THE GOOD FELLOW.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1790, 28 September 1874, Page 3

THE GOOD FELLOW.

We wonder if " the good fellow " ever mistrusts his goqdness, or realises how selfish, how weakj how unprincipled, and how Bad a fellow he truly is; fLo never regards the consequences of his acts as they relate to others, and especially those of his own family and friends. Little fits of generosity towards them are supposed to atone for all his misdeeds, while he inflicts upon them the disgraces, inconveniencies, and burdens which attend a selfishly dissolute life. The invitation of a friend, the taunts of good-natured boon companion!, the temptations of jolly fellowship, these are enough to overcome all his scruples, if he has any scruples, and to lead him to ignore all the possible results to those who love him best, and who must care for him in sictne*s and all the unhappy phases of his selfish life. The good fellow is notoriously careless of his family. Any outside friend can lead him wheresoever he will—in debauchery, idleness, vagabondage. He can ask a favor, and it is done. He can invite him into disgrace, and he goes. He can direct himintoajobef dirty work,andhe straightway undertakes it. He can tempt him into any indulgence which may suit his vicious whims, and, regardless of wife, mother, or sister, who may be shortened in their resources soas legitimately to cleim his protecting hand—regardless of honor, father, and brothtr—he will spend hii money, wa9te his time, and make himself a subject of contempt and painful anxiety, or an unmitigated nuisance to those who alone care a straw for him. What pay does he receive for his painful sacrifice ? The honor of being considered a good fellow with a set of men who would not spend a cent for him if they should see him starving, and who would laugh at his calamities. When he dies in the ditch, as he is most likely to die, they breathe a sigh over the swill they drink, and say, " after all he wa3 a good fellow." The feature of th« good fellow's which makes it well nigh hopeless is, that he thinks he is a good fellow. He thinks his pliable disposition, his readiness to do other good fellows a service, and his jolly ways atone for all his faults. His love of praise is fed by his companions, and thus His self-complacency is nursed. Quite unaware that his fellowship is the result of his weakness; quite' unaware that his sacrifice of honor, and peace of his family, for the sake of outside praise, is the offspring of the most heartless selfishness; quite unaware that his disregard of the interest and feelings of those who are bound to him by the closest ties of blood is the demonstration of his utterly unprincipled character, he carries an unruffled or a jovial front, while his heart bleeds or i breaks around him. Of all the scamps society knows, the traditional good fellow is the most.despicable. A man, who, for the sake of his own selfish delight, or the sake of the praise of careless or unprincipled friends, make his home a scene of anxiety and torture, and degrades and disgraces all who are associated with him in'Jiis.homelife, is, whether he knows it or;ri&t;abrute. Ifaman cannot be loyal to his/home, and to those who love him, he cannot beloyalto anything that is good. There^something mean beyond descrip- ■ tion in any man who cares for anything in this world more than the honor, the cohfidence,iand love of his family. There is something radically wrong in such a man, and the quicker and more thoroughly he realises it, in a humiliation which bends him to the earth in shame and confusion', the better for him, The traditional good fellow is a bad islow from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. He is as weak as a baby, Taint as a peacock, selfish as a pig, and as unprincipled as a thief. He has aot. onii^edeeniinf trait -upon which areasonable lelf-resjject can be built and-brace'd.' Gvtb us the bad fellow, who stands by his jfersonal and family honor, who sticks to hiS own, who does not "treat" his"'friends, wle his home is in need of the liibney he^astes, and who gives himself no indulgence of good "fellowship at of duty! A m^n with whom vRe approving smile of a wife, or mother, or sister; does not weigh more than a thousand crazy bravoes of boon; companions, is jgsVrio man at all.—Scrrbner's.