The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-07-19
DevOtees Of Self.

ldEhE aIC CcIt1iu pcOllc WIZ COIuC III.
to being with an understanding that the
means themselves. They are determined
usually carry out their determination at
thing is of more importance than their
wishes; and they become in time, If they
are not from the first, such utter incafha.
lions Of seliishness that everybody and
everything give way to them; their sell
fishness attains such proportions that it
borrows Of subl,mity, and nobody dreams
of gainsaying it. II they want thing,
they must have 1t, let who will 20 with
out 1t; if they are happy, nobody else
must show gloomy face; if they will
play, let those work that dare; il they
are sad, the world is turned topsy- turvy;
if they are sick, there is no health in Us.
Theirs is seldom, on the whole, noisy
selfshness; . very few storms In the be.
ginning do all the business, and there is
little occasion for more. The child bangs
its head little about the floor when 1t is
q couple of years old; and its mother, dis.
liking to see that banging repeated, takes
care that there shall be nothing to induce
it. A few years later, exasperated by
some resistance, it perhaps flies at its
guardian like wildcat, although stopping
short of blow or bite-and we have knows
the guardian thus inundated to be the
Notwithstanding itself capable of admin
istering punishment, even If it fails to adj
minister further than the fright and hor-
ror and grief; and the evaporation is sell
dom repeated. One or two subsequent
outbursts, to show, possibly, that the ma.
ture remains the same, and the privileges
are not to be tempered with; and thence.
forth there is no more attempt to oppose
the party, except it be in the case of life or
death, than there would be to take hold Of
the lightning.rod in thunderstorm. One
feels that there is always thunder in that
sky, and ready to fall, although the sun:
shine when undisturbed is 80 completely
sunshine, SO warm and bright and pleas
ant, that one is willing to make almost
clear. For these selfish people are selfish
are happier in the atmosphere of good
nature aud general content than in that of
recriminatiOn and gloom; and when they
have the best chair, the most attention,
the first chance ct the newspaper, at the
last novel, at the new fancy work patterns,
the back seat of the coach, the choice cut
at table-the chief consideration every
way, in short, and al the little accessories
Of pride and comfort that habit has de.
clared theirs by right--then they are In
the best Ut humors, and expect everybody
else to be 90 likewise.
There is always some excellent reason
for the tyranny of these devotees of self.
They ought to have the best chair; they
have the lame back, OF they get tired
more easily, or their strength needs to be
husbanded, or they are delicate anyway,
or else they always have had it, and they
are mot comfortable in any other, while
those who never have had it of course will
mot feel the difference. Then they should
have the novel first; it doesn't take them
so long to read it; they mentioned it first,
and wanted it most; they can't bear to
have it after everybody else has read it,
and knows just what they are feeling It
Just this or that page, and nobody else
cares about that, they expect it first,
which nobody else does; they are the old.
eat, and have right ~ such, or they are
the youngest, and ought to be considered,
and 20 on. They should have the choice
cut at table: their appetite IL the most fas-
tidious; they can't eat everything the way
some people can; that IL the most nutri-
tious, and 1t il we'll known that they need
the most nutritious; nobody else seems
to care for it, and everybody knows they
want it. OF course everybody knows
they want It'll They have taken precious
good care of that. That want is . light
they have mot hidden under bushel; it
has been " announced by oil the trumpeb
Of the sky" They never eat any but the
dark meat, whether there il dark meat
enough 70 give the rest tidbit Of it or