The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1886-09-04
lLL-NATURED FOLK.
TRAITS OF PERSONS WHO ARE GIVEN
UP TO MlsANTHf OPY.

No Plant Repays Cultivatio, Better Than
Good Naturc-V'hy Some Men Fail-A
Selfish Boyhood - Disapl ointcd Men.
Modern Alcestes.
No plant rcpays cultivation better than
good nature. There is no lack of kindness in
this world Of ours, but quite large section Of
society allows 1t to run to waste, and III time 1t
evaporates and disappears. 1t is largely a
matter of education and habit. Spoiled chill
dren are allowed To get into temper when
they do not get what they want. They grow
up into cross. grained men and women, and
after time they lose the power of controlling
their Grabbed instincts. Men of well balanced
minds are taught sooner or later that we are all
more or less dependent on each other, and that
no one can afford to be a misanthropo But
the rarest thing in life is well balanced
mind which possesses the faculty of intrcspec-
ton Men go through life without friends,
and wonder that they do not achieve the sue
cess their talents would Justify; it rarely oc>
ours to them TO analyze the causes of their
failure; if they did, they would find that Just
at n particular juncture, when they were
about to seize fortune at the flood, they
lacked friendly help, or they met opposition
from some one they had offended without
cause.
srLLEN, sULKY ROY.
The i'll natured man was usually n sullen
sulky boy He kept himself aloft from his
schoolfeows. He was morose in his family,
and possessed such capacity for making
himself disagreeable that he was promptly
obeyed and waited upon for peace sake. He
saw gain in his i'll temper and he cultivated
it accordingly As he grows to manhood he
finds that people are chary of crossing him
for fear of quarrel, and his opinion of the
policy of churlishness rises higher Bright
men cannot be kept under and if he pos
seSses capacity, he makes his way. 1t costs
him more exertion than it need have done if
he had had allies; but he is content to owe
nothing to any one.
To be seif-made man, to owe his success
to his own exertions, suits his solitary nature.
He drives his plow through society, careless
Of what little frail plants he uproots by the
way. He is a positive, self-asserting indi-
vidual, and acquaintance avoid discussion
with him for the sake of quiet life. He will
be no party to the little harmless deceits by
which the polite people render life pleasant to
each other He calls a spade spade, Jones
bore and Smith fool. He has an unerring
eye for the detection of human weakness, and
loves to lay it bare. To appreciate and COM
mend virtue and merit strike him as Mandy
pamby; TO put his finger in the hole which
can he found in every coat strikes him as
more worthy Of man Of intellect
DISAPPOINTED MEN.
We laugh at Alceste when he declares that
he hates everybody and wants to live in q
desert so as not TO see human face. But
there are lots of AceStes all round w.. They
are mostly disappointed men-nen who have
made unfortunate marriages and have I'M
happy homes: men who have formed ex.
aggerated opinions of their own genius, and
feel that the world is not treating them
Justly; men TO whom plodding advancement
is too slow, and who are filled with envy at
the more rapid progress of their fellows.
Molieres Aiceste declared that it was the
bounden duty of an honest man to tell every
one his faults.
Fears of physical punishment usually deter
our modern Alcestcs from being as frank as
this but they console themselves by speaking
i'll of every one behind their backs. The
higher the individual, the purer his character,
the wider his popularity, the bitterer is their
calumny. 1t is their joy and their pride to
traduce those who by their station cannot re-
sent the assault. They love to circulate
scandal about women who have no natural
protector; to seek out non-combatants, and
stick "a knife in them; to select the weak, the
defenselesS, the wounded and the bruised, to
trample them down.-San Francisco Chron-
irlp