American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-11-27

AT home surly, ill-conditioned, bad
companion, q quarrclsome disputant be-
fore folk how amiable, pleasant-mannered
and smooth-speeched is Crossgrainl Born
q gentleman but not consecrated by nature
to his class if designated one of the aristoi
by the accident of paternity, no one who
sees him out in the world with the silken
coat of conventional good breeding-in-
herlted from a long line of ancestry
drawn closely over the bearish hide of
him as he has it from nature would be-
lieve that he could possibly be that hate
full thing which his wife and children and
dependents know him to be. Public
opinion rules him as it rules us all. He
knows what it behooves him to seem to
be when before folk and he acts on his
knowledge. Were he to show his true self
he is aware that other angular human
atoms, as cross grained as himself, would
have the right to repudiate him as a we'd
ding-gu without the wedding garment,
and that he must at least dress for the oc-
casion if he cannot transform himself.
He is before folk-hence on his good be-
havior; and his good behavior deceives
all but the experts and those who have
been behind the scenes, where they
have seen the coarse foundation and
tested the paint and tinsel His wife
knows the artificial composition of
which his affability is made, but the
stranger thinks it pure and sings his
praises as man more estimable by far
than his neighbors. To the children he
does not love, of the man he detests, he is
all smiles and paternal tenderness. He
plays with them in the most delightful
manner, like one of themselves, only far
better than anything they can ever hope
to be; he caresses the girls, makes him
self boy with the boys; they, the inno-
cent lambs, see nothing of the VOLTS ears
peeping out from underneath the soft wool
of the hOmely sheep who makes himself
their companion, and frisk around him
confidingly, much wondering that his own
children, their companions, stand aloof
and look afraid of their parental play
mate. That, too, is only bit of life
which is laid before folk for public in
spection. 1t does not go through. Could
the lambs but hear the snarls of the real
being lying pertn beneath that soft out
side of wool they would understand then
the reason why his own hold aloof and
are afraid to join in the play SO frankly
offered to strangers. So, when the women
to whom he pays court see his wife's sad
look, and mark the cold melancholy of
her manners, they call her blameworthy
and him adorable; but were they
to exchange places and be that wife
for week they would then understand
things little better than they do now and
appOrtlon their blame more justly. IhlS
change of Crossgrain, as between before
folk and behind backs, runs through him
from end to end. He is of the nature of
reversible cloth, which can be worn on
the black side or the blue, as the mood of
the moment may determine, yet which al
ways remains the same thing substantial
ly. The people at home know him, and
have sorrowful reason to confess the same;
SO do a few of his honest private friends,
intimate enough to have got into the pen
tralia of his uncomfortable being. But
to the world outside he is sIlken, soft,
f1attering, unless for any purpose of his
own he thinks it well to show the VOLTS
teeth, generally so carefully concealed,
when he generally manages to bite pretty
hard and to leave marks that are neither
pleasant nor slightly. 1t is sight for the
laughter of gods when Crossgrain forgets
to be a flatterer before folk, and becomes
his real and unadulterated self-Thersites,
with exaggerations.-Home Journal.