The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-07-16

thin are acid of tenn per end consumed with
| solIcitude. A cat who, INSTEAD of making the
! best of it, takes things to heart. grizzling
| woefally over the scarcity of mice or any
| kindred calamity, grows tbio and haggard,
| Fill at last her nine lives vanish one after
| another, and she herself altogether dsap
pears. So it lie with hum an bodies. Men
eod women, who, to speak in the argot of
the times, grill over the petty annoy.
euces incidental to existence, and ipsepara
Die from It, go to ruin like a care worn cat,
and compassiOnating her disasters--for a
feline feeling makes them wondrous kind
they share her tragic fate. In all ages
OF the world, fatness has been associated,
In general opinion, with laughter, content.
ment, and good humOr and THO ness with
tho opposite attributes. Julius Cesar has
stated both cases with o preciseness and
lucidity not to be surpassed:
a. Let me- have men about that are fat
Yosd Cassias Sa. lean and S1 ss onh
he thinks too much such men are dangerous"
The preference thus potently expressed is
of eternal duration, and co-extensive with
the limits of civilization. Fat people, go
where they will, are az welcome as the
flowers of May, whereas Pharaoh's lean
kline are eynony nous with all that is dis
NAL, dreary, and disconsolate. A romantic
interest bovers around the fat. " For me-"
quoth Faistaff, 81 am here Windsor stag
and the fattest, believe, i the Forest"
just SO; and that is the reason, glorious
Jack why thou art one of the pets and
darllngs of pOsterity. We laugh triumph
antly at the very thought of Falstaff while
Don Qaixete, the knight of the ruefut coan-
tenance, who was as thin as a lath, swakens
pity akin to contempt. Give me the man
whose face wears q never varying express
sion of fat, contented ignorance, and who
looks for all the world as though his head
were full of mutton kidneys. Surely,
man of that unctuOus type Is incompsrauly
nni< fr>k
tern-jawed scare-crow, who, to Qeote the
witty saying of Sydney Smith, gu ggests the
idea that he had put of his Assh like a
cloak and was " sitting in his bones for
GOODNESS" Bat you must not run away
with the notion that fat people are neces-
| EARLY of small mental power. No such
thing. Isit not written that HAMLET, Prince
OF Denmark, gentleman of the most ex-
allied intellect, whees actors sbsurdly con-
spire to represent as tall, thin, and stately,
sort Of heanan cy pTess, was in reality "fat
and scanG o. breath Z" Were not johnson,
Fox, GiSbOD, Burke, and host of others,
| equally illustrious, as fat as butter Are
We are not well assured that it was to that
| emnently "gOod and great map, King
George v" that Beau Brum mel's famous
inquiry, "Whe is your fat friendf' was
intended to apply. Then, again. there is
b k-the unfortunate nobieman now Ian
gushing, and likely to languish, at Dart
moor. What is the secret of that splendid
fellows popularity What ia the reason
that thousands feel so deep an interest in
him Simply because he ia so prodigously
fat. If he had weighed only ten stone, no
one would have bestowed q thought or shed
| tear upon him. But, to his glory be il
spoken, he weighs % ct. 5 10. 6 or. avoird
upols, and that is the cause of his being
held in snch noble estimation. Dryden, toe,
was fat man and mark with that tender
regret he looks back in imagination on the
good old times, when men and women led
lives conducive to fatness and content:
vet. then. THE little spot of earth we'll titled,
The good old man and sS 1SnS spent
sa N aEsSs Of @ 70
long descending, 'healthful progeny"
Those were, indeed, delightful days. Homer
and dignity then went hsnd-in. hand with
So they do now. The fat have still, 10
every sense of the word, "weight in
society to which the lean must not pretend.
So, true are the words of good old Roger
L'EstraHge=-" 1t is a fine thing to be fat
and smooth"
o. the Supesior Importance, Physical aaG
Moral, Of the Fat.
On sea and shore, by night and day,
everywhere and always, the fat man is the
master of the situation. When he enters
an omnibus, even in that most 1nhoepltabie
of couveyanees every body makes room for
him, and wieely so, for they are, one and
all, afraid that he may ''s't upon F" them,-l
proceeding TO which he is sometimes ad-
dicted, in a csrporeal as well as fgurative
sense. When accommodated with a seat,
your fat man never dreams of ecOnomizing
his size. By no means. Why should he 7
Nature has given him prodigiOus proper
tioDs, not to be diminished, but rather to
be diIated to the utmost possible extent.
Let the meagre and ill fed leok to it! They
may, if they have the pluck to do 80, ad-
dress the colossal stranger in terms of gen.
tie remembrance !; or they may ask in in
dignant tones, Whittier are you show
ing 7" as the ant said to the elephant but
if they have an ounce of common sense they
will keep civil tongues in their heads, and
treat the fat man with all conceivable cour-
tesy. What if he should make believe to
clip, and fall on the top of themf louis
membra inveniet, quis OsssR" Crushed and
kl.s, I'LL