Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-03-18
Odd People.

aAS bCSCSohthy puu DtODlC
the contrary. Society, much as it dis
likes them, ia forced to allow this.
Many men and women whom others
stigmatize as $50 very peculiar" are,
the latter often confess, not worse, but
much better. than themselves; capable
of acts of heroism which they know
they would shrink from, and of endur-
apce which they would much rather
adni5e than initiate. But then they
are such odd people! How? In what
does their oddity consist? Generally,
their detractors cannot exactly say. 1t
mostly resolves itself into small things,
certain peculiarities OF manner or
Guaintness Of dress, or all original way
of looking at things and fearless
fashion of Judging them; Independence
OF or indifference to the inDumerable
small nothirgs which make the sum of
what the world considers everything
worth living, worth dying for, but
which these Odd people do not consider
of SO much importance after all.
Therefore the world is offended with
them, and condemns them with u sever
ity scarcely commensurate to their
deserts. Especially in things most
apparent outside-their mariners and
their clothing. AS general rule, any
style of dress whether an exaggeration
of the fashion of the time or diverg-
ence from it. which is so different from
other people as to make them turn
round and look at it, Isl mistake.
This sort of eccentricity I do not
defend. But do defend the right of
every man and woman to dress himself
and herself in their own way; that is,
the way which they find most comfort
able, suitable, and tasteful, provided it
is not glaringly obnoxious to the com
munity at large. A gentleman who,
hating the much-abused but still
endured chimney-pot hat, persists in
going through life with his noble brows
shaded by wideawake; lady who has
manfully resisted deformity in the
shape Of tight stays and high.heeled
boots, has held out successfully against
hoop petticoats and dresses tied up like
umbrellas, who declined equally to
smother her fresh young face under a
coal-scuttle bonnet, or to bare her poor
old cheeks to sun and wind and critical
observation by small stringless hat,
good neither for use nor ornament
such people may be set down as odd;"
but they are neither culpable nor con-
temptible. They do what they consider
right and best for themselves; and what
possible harm do they do to other
people? Again, many are odd simply
beca use they are independent. That
weak gregariousness which is content
to "folIow the multitude to do evil
Tor good, as it happens, and often the
chances are pretty equal both ways) is
not possible to them. They must think,
speak, and act for themselves. And
there is something in their natures
which makes them q law unto them
selves, without breaking any ether
rational laws. The bondage of conven-
tionality-a stronghold and safeguard
to feebler folks to them unnecessary
and irksome. They mean to do the
right, and do it, but they cannot sub.
NIT to the trammels Of mere convenience
or expediency. Being quite clear Of
their own minds, and quite strong
enough to carry out their own purposes,
they prefer to do 80, without troubling
themselves very much about what
others think OF them. Having much
larger bump OF self.csteem, or self.
respect, than OF love of appreciation,
outside opinion does not weigh with
them as it does with weaker people,
and they go calmly upon their way
without knowing or asking what are
their neighbours feelings toward them.
Therefore their neighbors, seeing
actions but not motives, and being as
ignorant of results as they are of
causes, often pronounce on them the
rashest Judgments, denouncing the
quiet Indifference OF true greatness as
petty vanity, and the simplicity of a
pure heart and single mind as mere
sffectation. OF necessity these todd
people are rather solitary people. They
may dwell in a crowd, and do their
duty in q large family, but neither the
crowd nor the family entirely under
stands, or has much sympathy with
them; and they know it. They do not
always feel it-thst is, to the extent Of
keen suffering, for their very" oddly
makes them sufficient to themselves,
snd they have ceased to expect what
they know they cannot get. Still, at
one time probably they did expect it..
That pernickity" old maid, whom
her nieces devoutly hope they may
never resemble, may have been the
"odd" one-but the thoughtful and
earnest one-in tribe of light-minded
sisters, who danced and dressed, flirted
and married while she-who herself
might possibly have wished to marry
once upon tine-never did, but has
lived her solitary, self-contained life
from then till now, and will live it to
the end. That man, who was once q
gay young bachelor, and is now q grim
old bschelor-not positively disagree
able, but very peculiar, with ell sorts
of queer notions of his own, may have
been, though the world little guesses it,
a thoroughly disappointed man; begin.
ming life with grand ideal of ambition
or philanthropy, striviBg hard to make
himself, or to mend the world, or both,
and finding that the task is something
Like one who strives In little boat
To tug to him the ship anoat.
And go, though he has escaped being
,wamped, he ut last gives up the vain
struggle, folds bis arms. and lets him
self ntIoat mo@rnfuily on with the ebb-
ing tide. Undoubtedly odd people
have their consultations. In the first
place they are.Quite sure not to be weak
people, Every one with marked