Arizona weekly miner., 1874-03-27
TUCSON.
MAKING EACH OTHER MISERABLE

As if there were not trouble enough in this world that come upon men without human de- sign, people set themselves 10 work to diminish happiness and to increase misery. Pbrenologists tell Us tbat there Is in man organ and faculty Of destructiyeuess-that when uuregulated, it in spires cruelty that it is the root of that horrible pleasure which lhe Romans had, aud their mod. ITn descendants still have, in murderous giadiA- toriai shows, contests of wild beasts, bull fights etc.
 But there runs through modern civilized soci- ety vein of the same quality. People who would taint to sec gush of blood and who think themselves Christians, have lively enjoy ment in witnessing pain, and cultivate the art of inhieting 1t. The mention of-a few of the meth ods employed will make good my remarks.
 The delight with which many report bad news, the eagerness with which they report the people of evil sayings which cannot but lacerate the feelings, show morbid love of suffering. This is not the trait of villainous natures IL exists in people Of real kindness of disposition. It Is not anomalous because it is so widely extended as 10 seem normal.
 Some people scatter pain producing elements thoUghtcssly, and are surprised and sorry when they witness the suffering produced. Others do lt for inomeniary pleasure, without meaning any serious results. But Bow and then we find persons who love to torment a victim. They en- joy another's sufferings. It is their happiness to see some one made keeDly miserable by their lance-like tongue They will smile, and talk in low. sweet tones, and shoot out quveTiBg senten- ccs poisoned-upped, and east a look sideways, to sec If they strike and at every sign of pain their face grows bright.
 assert their power over others. It raises one in his own estimation 10 perceive that he can con trOl the moods of another.
 But there Is still more common exhibition of the love of suffering. It is in the ignobIe, but universal, art of teasing.
 We see 1t in tue most unregulated form among children, who nip aud pinch each other, make up mouths, twitch each others clothes, run oil with
 
 gers, and in hundred ingenious ways strive to make each other miserable As they grow up, 1t | often happens that young people carry on cam 1 paign of teasing, each one yieing with another which shall be the sharpest.
 l It does not cease with youth Grown folks, | goodnatured, kndhearted, well-meaning and ' full of bencyolence, often show this peTyerse
 spirit in the midst of all their kindness. By
 sharp speech, by yelled sarcasm, by exciting curl | osty which they will not gratify, by Harratng pretended facts, by sinister compliments, by rai lying one when circumstances forbids q reply, by | equivocal praise, by blunt telling of some truth
 that had better been left unsaid, and by hundreds
 of ingenious ways which time would fail to tell 1 people iniiicL pain upon each other
 Those who, in the main, are striving to mako
 friends happy, will have one black thread in tb,
 web Of white. Those who really love each othcr
 have strange iondness for stirring each other up There is an innocent and even pleasure produc
 ing method of rallylng, which, if deftly anC
 gracefully done, heightens the enjoyment of SO
 ciety. One may touch a discord if 1t lapses into
 a true chord. Sometimes, when we have gooC , news 70 tell, we arc bewitched with a desire tC open the matter as If t were great trouble tha
 we are about 10 break. There is gentle badin
 age, an innocent arrow-shooting, which 6atter and charms. But life is full of the other sort. Darwin Is right in thinking that men ascende'
 from nOmads by gradual evolution, then it is yerl certain that some men came up by the way of th
 mosquito, the 1@a 2ad the biting fly, and tha
 their ancest,, traits still finger in the blood
 -f Henry Ward Beecher.