National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-08-12
THE "NAsrY PARr1cUL AIRS. ;,
Ovcr-Nice People Who Are Never
Happy Unless They Have n Bad
smell in Their NostriIs-A Picture
That is True 10 Life.

That is True 10 Life.
Rochester Post Express
We arc asked to explain tho meaning
of the phrase NASTY Particulars" and
tho significance of its application to tho
unique coterio Of all-sullicient, sclf-suili.
ciont, inefficient persons who are just now
engaged in asserting their own intellectual
and moral alsuporiority by turning up their
supersensitive noses at tho personal
character of men whom tho common
people lovo and respect.
A nasty particular person is one who Is
always looking for something nasty in
| his fellow men, in his associations and
surroundings, in his food. in his drink, in
society, in tho church, in the established
order of things, simply for tho purpose Of
showing that he himself is particularly
clcanly, sweet and pure in life and char
acter, in aspiration and purpose. lie is
especially happy when he finds q hair in
his butter or bug in his beer. 1t gives
him the opportunity to show to his neigh
bors by his look of disgust US he lifts out
the hair or extracts the bug that he has
been we'll brought up and is accustomed
to bald headed butter and pure beer. He
makes row about it and asserts with
distiuctness and emphasis that he is very
particular about what ho eats and drinks.
Ho commonly approprates to himself the
best of everything within his reach at
table, aud expresses disgust If his less
cultured neighbor eats what ho can get OF
the remainder with his knife. Ho Is a
paper collar sort Of person; makes % collar
and cuffs answer for whole suit of inti-
mate linen, and puts ON as many airs over
them rs though he were all frills from
shin to eyebrows. He detects no aroma
from the garbage heap in his own back
yard, but the vulgar odors of his ncigh-
boris kitchen annoy and exasperate him.
The nasty particular person perfumes but
never bathcs. In tho matter Of mint,
anise, and cummin he is rigorous and
strict, tho weightier things he does not
consider
The nasty particular person is nothing
if not suspicious. Ho attaches the worst
meaning 10 innocent phrases, suspects
double entcndre where none is intended,
puts bad construction on all that his
noighbors say and do, imputes dishonesty
to everybody who is engaged in business,
impurty aud vice to all who enjoy social
delights. and corruption and venality to
everybody who has gained popular conf
dence ind esteem by faithful public SER
pice. 1t Is u popularity Of tho nasty
varticulars that ilagrant, unconcoaled
nastiness, however Offensive, gives them
no concern. 1t is only tho nastiness that
they suspect in cleanly places that sets
their eyes rolling. Vice that fiaunts
itself they pass unuoticed. There is nc
special merit in joining general crusade
with the "rifTratf" of decent people
against wickedness in its open forms,
What they aim at is to detect aud de-
nounce some shortcoming in persons COM
mouly esteemed virtuous and honest. Ii
is by that token that they assert their
own higher standards and superior NOR
atty. And when they have found, or
imagine they have found, weakness or
fault in some reputable person who is held
in esteem by his neighbors, they go down
into the slums and call together the
scavengers and vultures, the openly
vicious and notoriously vile, to assist them
in upholding virtue and rcbuking vice.
The particular person If he sus
, poets that his tailor has cabbaged few
inches of his cloth shoots of into Chat
ham street and buys second hand cloth
ing; if he suspects his milkman of coquet.
ing with the pump he hies him straight
: to gin mill and browns his sorrow il
the fiery compounds Of tho distiller; if h,
, suspects his wife of unfaithfulness h,
hurries of to brothol; ii he suspects hi
clergyman of having doubts concerning
the Mosaic cosmogony, he ilirts out of hi
pow in q huff and goes and spends hi
Sunday in a beer garden. And if some
body says James G. Blaine is corrupt maj
and liar he snaps up tho calumny ant
rushes Off to lock arms with Tim" Camp
bell and Hubert o. Thompson and hel
them elevate the standard of politica
i 1. H..
And that is why We call these noisy
:, uneasy, toploftical persons who have jus
marched over to tho democracy, mast,
. particulars.