Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/212

 better than to have made such a public display of his weakness; for people are apt to suspect a fluttering bird of being wounded. He would do well to study the following Quaker maxim, and govern his conduct by it in the future. "Be not affronted at a jest. If one throw salt at thee thou wilt receive no harm, unless thou hast sore places."

We are truly sorry to see this exhibition of ill temper and over sensitiveness on the part of the Oregonian editor; for, occupying his present post, he must be always in nettles. We knew he was a highly excitable gentleman, and liable in his anger to commit almost any indiscretion; but we were not prepared to see him make so perfect a "Judy" of himself as he has.

But, assuming a belligerent aspect, the editor wants us "to distinctly understand (the italics are his own), that we cannot be permitted to assail his private character with impunity," and threatens us in genuine Bombastes Furioso style generally. He blazes away about his "reserved rights," his "determination to protect (his own italics again), himself," "to defend himself to the last, regardless of consequences," etc., etc., in a manner most ridiculous to himself and mortifying to his friends. If the gentleman means by all this display of paper bravery and ruffianism merely to gratify his propensity for swaggering and braggartism, we are not disposed to deprive him of the harmless amusement; although he makes himself, as in this instance, the laughingstock of the public. But if he intends by it to intimidate or frighten us, and expects to deter us from the utterance of one syllable we are disposed to utter, we assure him, most emphatically, that he has mistaken his man....

And we have lived long enough to see the frequent verification of the homely adage that "a barking cur never bites," and to learn that a man who carries his sword constantly in his mouth never wields one with his hands. If the editor would have us believe that he is possessed of rare courage he should boast of it less loudly and less frequently....