The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-04-15
WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA, APRIL

ana Keen appreciation OF her funny
stories She has acquired reputa-
tion for being amusing, and she knows
how to maintain it. If the sayings
and doings of the preceding day fail
to afford matter of sufficient amuse-
ment or interest, she is not thereby
baffied. There is always the imag
lnation to be drawn upon. The
cleverest blabs = those who are
dreaded by the men of their society
do not rely on memory only for their
stock in trade. There are few things
made little funnier by touch OF
two of fiction. And the woman who
is good at repeating is almost always
good at inventing. The tales which
the blab sends to her friends in her
letters are of course freely used by
those friends for their own purposes
of talk and letter-writing. And the
man who has taken one of these ladies
down to dinner on Monday may have
the satisfaction of feeling that it is far
from improbable that by Wednesday
some of his remarks will be circulated
in two or three of the remotest coun-
ties of England and Wales.
But it is in talk, of course, and
nearer home, that the blab is the most
effective. Most women would be ut
terly at loss for sufficient conversa-
ton to fill up the gaps after dinner, at
afternoon tea, and on rainy days, If
they were forbidden to repeat and dis
cuss the sayings and doines of their
friends. Dress is no doubt topic
which will fill up good deal of time.
But even dress is not an inexhaustible
subject, and 1t has the great advantage
of not being available in mixed COM
pany-that is. when there are men
present. Besides, interesting as the
subject of dress is, 1t yields In interest
to the matters handled by the blab.
She Is a kind of siren. exercising a
fatal fascination from which men, as
well as women, when once they have
allowed themselves to become used to
listening to her, find it very difficult
to disengage themselves. You try to
escape from the room. She arrests
you with one of her usual formulas:
"Oh, | must tell you what Mrs. A.
said the other day She was talking
about you;" or, Il want your opinion
on Mr. b. Do you think him clever?"
1t il of little use to weigh your words
in talking to her. For, however in
nocent and judicious what You say
may be, you know that she will detail
it in such way as to make you either
malicious or silly. If your observa-
tions on Mr.. b. are disparaging, she
tells your friends you cant endure
him." If what you say is compliment
tary, you are represented as quite de
voted" to him; whereas perhaps all
the while B. is to you most ordinary
person, unassociated in your thoughts
with any feelings of intolerance or de-
votion.
Ticken, writing in the Spectator in
1712, proposes that, in order to put TO
shame a certain class of persons who
were in the habit of talking rudely in
the presence of ladies, a particular
form of paddock should be designed
and sold, with printed directions for
fastening it On the mouth; and that
any woman whose modesty was offend
ed by one of those rude takers should
be at liberty to produce the paddock
and read the directions before his
face. Might not some such plan as
that suggested by Tickell be tried with
our blabs in the present day? 1t
would not agree with our modern no.
tions of politeness to produce a pad
lock and a printed paper in the course
of dinner or of afternoon tea. But
surely some enterprising firm might
design neat little paddock in alumni
ium, to be worn by ladies as charm,
and to be sent anonymously like a
valentine by any one who has been in
jured by the thoughtless recklessness
of blab. Advertised in such mems
newspapers as the Field or the Army
and Navy Gazette, under some such
name as The Gentle Hint" these lit
tie contrivances could hardly fail to
meet with a genuine success. If the
ladies to whom they were sent wore
them, they would answer the purpose
of warning unwary men of the danger
they ran. And if any blab should de-
cline to appear in public wearing her
paddock. it might be hoped that she
was little ashamed of the habit
which it symbolized, and would en-
deavor to reform. To anybody sim
cerely anxious Of curing herself of the
paddock fastened to her bunch of keys
would afford valuable help, reminding
her whenever it met her eyes of her
If this suggestion should be adopted
by any London jeweler, the padlocks
might be ready for general use before
the beginning of the next London sea-
son. But meantime we venture to
suggest to all blabs anxious not to let
the recess pass away without begin
ming the work of self-reform, to ad-
dress themselves to the.4aifficult task
in the spirit of prayer which we late
ly heard attributed to little child of
six: Bless dear papa and mamma,
and help me to cure my tell-tale-tit-
ness"