The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-11-14
MINOR MISERlES.
The Little Things Which, Insignificant
Considered singiy, become Formidable
IN the Aggregate.

| The Little Things Which, Insignificant
| Considered singiy, Become Formidable
IN the Aggregate.
Like a dyers vat, miseries are of all
shades and depths of intensity. Some
are black as jet and obscure the very
sunlight, while others. of the mildest
gray, are mere wash over the face of
the picture, at the most SOLDERING the
brilliancy of the carmine and dulling
the shine of the silver and gold. There
are miseries which are veritable sex
tons of happiness, opening graves
wherein are cast the bes. jewels of life;
and there are mIseries which are only
like small mole -hills-just minute ex-
crescences on the smooth plain, scarcely
delaying the step to avoid and not
tripping up the most observant even if
struck against. All the same view
less troop of minor mseries can give as
much positive pain as the worst of the
major. Like the threads by which the
Lilliputians bound CULVER and sub
dued him-like the individual sticks OF
bundle -singly, each is insignificant
enough. In bulk they are unconquer-
able; and their action is as irritating as
the buzz OF mosquito and the sting of
midge-by the way, themselves fit
examples of these minor miseries of
which we speak.
Noise is misery of almost too for
midable dimensions TO be ranked
among the smaller fry. Indeed. noise
may be placed on the border line be-
| tween the major and the minor-the
gravely important to ones health and
the substantially immaterial in the
helping on Of ones death. To some
highly-sensitive folk noise is torture.
1t does not kill them but it makes them
miserable. A barrel-organ before their
windows; German band, out of time
and tune, at the corner of the street;
the monotonous ding dong of the
chapel bell; the maddening chimes of
the town-hall clock; the roll of the car
riages; the whistle and the grind, the
snorting and the screeching Of the rail-
way and the engine; the bowling of the
kenneled dog and the miauling of the
nocturnal cat, with the intermittent
Growing of the matutinal cocktail
these are noises only too well known
by the nervous and the irritable, to
whom the very song of birds is '.hor-
rid noise" and one of Beethoven's SON
atlas but the orderly disposition of bray
and cackle. To live in the heart of a
wood where never ring dove cooed to
its young-to be in the center of plain
where even the skylark forgot to sing
as it scared, and not a grass
hopper chirped in love to its
mate nor in defiance to its rival-that
would be the Land of Bliss for one of
these poor tortured beings. Place him
then where brazier hammers out his
pots and pans; where fulling mill
thumps and thuds in regular blows of
wooden density; where costermonger
has his pitch" or dairyman keeps
his fowls, and you place him in circum-
stances OF so much pain as leaves his
life no margin for pleasure. What
Thomas Carlyle suffered from that
growing, crested demon-what we all
have suffered from that nocturnal cat
We did not die under the infection. but
we ragged and raved in agony of mind
and impotent irritation of nerves; and
we have more than once had to change
our habtation and our locality b, cause
of the noises to which we could not ac-
custom ourselves and which we could
not by any means open to us put down.
A minor misery, cognate with this, is
the barking dog belonging to your dear
friend. Go as often as you will, that
dreadful dog ever banks his foolish an
nouncement, or more foolish question
q q a
why have you Gomez His yelp is shrill
and overpowering. and he knows that
he is not wanted as herald that his
mistress is as well aware as he of your
arrival-and that he will not be told
why and wherefore you have come.
But there he stands. and banks like a
maniac; and only when he is chidden
does he give short, final, surly snap
as he retreats growing beneath the
sofa. His mistress adores that brindled
brute. You execrate and detest him.
But as you wish to stand well with her
you pat and caress him, and wonder in
your secret heart how so nice a woman
can care for so abominable a nuisance
and how glad you would be to have
the disposal of him.
There are certain visits which we
have to pay, stuffed as thick as a we'll
furnished pin-cushion with miseries of
the minor kind. Say that you, the
visitor, are early in habits, methodical,
and punctual; you go to house where
the breakfast begins at ten. and where
the winds of heaven play at ninepins
with the hours. No one ever dreams OF
being punctual. The meals are nova
BILE feasts with a vengeance; and the
days drive. for which you interrupt
your own work, comes full hour after
it was arranged for. That hour you
have lost hanging about the hall and
morning-room waiting for those I'M
punctual people who are contentedly
playing Billiards when they ought to be
already half dozen miles from home.
Then you do not like the cooking; but
being on visit you have to bear it.
The homemade bread is always sod
den and never fully baked; the cook is
prodigal with the pepper and a miser
with the sugar; or she is not particular
about her cooking butter. wherewith
she soaks every dish that can be made
by enough or marred by too much. The
healthy appetites of your hosts, living
always in the vigorous ar of the
Northern fells, or by the shores
of the Atlantic, are proof against these
trials which hurt your weaker digestive
faculties past mending after months
severe diet; and really to be in the midst
OF plenty which you may not utilize. be-
cause it becomes to you SO much poison
to be always hungry and to be afraid
to eats not that misery while it
lasts? So, too, is the converse misery
of having healthy appetite, which
knows nothing of indigestion. and
to be the guest of couple of
aesthetic ypochondriacs You are
young and hale. and you would
make short work of plum-duff and
damper if you had the chance Your
friends live on fish and fowl, on jellies
for the sole sweets. and on cheesestraws
for the coda of the meal. Your helping
is couple of mouthfuls, and you dare
not ask for more. You feel yourself to
be such a gormandizing monster in
house of such exiguity of appetite! A
small bit of thin sole, small wing of
spring chicken. two new potatoes and
a spoonful of jelly! and you who could
eat half pound of beefsteak, with pc.
tatoes and cabbage to match, and then
not disdain a trifie of tart and pudding
to wind up with, as the flourish of the
signature! There are many of us who
have gone through these experiences in