The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-07-07
Can a Woman Keep a Secret:

Can woman Keep Secfots
ga woman can't keep d secret Is d
favorito saying among those who think
they know; but as have opnportuni-
ties for knowing something about this
matter, mean to do something at
least towards setting the world right.
My dear gentlemen friends, tho delu-
sion is on the other side, and all comes,-
as the popular sayings about women
always do, from mistaking for revela-
ton what is simply conjecture. Be.
cause woman buzzes and futterS
around you, and talks on all sorts OF
subjects, and takes you one side,i and,
with an air of most profound conf
dence, tells you about some matter you
would never have thought of mention
ing, you go about supposing she ha5'
''communed with you of all that Was
iu her heart" You blind bat. she. has
done all that, depend upon it, Only To
make you the binder. The mtst te-
nacious and utterly secretiSe Of all SC.
crets-keepers is woman. Give her
secret worth keeping, OF one she
wishes, either for your sake Or her own,
to keep, and 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 If.
Of all the MEN 1 know full half go-
through the world parading, by face
and act, the very secret they are fond
ly supposihg is hidden in the deepest
recesses of The heart. When a man
has secret 1t looks out of his eyes, it
sits upon his lips, and. by strong COM
preston, must be held dtfere; it dances
before him when he walks, and, If he'
sleeps, it breaks from HIM in tit1con-
scious ejaculatioffs. He g6es so wide
of it in his conversation that ore may
constantly cry "warln, warfn," know
ing that the place to look for it ia at
the point most distant. Now, If he:
has female friend of ardinary femi-
nine wit, she knows at first sight that.
he has such secret, and either 55t 5f isec sec
purpose, or instiHctively and uncon-
sciously, she will set to work to guess
it and, whether she means it or not,
she aUtH guess it. She can't help it..
He will be forever holding it up be-
fore his eyes, and sternly crying "hands
off," He will talk round and round
it until she knows the exact size of the
circle of which it is the centre. She:
cannot help knowing it is hidden in
the very word he a0iU not speak. AT,
ter he has tantalized her. with it until
she knows it as she knows his face,
very likely it will seem to her not
worth the trouble of hiding. It is a
mark of her pentration to have dis
covered, and she knows how yoss wilH
relish hearing "about il, and she wilR
whisper it in your ear at the first op--
portunity. .E
Swallow the nice bit and wipe your
lips, then shake your head and pro-.
pound that original saying, ga wo-
man cannot keep secret" and half
the world will echo it as if it were'
both new and wise. Can't forseoth T.
Give her one worth keeping, and see.
Let me tell you: sit down some even
ing with o woman whose heart is.
ready to break with sorrowful story
she would as soon die as let yeu guess.
(You hare done it, no doubt, many q
time without knowing it, and, until
the day of your death you never viii
know it, She will meet you with
her lightest, merriest laugh; she will
walk straight up to her secret; she
will put her foot upon it under your
nose; she will 6irt it in your face; she
will dance and hutter around you
it as a moth around q candle; she Will
chatter away about thousand things
you are astonished that she should
dare to mention; she win, with the
greatest apparent difidence, coDfide to-
you what you suppose she would only
mention to her bosom friend, and she,
will swear you to eternal secresy about
some matter which, undoubtedly, yon
will hear her committing In the same
way to every friend she meets for .
week to come, and be sure she b
"laughing in her sleeve Mt your when
you sighing!y murmer, "Ah, o woman
can never keep q secret p Iaj
X X x g. -
Historical instances are abundant
in which women have suffered impFis-
onment, tortures, DEATH Yather than
reveal the secret which would involve
another in their disaster. Remember
our War. Did the Southern and
frontier women prove then that they
could or could not keep secretf If
you have wife, and do not confide
your secrets to her, be sure she will
find them out But tell her, fearless
ly and confdingly, alb yoWF heart. and
if, by word or sign, she betrays youy
go at once to Chicago and get a di-
vorce. You have o wife not worth
keeping. L. BIssELI, IN PGcE-
ards Monthly, for Jstly. 500
The greatest of men live unseen
to view, while thousands are not quail