North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1869-07-14
McGREG0R, IOWA, WEDNESDAY, JULY IA, 1862.
Can a w ON an Eeep a Secret 4.

O~H w O"Sn H eep u becrot
IA woman can't keep secret" is a
favorite saying among those who think
they know but as have opportunities
for knowing something about this matter,
mean to do something at least towards
setting the world right. My dear gentle.
men friends, the delusion is on the other
side, and all comes, as the popular sayings
about women always do, from mistaking
for revelation what is simply conjecture.
Because woman buzzes and futters
around you, and talks on all sorts of SUBJ
jects, and takes you one side. and, with
an air of most profound confidence, tells
you about some matte yeu would never
have thought of mentioning, you 60 about
supposing she has "communed with you
of all that was in her heart" You blind
bat, she has done all that, depend upon it,
only to make you the binder The most
tenacious and utterly secretive Of all Sc
cret keepers is a woman. Give her a
secret worth knowing, or one she wishes,
either for your sake or her own, to keep,
aud all the powers of earth and air cannot
wrest it from her. Leave it in her own
hands entirely. and the trial will never
come-for no living creature will then
suspect she has it.
Of all the men I know full half 90
through the world parading, by face and
act, the very secret they are fondly sup
posing is hidden in the deepest rccesses of
the heart. When man has a secret it
looks out of his eyes, it sits upon his lips,
and, by strong compression, must be held
there, it dances before him when he
walks. it breaks from him in unconcious
calculations. He goes SO wide Of it in his
conversation that one may constantly cry
''warm, warm" knowing that the place to
look for it is at the point most distant.
Now, if he has a female friend Of ordinary
feminine wit, she knows at first sight that
he has such secret. and either of set
purpose, or instinctively and un conscious
ly, she will set to work to guess it; and,
whether she means it or not she ,ciH guess
it. She can't help it. He will be forever
holding it up before her eyes, and sternly
crying "hands off," lie will talk round
and round it until she knows the exact
size of the circle of which it is the center.
She cannot help knowing it is hidden in
the very word he will not speak. After he
has tantalized her with it until she knows
it as he knows her face, very likely it will
seem to her not worth the trouble Of hid
ing. II Is mark Of her penetration tc
have discovered, and she knows how 90,
will relish hearing "all about it," and she
will whisper it in your ear at the frs,
opportunity.
Swallow the nice bit and wipe you,
lips, and shake your head and PROFOUND
the original saying, "a woman canno
keep a secret" and half the world vii
echo it as if it were both new and wise
Can't, forsooth Give her one worth
keeping, and see. Let me tell you; si
down some evening with woman whose
heart is ready to break with sorrowfu
story she would as soon die as let you
guess. You have done it, no doubt, many
time without knowing it, and, until the
day Of your death you never will know
it.) She will meet you with her lightest
merriest laugh she will walk straight ur
to her secret she will put her foot upor
it under your very nose; she will hirt il
in your face she will dance and fluttel
around it as moth around candle she
will chatter away about thousand things
you are astonished that she should dare
to mention she will, with the great. s.
apparent diHidence, confde to you wha
you suppose she would only mention te
her bosom friend, and she will swear yol
to eternal secrecy about some mattel
which, undoubtedly, you will hear he1
committing in the same way to every
friend she meets for week to come, ano
be sure she is "laughing in her sleeve a
you" when you sighingly murmur, "Ah
woman can never keep secret y
4 4
Historical instances are abundant il
which women have suffered Imprisonment
torture, death, rather than reveal the Sc
cret which would involve another in thei
own disaster. Remember our War. Die
the Southern and frontier women prov
then that they could or could not keep
secret? If you have wife, and do NO
confde your secrets to her, be sure sh
will find them out. But tell her, fearlessy
and confdingly, all your heart, and if, by
word or sign, she betrays you. 60 at once
to Chicago and get divorce. You hav'
wife not worth keeping.-EMILY L
BIssELL, in Packard's Monthly, for July.
The Convention.
The various counties ofthe State appea
to be alive to the importance of sendin!
strong delegations to the State Conven