Year: 1875

can keep clear of the cobwebs woven
about his feet by tiresome people. They
beset him on all sides; for very few men
and women are to be found who are not
tlresOme in one direction, if satisfactory
in another, and many are tiresome all
through. Social life is penetrated from
end to end by these tiresome people
| people who never do the right thing at
the right time and who are always doing
wrong things and foolish ones; people
| who are not to be relied on for punctual-
ity, tact, discrimination, complaisance !;
| people who come too early and go away
too late, or who come too late and 90
away too early, or who do not come at all
when they have been specially asked for
grave reasons touching the success of
the whole arrangement, and whose re-
fusal or failure makes wreck of every
thing; people who bring forward sore
| subjects, rattle the family skeletons,
spend the evening in unfurling red flags,
shuffling from place to place and point
to point expressly for the pleasure of
treading on their neighbors' corns; peo-
| pie who confound together two men who
hate each other, mistake waning beauty
for a confessed fright, or a woman of dis.
tinction carrying her head high for
woman of no account dozen degrees
below her in the social scale; people
who never see signs nor take hints, and
who blunder into family messes and so.
cial morasses with the most annoying OBJ
tuseness. They are not bad people-not
wicked, corrupt, heartlcss, abominable; !;
they may, on the contrary, be good, hon
est folks, true-hearted and straight
minded; but they are tiresome and as
much objects of dread as they are causes
of dismay.


Very tiresome are the kind-hearted but
easily-affronted people who love you with
more suspicion than self-respect, and are
forever finding that you have intention
ally sighted and cruelty wounded them.
You, frank and direct, and without Sec
ond thought, standing ON your friend
ship as on solid structure not liable to
disturbance, and thinking that when
once heart is known and an affection
given no more doubt need enter into
amicable relations, carrying on your life
without misgiving; when suddenly you
are pulled up by some passionate or tear
full outbreak from your friend, whose
affections have been wounded in some
mysterious way, and whose tiresome
habit of doubt and ultra-sensitiveness
shakes your solid structure to the founda-
tions. Your friend has so many good
points you cannot give him up He is
faithful and trustworthy, candid and sim
cere, but he is the most tiresome fellow
alive, with his harassing suspicious and
porcupine like quality of distrust. Love
him as you may you cannot but feel that
you have to pay a heavy percentage on
your affection, and that to have Joined
hands with one whose qualifying epithet
is tiresome" is of itself nuisance that
greatly modifies the charm of your inter
course and value of his friendship.


Tiresome are the people who never see
you without complaining that they do
not see you oftener. You do your best
for them, but you have many engage
ments and hurried life. Hence you
are able to do very little for one person,
and have to consider how to mince your
attentions into the fairest if the smallest
portions possible. But your tiresome
friend, all by way of affection and to
show you how dear you are, makes it
matter of personal atfront when you keep
absent for week or two and demands
larger portion of your finely-chopped
time than you can allow to any one of
the many claiming it. Tiresome too are
they who will not take "No" for an an
swer; who, if you decline to see them
because you are occupied and must get
your work finished by certain time, in
wade your retreat, insisting on it that
they are different from others, and that
the law of expulsion sdoes not shut out
them, if it does shutIout the whole world
beside; and those who drag you out
when you want to be at home, make you
eat when you are not hungry and drink
when you are not athirst, declare you
want rousing when you are dying for
need of rest and that you are rusting for
want of rest when you are being ruined
for want of work.


Tiresome are the people who live on
the false principle that time is elastic,
and that to be half an hour late for an
engagement does not signify provided
they scramble into their places at the
| last. Tiresome are the people who COM
PLAIN without cause, also without ces-
sation; tiresome those who deafen you
with eXultations, with boastings, with
! shrieks, peacock-like, of eXultant, vain
glory. Tiresome are the weak.spirited
who weep at the turn of a head, and
| those who are made boisterously merry
| by the wagging of finger; tiresome
| those whose irritable nerves are always
at concert pitch, high strung, and ever
Jared; and those who, OH the other
hand, are so dense you cannot touch
them, and whose hide is so thick moth
ing lighter than a bludgeon can bruise
it, nothing blunter than a spear pierce
it. Tiresome are the gOod-natured
busybodies who must put in their oar
with every boat that swims and have


their fingers in every pie that is baked 4;
and tiresome the stolid, impasslve


sitteTs-by who let the house crumble


about their ears without noticing that


the dust is falling. Tiresome are the


hypochondriacs who are forever looking


death in the face, and tiresome the false,


ly robust, who declare that nothing is


amiss when they are laboring for theiI


last breath; tiresome those who make


mountains out of r'ole-hills, and tire


some also those who will not confess


mountains to be bigger than mOle-hills


Tiresome the contradictions, whose horses


will not run in harness with anyone's


team; tJesOme the universally asserting
} who have no white to put against YOU


black, no yes for your no. But, while


we see all these phrases of tiresomeness
and bewaIl them, we must not shut oul


eyes TO the goodness, the sweetness, tho
truth and the love that often accompany
the fai '-gs, confessing that, if there are
fractun in the statue, the design is 81
beautiful, the workmanship so fine, We
! must needs overlook the flaws for thu


sake of the diviner whole.-Ihe Queen.
- -


The Leaning Tower OF Pisa.