New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-06
ONE OF THE MINOR ILLS.

If it be true that the minor Ills of life are
the hardest 70 bear, one of the explanations
doubtless is that the Individual sufferer in the
moment of his irritation looks In vain for
sympathy lie asks for compassion and re-
ceives smile, sheer or perhaps jest, and
thus the original annoyance is aggravated to
the proportions of disaster But this familiar
experience ought not to harden the heart OF
the philanthropist. He should rather derive
from these brief shocks a powerful impetus
to carry him forward on his chosen path of
consolation and relief. 1t is possible that he
may be writer for the press, and in that case
he is under special obligation to use his OPP
portunitics for tho common welfare. 1t is good
20 solace grief and assuage pain, but it is still
better to remove the causes which produce
them; and so with this benignant exordium
we proceed to tho consideration of minor i'll.
We are not bearing down upon the factory
whistle, or the piano in the next flat, or the
mosquito, or the all-excluding theatre bonnet,
or the latest popular melody or the oldest bad
air. 1t is the trunk strap that we have upon
our mind, instead of on the trunk where it
belongs the trunk strap which is buckJed on
with pain Of breath and knuckles at the be-
ginning Of q journey and seldom has to be
taken off al the end of it, having disappeared
mysteriously in transit. A mystery to many,
but not to all. There are some profound think
crs and quick observers who have solved it.
The strap seems to have vanished miraculously,
and that is the impression which is sedulously
cultivated by those whom the truth would vex
and impoyerish But there is no magic about
It's departure. 1t does not unbuclIe itself with
it's loose end and roll off like hoop snake.
Il is detached by human hands in the employ
of bad heart and cool head. And having
been taken it docs not sink into the earth or
melt into the air. 1t does not change It's form
or nature It's destination is altered, but not
lis destiny For brief periods OF time it may
hang idly with a multitude Of its fellows in the
dismal obScurity Of baggage-roOm, but its
mission is TO surround an indefinite number OF
trunks impaitially in long succession, and it
amrly earns an occasional interval Of repcse.
Indeed il has been estimated that trunk strap
Of good quality, costing its original purchaser
from so 10 70 cents. may reasonably be ex-
pected to yield revenue of $40 year for a
period Of five years, and diminishing though
considerable sum during full decade there
after.
The adopts who thus multiply its productive
capacity are, as we have intimated, known to
a few Of their fellow beings but only as a
class They are never individually identified
and in all probability they never will be. For
the only persons who could do that are either
their colleagues or their employers 1t might
possibly be worth the trouble Of transportation
companies TO put stop to this petty swindling,
but they evidently do not think so, for it gets
less petty and more exasperatng every year.
Some day, when it has ceased to be minor
i'll and become major outrage, it may be
LII. ,aI