The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1876-06-15
Consideration of Others.


THE Saturday Reciew, in an article on |
this subject, says: Most people can be
auickened into consideration by selfin- |
terest. To be treated with consideration
is the privilege of wealth and greatness,
while it is the lot of some never to have
their existence recognized by regard for
their feelings, preferences, dislikes. 1t
does not do to complain, as some do, OF
people riding rough-shod over their SEN
sibilities but the thing sometimes happens
through mere preoccupation with the
principal figure in group. The consid-
crate temper ever bears in mind not only
the prominent members of company
but the supernumeraries. Nobody is in
significant enough to be left out of the
reckoning. This deliberation and sus-
pended action of thought and tongue is,
it must be granted, much easier to some
persons than to others. The more pro-
nounced the character the more is con-
sideration of this subtle kind difficult,
and thing requiring a constant effort;
it is mild virtue, meritoriOus in proper
ton to the wit and fine impulse it has to
contend with. By reformers and ascetics
it is discarded along with the other minor
domestic virtues. 1t is their business TO
disturb every comfortable state of things.
Every founder OF rule enfOrces his rule
upon ali constitutions and tempers alike;
consideration would be weakness. But
also it is the too common fault of family
life to fail in considerateness. 1t is sup
posed that natural affection dispenses with
it, as being quality so innate that moth
ing can weaken it. And no doubt it does
pull through some very rough encount-
ers; but nothing can in the long run
stand disregard or forgetfulness of the
idiosyncracies which constitute self. The
families that hold on to one another through
life have always considered one another in
small things as well as great.
Want of tact is so like inconsiderate-
ness in its effects that it may be regarded
as branch of our subject. We cannot,
for example, say whether it is want of tact
or want of consideration that sometimes
stumbles in the way Of the most critical
occasions of life-thosc touch and go
states of feeling between man and woman
which must be caught at the crisis; when,
| if a proposal is interrupted, declaration
strangled in the opening sentence, no after
opportunity is of any avail. To judge
from novels and from some actual expert
ences blunderers of our present type have
| great deal to answer for. Many a
blighted life owes its sorrows to an mop
perfume intrusion, or blindness to the OBJ
vious duty of keeping out of the way, or
to joke mistimed or some other obtuse-
ness of the moral sense. There is this
difference to be observed between want of
consideration and want of tact: that the
one can be cured by care, watchfulness,
regard for personal interest or an enlarged
benevolence, but the other never. Want
of tact is an incurable infrmity; nothing
can mend it, nothing can prevent its uD-
seasonable exhibition. 1t is sense want
ing, whereas inconsiderateness is only a
sense dulled from want of practice. In
the one case it is mere want of thought,
in the other it is innocent persistency in
wrong saying and doing. The topics
which want of tact will think suitable,
the memories it will rake up, the services
it will obtrude, the times and seasons it
will violate, arc in the very genius of per-
versity. While these escapades pass for
inconsiderateness they irritate the imme-
diate sufferer, but in time they accumu-
late into a treasury of anecdote and con-
stitute character. The people, however,
who really suffer under man who fla
GRAVITY wants tact, are not his immediate
victims SO much as those closely belong
ing to HIM, who sit by and listen and
wonder with tingling ears and flushed
cheeks; and, in fact, he often becomes
rather favorite with society. Deficiency
of perception, Joined with good nature, is
always making demands for indulgence
and puts the pardoner in a superior posi-.
ton. We are always telling good stories
of such people behind their backs; theil
sayings and awkwardnesses are a stock
subject in their own circle and SO promote
talk and good neighborhood.
Sidney Smith has given many of the
traits which describe consideration and its
opposite in his definitions of "a nice per
SON. and hardness of character IA
nice person. he says, "makes no diff.
culties, is never misplaced, is willing to
sit Sodkin, and is never foolishly affront-
ed. A nice person helps you well at din
ner and understands you. A nice person
respects all mems rights, never stops the
bottle, is never long and never wrong; al
ways knows the day of the month, the
names of everybody at table, and never
gives pain to any human being. All the
joys of life are communicated to nice PEG.
Pile; the hand of dying man is always
held out to nice person." And now fol
the reverse picture: "a hard person
thinks he has done enough if he does not
speak i'll of your relations, your children
your country; and then, with the greatest
good humor and volubility and with a
total inattention to your individual state
and position, gallops over thousand fine
feelings, and leaves in every step the mark
OF his hoofs upon your heart. The hard
person brushes little sensibilities, violates
little proprieties and overlooks little dis
examinations, all from wanting that fine
vision which needs little things, that del.
icate touch which handles them, and thai