The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-22
HAVE YOU A MEAN STREAK?
Meannesses Which Good Men and
Women Sometimes Display.
Eroan fhe Rnstnr, Horn1d


From the Boston Herald.
Everybody has a mean streak somewhere.
The most generous, the most charitable, the
old Adam is in US all and shows himself
somewhere. The richest and the poorest,
the most extravaganza and the most economi-
cal all, in some one or two particulars, ex-
hlbit a meanness so petty that it would
astonisn themselves if it were pointed out to
them. For, strange to say, his meanness is
almost always involuntary and unbeknown
to the people who practice it. There is one
of the wealthiest men in New York, who
is known everywhere for his generosity, but
who habitually practices a comical little
piece of meanness which he probably fondly
Iuagines Is economy, says the Recorder. If
he has three or four gentlemen in his office
down town he will pass around his box of
fine Havana cigars, which cost him straight
$50 a hundred, then he will pull out a box
of wax matches, light one and deliberately
hold it to each cigar in turn, and finally, at
the risk of burning his fingers, will light his
own cigar This little habit is the cause of
considerable amusement among his friends.
who. knowing the really generous nature of
the man, cannot help smile at the SMALL
ness which economies upon a match at $50
for cents. Probably it is the commercial
instinct in the man.
The wife of one of the most popular of
New York hotel keepers has a weakness for
economiZing halves of lemon. The lady's
purse is open to every cry for assistance;
her store closet has furnished many a meal
to poor men and women. She is in every
way charming and delightful companion,
no tess and friend. Yet If she sees upon
her table the half of lemon as yet I'M
squeezed, she will pick it up and carefully
- -. H.. Ia
will never be used, for fresh lemon is al
ways cut when lemon juice is wanted. but
she cannot bear to see nalf lemon thrown
away, and SO she sometimes has collection
of seven or eight pieces, until The servant
finds them and removes them, and so makes
room for another collection.
In one of the drawers of the bureau of
wealthy merchant of this city there is col
lection of two or three hundred pencil ends,
not one of them more than an inch to an
inch and half in length. They are of no
use. Their owner will never use them, but
he cannot find it in his heart to pitch them
out. Into this drawer he throws all his
pencil ends, with some fanciful idea that
''they will come IN useful some day." They
never will. IL is the one little mean spot in
his composition; he will neither give them
away nor throw them away, and he has
himself no use for them. .
Some ladies have funny little mean
streak, which they would defend if accused
of by saying they were ''only getting full
value for my money" A street car is
travelling along, say Sixth avenue. 1t stops
at Fourteenth street. Five ladies and a
little girl get out at the crossing, and walk
the rest of what little distance they may be
going to do their shopping. The car starts
on again, aud has proceeded the distance
of three stores, when a lady, who has
hitherto remained seated, signs to the
conductor to stop. She gets out, amid
a dangerous crowd of vehicles, risks her
limbs or life, gets her shoes covered with
mud, but she has been carried to exactly
opposite the store she wanted to visit Very
likely, in every other action of her life she
is gentle, kind, thoughtful, considerate and
generous. This is her one mean spot. There
is a lady who at home is the best and
sweetest of wives and mothers. whose little
ness shows itself in a peculiar manner out
of doors in public places. From the
moment that she gets on the street with
her husband she begins to discover
faults in him. He talks too loud, or
he is clumsy, or he is a fool for not having
the exact fare ready to pay the car
conductor, or he makes an object of himself
when he rises in the middle of the block to
insure the stoppage of the car at the next
H. "
tentive, OF something Is wrong with him
of which she would be the last to accuse him
when at home. The probable fact is that
her nervous organization gets upset in the
midst Of the noise and racket of the streets,
and the little mean streak which, unknown
to her. lies hidden in her character shows
itself in this inconsiderate public "nagging."
The man who will ill himself and his
family with patent medicines, the virtues
of which he has no acquaintance with,
rather than employ a qualified medical
man, is quite a well-Known character. The
man who jumps upon the platform of
street car to finish the end of penny cigar
cite rather than take the convenience of a
scat is another There is the man who never
buys a newspaper, but always gets some
downtown friend to give him the morning
paper to read as he goes
home in the evening, and there
is the woman who "borrows" a hairpin or
even pin. And what theatrical manager
does not know and abhor the 'deadhead"
who ia wealthy enough TO buy up every
seat in the theater, but who is none the less
mean enough to beg for free pass every
time he meets the unfortunate manager,
and who will spend twenty times the value
of the seat in dinners, suppers and drinks
in order to get it, These are only very
few OF the petty meanneSses of human
nature, to which list any observant person
could easily add a score OF examples.
Beautiful Madras and cheviot shirts only