Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-03-05
Making Each Other Miserable.


As IF there were not troubles enough in
this world that come upon men without
human design, people set themselves to
work to diminish happiness and to In
crease misery. Phrenologists tell us that
there is in man an organ and faculty OF
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, when unregulated,
it inspires cruelty; that 1t Is the root OF
that horrible pleasure which the old Ro-
mans had, and their modern descendants
still have, in murderous gladiatorial
shows, contests of wild beasts, bull fights,
ETC.
But there runs through modern civil
lied society vein of the same quality.
People who would faint to see gush of
blood, and who think themselves Chris
tians, have lively enjoyment in witness
ing pain, and cultivate the art of inflict-
methods employed will make good my re-
marks.
The delight with which many report
bad news. the eagerness with which they
report to people evil savings which can
not but lacerate the feelings, show amor
bid love of suffering. This is not the
trait of villainous natures. 1t exists in
people of real kindness of disposition. 1t
extended as TO seem normal.
Some people scatter pain-producing
elements thoughtlessly, and are surprised
and sorry when they witness the suffering
produced. Others do ii for momentary
pleasure, without meaning any serious
results. But now and then we find per.
sons who love to torment victim
They enjoy another's sufferings. 1t is
their happiness to see some one made
keenly miserable by their lance-like
tongue. They will smile and talk in low,
sweet tones, and shoot out quivering sen.
fences, poison-tipped, and cast look
sideways to see If they strike, and at
every Sign of pain their face grows
bright
In part this is latent ambition. PEG.
pie assert their power over others. 1t
raises one in his own estimation to per-
ceive that he can control the moods of
another.
But there is still more common exhi-
bition of the love of suffering. 1t Is seen
in the ignoble but universal Art of Teas
ing.
We see IL 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 fin
gers, and in a hundred ingenious ways
strive to make each other miserable. AS
they grow up, it often happens that
young people carry on a campaign OF
teasing, each one vying with another
which shall be the sharpest.
II does not cease with youth. Grown
folks, good-natured, kind-hearted, we'll
meaning and full OF benevolence, often
show this perverse spirit in the midst of
all their kindness. BY sharp speech, by
yelled sarcasm, by exciting curiosity
which they will not crafty, by narrating
pretended frauds, by sinister compliments,
by rallying one when circumstances for.
bid reply, 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
infict 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
really love each other have a strange
fondness for stirring each other up.
There Is an innocent and even pleasure
producing method of rallying which, II
deity and gracefully done, heightens the
enjoyment of society. One may touch a
discord IL it lapses into a true chord.
| Sometimes, when we have good news to
| tell, we are bewitched with desire to
open the matter rs If 10 were q great
| trouble that we were about to break.
There is gentle badinage, an innocent
arrow. shooting, which flatters and
charms. But life is full of that other sort.
If Darwin is right in thinking that men
assembled from monads by gradual evo-
luton, then il is very certain that some
men came up by the way of the mosquito,
the flea and the biting fly, and that their
ancestral traits still linger in the blood
Beeclter.