The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-01-22
Aptitude for Injury.

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A limited number of people posses,
what may be called an aptitude for in
jury. They not only accept If at evarv ~
satn aatnssh ahq rscsiYe it at every pore, but
actuaiiy seem 70 hunt It up and lie in
wait Tor 1t. Nothing falls that does not
mt them; nothing breaks that does NOT
I hurt them; nothing happens any way
tnat they do not reap golden harvest
OF wrong from it. These people are
miserable, as a matter of course-that
goes without saying; but they would be
utterly and hopelesslY miserable if thew
COULD not at any moment scrapes M
substance of an injury together to solace
some heavy hour destitute Of other ex-
citements ssIf somebody has NOT. back.
bltten them, somebody is Just about to
do so; il somebody has not cheated
them, somebody would Ike to- cheat
them;. and if the number of the ill-;n-
tentioned living is sufficient to feed the
appetite for boasted suffering, there is
always. an apeestryEfortunate thingl x
70 faiI back upon, whose wrong -doifgs
have been innumerable, and fheresuits
OF whose wrong-doings are ipcalculable.
Of course these injured beings never
do any thing to provoke injury. They
never insinuate or whine; they never
openly or underhandedly charge the in
nocent with outrage; they never weary
the patient with complaining, or repay
good intentionsG with tunoeasing- res
proach, or's nag'' theworm till it turns !;
they never abuse any body's, friends;
they never critieise any body's person /
they never, make themselves so disa-
greeable that people avoid them and
escape them in selfsdefense :, and thew
are never BY any means So insofent over
imaginary INJURIES yfiatsit becomes i'm
possible for those having any self-re-
spect at all tesexplains the circumstances
and do away with the error; they never
in effect do anvthing sbua 0ondua them
selves like suffering saints waiting for
their translation.
Way stheni it1ayFbe asked y ssheuld,
any body want to injure them? But
there is the mystery, the problem they are
always trying to solve, and whose solu-
ton, though they reach it twenty WAYS,
will never be other than to the satisfac-
tion of their self-esteem; and they inva-
riably fall back on a comforting belief
that they receive the injury because of
their superior virtues, graces, beauties,
Or rlposition.
These. people, it may be- SEEM are
possessed of a singular sort of folly, if it
may be so mildly denominated, and it
be not in reality an, idiosyncrasy bor-
dering on the nature of insanity There
is wisdom ordinarily in doing the utmost
to have tine world beiiese you To- sb6 vel
Thought of, held in esteem, and treated
with consideration. IF people in general
observe that you have the countenance
of Others, you are tolerably sure. to stand
well in their favor;% but if others are
found to regard you as worth nothing
but injury, the natural inference may be
that nothing but injury is what you de-
serve. 1t is only the beggars that ex-
hibit their sores IS and those. that have
any COMMON sense with theirs vanity,
and wish the worldSto hold whatever is
said or thought of them Of consequence,
instead of parading the i'll 'conceit that
others have of them, will take every OPP
portunity of making xpanifest precisely
the contrary, and swelling their seH-im-
portanEe Aby the means of is. But no
such idea enters thenminds of these nm
fortunates their vanity feeds on their
martyrdom. s .s.ias a ..f.f
1t is not always, either, that they are
entirely satisfied with the ills they have;
they would like to fancy themselves re-
ceiving some positive and tremendous.
wrong. If somebody would slap their
faces, they would have real exuhation
If their wives would run away, if their
husbands would try to take their lives,
-bfssssthat is, of fttheir Melancholy
kind = could hardly go4 farther with
them.
In what the enjoyment OF, this sort of
emotion consists, it is not easy to say,
nor even to Imagine. If it were in the
exhibition to spectators of the, patience
and meekness and fortitude with which
the wrongs, real or imaginary, are
borne, one might gather some compre-
hension of it, in view of the self-com-
placency gratified by such exhibition.
But as the spectators see nothing OF the
sort, but, on the other hand, see every
opposite method used not fortitude,
but. witness not mseknes, .hlt defiance.
and no other patience than that simu-
lated sort which is a mockery of those
whom itaets1ses2 H remains something
as yet unexplained why there are people
In the world who love 10 be injured, and
who are happier The more injured they
are-peopis WHO know that nobody pbs-
sesses such power of screating intense
discomfort in the hearts and souls Of
Those that mean to do right as them
selves, such power to sp5loy, to humble,
to worry, to sadden, to distress in every
way, and who eond hesitateto exercise
the power to its fullest extent, TIL one is
ready to declare that there is no such
imp of torment in ahysshome as one OF
these saints and martyrs. . Harper 3
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The Strasburg University.
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A correspondent at Strasburg states
that the new university is giving prom
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