The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1895-11-01
IRREPRESSIBLES.
IMPERVIOUS TO HINTS AS THE
PROVERBIAL BLIND HORSE.

IMpERVIOUS TO HINTS AS THE
PROVERBIAL BLIND HORSE.
Chambers Journal.
Who does not know those irrepress-
ible folk who have no respect for the
dccencies OF self-control, no regard for
the more tender restraints of delicacy,
no careful hold on that golden treas
ure of silence wherein lies wisdom ?
AS imperviOns to hints as is that pro-
verbal blind horse to the wink and
the nod, they take their headlong way
as though they were so many wild
asses of the desert, unbitted, unbri-
died, unguided. Blundering and OBJ
tusc, they crash into the secret closets
where the family skeletons are housed.
Open-mouthed and without thought,
they give to the world at large the
benefit of their discovery, and drag
out into the light of day those grin
ming atomies which they found COM
fortably covered up under the dust of
a generation, undsturbed and forgot
ten, till now they have been resur.
rccted and set a-dancing once more in
the open. Not so much inQuisitive as
without foresight or perspecuity,
they tear off the pretty little siken
bandagcs deftly fashioned to look like
ornament, and come upon the sore
they were designed to conceal which
sore, because of the natural hardness
Of their hands and the clumsiness of
their touch, they rasp and rub till the
poor sufferer wecps and winces. And
all this comes from that want of sym.
pathetic imagination, that denseness
Of perspcction, which is Characteristic
of the tribe, and in no wise from evil
heartedness or bad intention. For
these irrepressibles are often as kind
hearted as they are clumsy and when
they subject their friends to torture,
do so with no more malice than there
is in the caping-stone when it falls on
the head of the passer-by and smashes
him into eternity.
OF the faintest echo of that proverb
which f0rbids one to speak OF a
hempen rope in the house where a
man has been hanged, our irreprcssi-
bic friends are totally ignorant. Do
they know a family whereof some de-
generate member has gone wrong
perhaps suffered the penalty due, say,
to forgery, embezzlenIent, fraudulent
dealing with trust money and the
like? All In good faith, and quite
oblviOus Of the painful associations
connected and aroused, they will 90
into minute discussion on the last
analogous case, disputing the evil
dence, descanting on the enormity of
the crime, delivering themselves of
their opinions as to the punishment
due for such an offense-opinions sure
to be Draconian in their severity and
Rhadamanthine in their inhexibility.
In vain a more enlightened friend
hints to them to desiSt. In vain a
more nimble wit strives to turn the
flow of talk into safer channels. The
irrepress bles blunder on. like bulls
making havoc Of the Dresden and the
Sevres, lacerating the hearts they
would not have Willingly hurt for all
the broad lands of England. They
see nothing, suspect nothing, have no
consciousness of sin and No thought OF
wrong-doing. When they are trounced
by those more understanding ones,
and shown the enOrmity Of their blum.
der, they are all In amazed wonder
how they ever got into such a hole.
They knew, but they did not re.
member, they say, and as for the hints
and warnings SO subtilely conveyed,
they understood them no more than
the wool-gathering whist player un-
derstand the game when he does not
see the call for trumps, or read the
significance Of a ten played third
hand.
The Irrepressibles rush into friend
ships as into enmities, without solid
grounds, and on the principle of the
pyramid built point downward. Slaves
to their emotions, as they are, they
give their very souls to the treacher.
Gus and unloving, offering their hearts
to all the davis about. Unlike the
self.centered and egotistic, who have
no more spontaneity than an iceberg
has Of flaming flre, the Irrepressiblef
are spontaneous from head to heel
thoughts, actions, feelings, all bub
bling to the surface like one OF those
inexhaustlble springs which must Ind
an outlet, no matter what may op
pose. Love at 6rst sight is their con
slant experience; rash marriage II
their general portion; early disgust
and lifelong consciousness Of the mis-
take they have made follow on tn
heels Of their inconsiderateness; ant