The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-06-06
Al ELIMINATING PROCESS.


An ELIMINATING PROCESS.
We ara occasionally informed by brief
news item that some particularly mean and
disreputable individual has been shot to
death by some other person who is morally
and socially even meaner than the man he
slew. We are in no manner responsible for q
friends suggestion that the homicides be
Obliged, by way of punishment, to challenge
and meet in mortal combat the next meanest
man, and that the survivor should, in like
manner, call to the field the next meanest,
the process to be continued as long as any
mean men and bad survived, which would, OF
course, be long time.
The fear of receiving the next challenge
would have the effect of making the
notoriously mean conceal their in
trinity, as do monomaniacs. This would
appear to be great objection to our
friends otherwise most admirable plan,
but the objection falls to the ground when
We consider that genuine, unadulterated
m anness is something which the essentially
and thoroughly mean man never knows how
to disguise. As the lady said to her belated
spouse, You need not turn over, Jim, Tor
you are drunk all the way through So the
really and indisputably mean man cannot
conceal his malformation of character; mean
ness permeates his entire system, it saturates
all his sentiments, it twangs in every tone Of
his voice, it is exhibited in every movement,
it goes with him like his shadow, it walks
with him by day, it lies down with him by
night; his infant children see it and feel it.
1t is not the prompter Of economy, for men
are often parsimonious on principle, pinching
themselves in sensual and. animal pleasures
for the sake OF saving means for some cher
ished purpose. It is not the result OF
self shness, for many selfish men have yet
nothing of littleness in their nature, while
others essentially benevolent are still mean in
| their ways, little in their conceptions and
cheap in their instincts. Said the boss black
smith, on the morning Of Independence Day,
to his apprentice: ''There, Tom, there's six.
pence for you; don't make beast of your
selfr' He was benevolent man, but six
cents for half q years bellows-blowing was q
mean sum. Meanness attaches to action and
manner, and cannot be judged by figures II
is always cowardly, and all mean things are
done by those who dare not do otherwise.
Magnanimity, generosity, self-sacriice, are
not habits, but instincts. The mean man is
not so from lack of mind or lack of strength
or lack Of talent, but from what we must, fol-
want of q more accurate term, describe as
we would designate their infrmity as 'arrest-
ed PSF Geological development" Diseases Of
most kinds yield to modern scientific
treatment There may in time be found a
cure for the sneaking, the shabby, the stingy
and the mean, when those born into the
world with the abnormal deformity of small
ness of soul can be cured at an asylum. But
until that time comes, we must shield our.
selves from the affection of chronic meanness
as best We may.
We have authority for the plan Of our
friend in the pestilent grasshoppers of Ne.
braska, which devour and SO destroy each
other when they can no longer find fresh and
succulent leaves and blades to feed upon.
If an internecine war should, in like man
ner, put an end to mean men and their race,
it might bring sorrow to very few, but
gIadness to the multitude.
According to the plan suggested, the pro-
cess of slaughter could not stop until no
mean man could be found. We would pro-
pose only this proviso. that the privilege OF
moving to some other country be granted in
every case.