Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-07-19
Bad Tenpers.

neec not inquire what member OF 1t pos
sesses the most knowledge or best INTEL
lect, or the warmest heart. Inquire SIM
ply who has the worst temper. No one
of the household opposes the person who
has an unbridled temper. Even the lit
tie children learn almost by instinct to
shun him, and young or old are alike in
compatible in his presence. The merest
trifle serves an ill-tempered person with
an excuse for ranting fit of the sulks.
Has an involuntary mistake been made?
So far as he is concerned, you might as
well have committed crime. Is break
fast too late? has servant blundered ?
a child misunderstood a command? The
whole house is in a turmoil, everybody
IS unhappy, and one by one they retire
and get out of sight and hearing of this
predominant temper. The little ones
who soon discover where there is any
thing wrong, sit in mute wonderment as
| to what the trouble is all about. Under
such headship as this no bright memo
ries gild the backward time of youth.
Children will always remember the ia
theirs morose temper. his disagreeable
ways, and fits of passion and injustice,
his rough speech and rough acts. The
fathers good qualities and virtues are
covered up by the superabundance of his
evil temper. Neither his generosity or
kindness to the poor, nor his loyalty to
his kindred and friends, nor his indepen-
dent spirit toward his superiors, nor, in
deed, any virtue that he may possess,
can take the sting out of that one over
shadowing fault-his selfish temper.
When under its influence, he is, for the
time being, maniac, or, at least, the
most unreasoning of mortals. No one
can estimate properly the amount of sor-
row and mischief that such indulgences
bring into household. But if the tyr
amy of mans bad temper is unbearable,
that of woman is more so. The one
gives moments of relief to the household
when he is absent, because few men stay
at home all day; but woman is nearly
always in the house, and the minutia of
economy are as the breath of life to fem
mime nostrils. Neither are mans domes-
tic functions so universal and thus his
temper, though it may be even worse than
xunr,,onsc ia still nf
wearing. The house is the woman's nat
ural kingdom, and if she elects to rule
with nettles instead of lilies, her choice
is free and her subjects are bound. A
sullen brooding over wrongs that never
existed, the finding of flaws where any
one else would see beauties, are signs of
the martyr" beating herself to pieces
against the bars forged by her own ILL
temper, and giving herself as much pain
as she inficts on others. If bad temper
and its habitual indulgences made the
possessor happy, it might then be endured
by the victim with some degree of pa
tience; but to infict and suffer by the
infiction is such supplicating of curses
as is not at all pleasant to think of, much
less to endure. If man or woman
cares only for power, and not at all for
love, the thing to cultivate is bad tenn
per, because the largest amount of sub
servience is paid through fear and not
affection. You have only to establish a
reputation for ungovernable temper to
have as many slaves as there are house,
mates and dependents. Never mind the
silent tears that are shed when you are
not by, the groans that are uttered in ST.
lence, the evil words that are said in
whisper, and the still more evil thoughts
of retaliation that are cherished by all
with whom YOU have had to do. You
must be satisfied with your account
with power, and leave love, like a
whipped school-boy, shivering and cry
ing by the roadside. This is a sad
story of the terrible effects of an evil
temper, yet true one. Your friends al
low your virtues-virtues mostly of q
theoretic kind-but lament your temper,
and even in mans last hour, troubled
kind Of feeling will annoy his watchers, a
feeling made up of pity, sorrow and re-
lief. Your tyranny of temper has worn
out love, and perhaps respect; so that
there are none who do not breathe more
freely when you are gone. Probably
there would be more patience in the suf-
ferers if it were not true that there is no
temper so bad that it cannot be restrain
ed, and even entirely controlled.-PhI-
adelphia Record.
The CAUSE OF SMALL-Pox.-AG A Ger
man physician has lately started the