Ransy Sniffle: The Consummate Busybody
by Robert W. Watson
(10 August 1999)

From his Georgia Scenes, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet includes a rough and tumble story about the pugilistic pairing of two champions from a county in Georgia. Billy Stallings and Bob Durham were "the very best men in the county," which meant they could lick any opponent soundly. According to the narrator of "The Fight," "a hundred gamecocks will live in perfect harmony together if you do not put a hen with them." While it appears that the fight between Stallings and Durham began due to the chance and less than cordial meeting between their two wives, the true instigator of the fight is a fellow named Ransy Sniffle. Indeed, if it were not for Ransy Sniffle, there would not have been a fight, and consequently, no story. But there was a fight,--and for the enjoyment of the reading public,--a story.

Yet the punches, the kicks, the bites, and the other niceties that mark a good knock-down, drag-out fight are merely the result of Ransy's interfering ways. As a short story, "The Fight" represents a commentary on the undermining of an honored trait found in all agrarian communities like those found in the South. A time-honored belief, which is as certain as the red clay of Georgia, is this: neighbors are to mind their own business, unless another neighbor asks for help. This wisdom is derived from the Bible, which equates a busybody with a murderer (1 Peter 4:15). Since Longstreet was well aware of the current politics of his time, he realized that most of the perceived problems in the South were created by those who were unable to keep to their own business. Thus, the character of Ransy Sniffle is the perfect busybody who is a petty rabble-rouser and a boorish moralist.

Like most busybodies, Ransy Sniffle is an outsider. Being originally from Richmond County, Georgia, Ransy is partially alien to the local mores and traditions of his new home. Almost all destroyers of a community's tranquility are outsiders. These outsiders can be corporations with their imported management and laborers, military bases, or individuals who are used to the lifestyle of a busybody that is brought with them during their nomadic wanderings. In the case of Ransy Sniffle, he "had been kept for more than a year in the most torturing suspense as to the comparative manhood of Billy Stallings and Bob Durham." These two men did not fight for the mere enjoyment of fighting; on the other hand, they were not adverse to "peppering up" an adversary if the occasion called for it. This was the custom of the region and the honored code. Much to the chagrin of Ransy, Billy and Bob always had cordial dealings and were friendly with each other. To the outsider Ransy Sniffle, the status quo established by his neighbors was unacceptable, and he tried his best to change it.

Like most busybodies, Ransy Sniffle is a petty, small-minded tattletale. The description of Ransy as physically "just five feet nothing; and his average weight in blackberry season, ninety-five," reflects Ransy's inward character as well. Ransy busies himself by listening to any conversation that he can use to instigate a fight between Billy and Bob. According to the narrator, Ransy "had faithfully reported to Bob all that had been said by the people in the upper battalion 'agin him,' and 'he was sure Billy Stallings started it.'" Ransy would then run back to Billy and report the words of Bob. Small-minded people thrive on the misery of others, because the misery elevates the self-esteem of the busybody. Ransy was a walking dead man, unless he could get a fight started: "There was nothing on this earth which delighted Ransy so much as a fight. He never seemed fairly alive except when he was witnessing, fomenting, or talking about a fight." And so it is with all busybodies. The Ransy Sniffles of the world are not contented to live peacefully with all men, but they are bent towards creating havoc and animosity between neighbors.

And like all busybodies, Ransy Sniffle is a hypocritical do-gooder. After Mrs. Durham calls Mrs. Stallings a "nasty, good for nothing, snaggle-toothed gaub of fat" (such language is justifiable, since Mrs. S. called Mrs. D. an "impudent hussy"), Billy threatens to beat her husband "till he learns to teach [Mrs. D.] better manners." The narrator reports, "At this moment something was seen to rush out of the store as if ten thousand hornets were stinging it." The reader is told that this "something" is Ransy Sniffle, running to find Bob Durham. Ransy declares to Bob, "Dod eternally darn my soul, if any man was to talk to my wife as Bill [Stallings] is talking to yours, if I wouldn't drive blue blazes through him in less than no time." The busybody is always more concerned about the affairs of others. Yet this concern is not genuine as evinced in the case of Ransy Sniffle, who could not care any less about Mrs. Durham. He wanted to see a fight. And it was a glorious fight with plenty of bloodletting, maiming, and winning and losing of bets. Billy and Bob resume their friendship after the fight, but along comes Ransy Sniffle. The busybody has to have the last word: "If Bobby hadn't been there, I'd o' took it up myself, be darned if I wouldn't, even if I'd o' got whipped for it. But we're all friends now." Of course, Ransy is lying. He is a coward and no friend to Billy or Bob.

It is a strange thing about busybodies. Peaceful folks seem to tolerate the busybody's presence more than the busybody tolerates his unassuming neighbors. Ransy Sniffle is tolerated, if not accepted, by his local community. However, while he appears to offer comic relief to the normal, daily activities of a rural society, Ransy Sniffle is pernicious, as are all busybodies. The narrator remarks in his conclusion that thankfully the gentle influence of civilization checks the excesses of fighting. Nevertheless, even though Longstreet has Squire Thomas Loggins to offer the sage advice "to be at peace, as fighting was a bad business," the author's central concern is the effect of the busybody on a peaceful community. Unfortunately, like the poor, the busybody shall always be with us. In the 1865 edition of the Southern Cultivator, the editor referred to Job who suffered misunderstanding and persecution by his "friends": "Lucky Job!…He was merely tried by the officious advice and interference of only three intermeddling friends, while we, poor devils at the South, as pennyless as he, are annoyed with more that three million just such intermeddlers." Longstreet suggests that officers of the peace, who ignore public fighting, "deserve a place in the Penitentiary." Perhaps, but an argument can be made that the Ransy Sniffles in our communities are just as deserving.