bristler

but study this useful little insect, and we find that by care and attention we may not only manage to approach the little bristler, without fear of its weapon, but extract so many sweets, that when we know its service, we wonder how any …

Is it the braggart and the bristler, the man who has nothing to learn, who would build a wall between America and other lands, or would array America against the world;

We are the "bristlers," the easily hurt and hostile, the solitary ones, the "people are bums" man, the "don't let anyone know" woman.