The Good Fellow.

THE GOOD FELLOW .

Wo wonder if "Tho Good Fellow" ever mistrusts his goodness , or realizes IIOAV selfish , how weak , IIOAV unprinci pled , and how bad a felloAV he trul y is . He never regards the consequences of his acts as they relate to others , and especially those of his famil

y or friends . Little fits of generosity toAvards them are supposed to atone for all his misdeeds , while he inflicts upon them the disgraces , inconveniences , and burdens which attend a selfish dissolute life . The invitation of a friend , the taunts of

goodnatured boon companions , the temptation of jolly felloAVship , 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 AVIIO must care for him in sickness and in all the unhappy phases of his selfish life .

• The Good Fellow is notoriously careless of his family . Any outside friend can lead himAvhithersoeverheAvill—into debauchery , idleness , vagabondage . He can ask a favour , and it is done . He can invite him into disgrace , and he goes . He can direct

him into a job of dirty work , and he straightAvay undertakes it . Ho can tempt him into any indulgence which may suit his vicious Avhims , and , regardless of wile , mother , sister , who may be shortened in their resources so as legitimatelto claim

y his protecting hand , —regardless of honourable father and brother , —he will spend his money , Avaste his time , and make himself _ a subject of constant and painful anxiety , or an unmitigated nuisance to those alone Avho care a straw for him . What

¦ pay does he receive for this shameful sacrifice ? The honour of beinf considered a " Good Fellovr , " Avith a set of men AVIIO would not spend a cent for him if they should see him starving , and who would laugh at his calamities . When ho

dies in a ditch , as he is'most likely to die , they breathe a si gh over the glass they drink , and say , " after all , he Avas a Good Fellow . "

The features of the Good Fellow ' s case Avhich makes it Avell ni gh hopeless , is , that he thinks he is a Good Fellow . He thinks that his pliable disposition , his readiness to

do other good fellows a service , and his jolly Avays 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 good felloAA'ship is the result of his iveaknes ; quite unaAvare

that his sacrifice of the honour 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 interests and feelings of those AVIIO 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 hearts bleed or break around him . " Of all the scamps society knoAvs , the traditional good fellow is the most despicable . A

man AVIIO for the sake of his own selfish delights , or the sake of the praise of careless or unprincipled friends , makes his home a scene of anxietv and torture , and

degrades and disgraces all who are associated with him in home life , is , whether he knows it or not , a brute . If a man cannot be loyal to his home , and to those who love him , then he cannot be loyal to anything

that is good . There is something mean beyond description in any man AAIIO cares more for anything in this Avorld than the honour , the confidence , and love of his family . There is something radically Avrong in such a man , and the quicker , and

the more thoroughly he realizes 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 fellow from the croivn of his head to the sole of his foot . He is as Aveak as a bab }' vain as

, a peacock , selfish as a pig , and as unprincipled as a thief , lie has not one redeeming trait upon Avhich a reasonable self-respect can be built and braced .

Give us the bad felloAV , who stands by his personal and famil y honour , Avho sticks to his OAvn , AVIIO does not " treat" his friends Avhile his home is in need of the money he Avastes , and who gives himself no indulgence of the good felloAvshi at the

p expense of duty ! A man Avith whom the approving smile of a Avife , or mother , or sister , does not weigh more than a thousand crazy hravos of boon companions , is just no mail at Ail . —Scrihner ' s American Monthly ,