The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-05-21
FAUITFINDERS.

What an unhappy class of people!
Even the name denotes that fact, but
with all the unhappiness they cause
others from being perpetually finding
fault, they do more harm to them
selves. Yet some of these gentlemen(?) p
take keen delight in making trouble
for other people, even though they
hurt themselves by so doing. The
pleasure of seeing others unhappy
seems to alleviate their own suffering
They put me in mind of story I once
heard of gentleman who, while trav-
cling in the south, saw small colored
boy hitting his finger with hammer
and drawing his face into all manner
of contortions. The gentleman went
up to him and said, "What are you
hitting yourself for, my boy?" The
boy turned to him and said: because
it feels so good when 1 stop
That little colored boy was fair
specimen of the faultfnder; hurting
himself to obtain pleasure that was
utterly incongruous. How promising
are the lives of such people! Look
ing forward to what? To the ever
continuing petty trouble. And he will
not see that he is the one who is max
ing all the trouble, but keeps right on
in his stubborn, bull-headed manner.
Nothing is exempt from his criticism;
nobody is sacred in his eyes, except
himself.
There are faultfinders in every walk
of life and all trades and professions.
l will endeavor to illustrate my ideas
by using subject for each one as it
presents itself before my mind. We
will take a man who is mailing cover
on case or something of that sort; he
does not attend strictly to his work,
but begins to look about him, and
suddenly we hear him utter words that
would ill become the columns of any
newspaper They are not endearing
epithets to the poor finger he has hurt,
or to the hammer, either. But they are
words of faultfnding. The hammer
head is too crooked The handle is
too short. And what kind of nail is
this? Or the wood is not suited for
making cases. He will find fault with
every conceivable object except the
right one, and that is himself. Now
what sense is there in this? 1t shows
that the person is of selfish disposi-
ton. Then again, it shows mean,
contemplate inclination to quarrel
and grumble at everything that comes
in his way, making it unpleasant for
all around him.
Another kind of faultfinder is he
who grumbles at the good fortune of
others. They are envious of anyone
who is happy. They are covetous when
they find others are possessed of some.
thing they have not. Among this class
is the imaginary invalid. For exam.
pie, we will take person of this kind
who has slight illness; he seems tC
be in misery all the time; for on ac
count of his obnoxious habit of fault
finding no one wishes to attend him in
his illness. Nothing suits him, although
as 1 said before, in most cases, his sick
ness is only imaginary. He is thrown
into perfect frenzy if anyone ap
proaches him without putting on q
funereal face, and if the person does
do this whv ha will still rrrmhIa anC
say, II know 1 am going to die, but
you don't need to tell me so by putting
on such long face"
There is another specimen of this
selfish class who does not like to see
anyone get along smoothly in the
world. In place of this character
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