-
ployed will make good my remarks:
The delight with which many re-
port bad news, the eagerness with
which they report TO people evil say
iGgs which cannot but lacerate the
feelings, show q morbid love of suffer-
in". This is not the trait of william
Gus natures. 1t exists in people of
real kindness of dispositions. 1t is
not anomalous, because, 1t IS so wide
ly extended as to seem normal.
Some people scatter pain-producing
elements thoughtlessly, and are sur
prised and sorry when they witness
the suffering produced. Others do
it for mOmGntary pleasure, without
meaning any serious results. But
now aud then we find persons
who love to torment victim.
They enjoy anoth er' S suffer
ings. 1t is their happiness to sec
some one made keenly miserable by
their Iance-like tongue. They viii
smile, and talk in low, sweet tones,
and shoot out quivering sentences,
poison-tipped, and cast a look side
ways to see if they strike, and at
every sign of pain their face grows
bright.
In part this is latent ambition. Peo-
pie thus assert their power over others.
1t raises one in his own estimation to
perceive that he can control the moods
of another.
But there is a still more common
exhibition of the love of suffering.
1t is seen in the ignoble, but univer-
sal Art of Teasing.
We see it in its most unregulated
form among children, who nip and
pinch each other, make up mouths,
twitch each others clothes, run off
with toys, push and 'Joggle," point
with insulting fingers; and III hun
drcd ingenious ways strive to make
each other miserable. AS they grow
up, it oftens happens that young peo-
pie carry on campaign OF teasing,
each one vieiug with another which
shall be the sharpest.
It does not cease with youth. Grown
folks, goOd-natured, kind-hearted,
well-meauing and full of benevolence,
often show this perversc spirit i'll 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 compliments, by rallying
one when circumstances forbid n re-
ply, by equivocal praise, by blunt
telling of some truth that had been
better left unsaid, and by hundreds
of ingenious ways which time would
fail to tell, people inhict pain upon
each other.
Those who in the main are striving
to make friends happy wilt have one
black thread III the web of white.
Those who really love each other
have a strange fondness for stirring
each other up.
There Is an innocent and even pleas
surc-producing method of rallying
which, if deftly and gracefully done,
hcighteus the enjoyment of society.
One may touch 4 discord if 1t lapses
into a true chord. Sometimes, when
we have good news to tell, we are be-
witched with q desire to open the
matter as if it Were n great trouble
that we were about to break. There
is a gentle badinage, an innocent ar
row-shOOtiug, which hatters and
charms But life is full of the other
sort. If Darwin is right in thinking
that men ascended from mOnads by
gradual evolution, then it is very GER
that some men came up by the way
of the musquito, the flea and the
biting fiv, and that their ancestral
traits still linger IN the blood.
The Female Institute building at
Murfreesboro is to be enlarged and
otherwise improved.
THE VERY THING FOR CoLDs.-A
writer in the "McdicaI Record"
cites Il number of cases in which
borax has proved 4 most effective
remedy in certain forms of colds.
He states that in sudden hoarse-
ness or loss ofvoicein public speak
ers or singers, from colds, relief
for an hour or so, as by magic. may
be obtained by slowly dissolving
and partly swallowing lump of
borax the size of a garden pea, or
about three of four grains, held in
the mouth for ten minutes before
speaking or singing. This pro-
duces a profuse secretion of saliva,
or watering of the mouth and
throat, probably restoring the voice
or tone to the dried vocal cords,