Year: 1871




the New York Tribune that it would
seem that if one of the genus should
chance to read it he would start as if,
unexpectedly, he had looked upon q
mirror


| Lavatel, we believe it was, who dis
covered that every man bore the fea.
lures and traits of an animal or insect,
and gave US hints 10y which we might
write ourselves down dogs, hares, or
asses. But how did he happen to omit
the gnats? Everybody knows them
when they come to life again as men
and women everybody who has work
to do has had one or moro Of them
about him, buzzing, spiteful, pertins.
cious, unable to do any harm beyond
rousing our anger, so that we could be
angry with them. These mon and
women gnats have apparently no errand
into the world, or real work to do in It.
They ordinarily settle upon soms dead
doctrine or theory, which men of prac
tical sense have long ago thrown aside
as useless; if it has a foul smell it at
tracts them the more. They buzz over
it, get from it their daily occupations,
noise, food. They are swarming now,
in the South, over the lost cause; here,
over Free Love. They keep themselves,
after the habit of their kind, perpetu-
ally before our eyes and ears; but one
watches them with patience, knowing
that they live but for the day, as gnats
do; there have been unclean creeds and
noisy disciples for them since the world
was made the wind blows them out of
sight with every year. 1t is amusing to
| watch how the Gnat nature betrays
itself; one unvarying sign in man or
woman is vehement uselessness; they
may lecture, write, blazon their own
daily doings as they will; but when you
come to weigh their work at the end Of
the year you find nil. The second trait
is feeble, persistent venom; they bite
incessant!y ; they know they can do no
harm but still they bite. Women who
are gnats have, oddly enough, but one
mode of attack, gossip. Naturally, one
would suppose, with her new careers,
wider and lottier revenges would have
opened themselves to her. But no the
ecclesio 2'rcssd of the new regime, the
hidden sanctuary Of the would be suf-
frasists, is very forcing house of scan
dial, whence the Advanced Female sends
out poisonous gossip. II party or
paper differs with her in opinion, her
only idea Of argument is TO seize on
some individual politician or editor
and tattle about his manner, his habits,
his social life. The male gnat has
more varied modes of annoyance. In
country places he ordinarily appears as
a corner grocery politician. He is ill.,
valuable as stump speaker where the
opposing candidates are to be proved
thieves. or the honor of their wives i'm.
pugned. If he lives in a city, he gen
orally developes scrbling or oratorical
mania; for the gnat must buzz, in lieu
of work. He probably writes unceasinp
letters to the editor of his daily paper;
if it rebukes the political party to which
he belongs as rotten with corruption, or
his religious denomination as unfaithful
witnesses for Christ, he calls it sharply
to retract, on the ground that he has
subscribed for the paper for twenty
years, and that many of his sect fought
tor the country in the late war. Some.
times company Of gnats unite and
publish an organ of their own. There
are several such in this city, supported
by charitable subscribers, ostensibly to
uphold issues dead years ago, but which
in reality are simply the conduits by
which the vanity of few women and
he malignant ill.temper Of fewsr
men reach the public. Envy aud dis
appointment are usually the cause Of
development of gnattish nature. A
man loses an office, or resigns for cause
the conduct Of congregation or a
newspaper; and thenceforward he finds
employment tor the rest of his DAYS in
watching and abuse Of the man who
has succeeded him. When men of real
ability accept as their business of life
this petty virulence of which everybody
knows the cause and the impotence, the
case is sadder than any suicide. The
born gnat must die gnat but the no.
bier nature which abandons his real
work In the good world in which God
has placed him to infiict stings which
wound nobody, is spectacle at which
| the world laughs when il .houl,1 ,o%h.-