Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-12-25
Fornality.
BY ELIZA =. ANTHONY.


II there is anything ! perfectly detest,
1t is the don't-speak tome until-I-know.
who.you.are manner of some would-be
ladies. You meet them in church, the
street-cars. shopping, IN fact, here, there
and everywhere. Eight out of ten wo.
men will stare at you from head to foot,
can tell within five cents of how much
your costume is worth, and you can easi-
ly discover by the curled lip or raised
eyebrow the result of their silent criti-
cism. But think you that one of those
eight would open conversation with
you unless she had an introduction
Not bit Of it.
l have belonged to the library for
about eighteen months, visiting it as oft
en- as five or six times week, and dur
ing that period spoke to one lady, who
had the courage to speak without either
of us knowing who the other was.
Dreadful wasn't it? In the course
of our conversation she said she had
often noticed the same thing that l had,
namely, the coldness of one woman to-
wards another, and that she often felt
tempted to speak to strangers, when they
would draw themselves up SO stiffiy and
look so forbidding that she didn't know
who would be contaminated the most
we're they to speak.
One afternoon, as | was reading ia the
library, there sat down beside me a
young lady-evidently gotten up for eff.
fect-and, after watching me for about
ten minutes over the top of her paper, ]
ventured to break the ice, and said
Have you ever read Middlemarch =
She looked at me full minute and then
answered shortly, Mol" Damper No
IL. | then said, Do you play check
ers? and was not surprised when she
answered coldly, g No, never away FROM
home. Oh, D." and she rushed te
meet another young lady, upsetting .
chair on her way, and, to judge from Tbs
looks directed toward me, they found
something infinitely amusing in the fac
that / had dared TO speak without al
introduction. | supposed that Iwould
be met half way in pleasant, lady -liks
manner but it only proves that fnt
dress does not make the lady.
A man will shake hands, and be hail
fellow well met" with an individual he
never saw before-little difference tc
him whether he is introduced oi not but
woman dare not act fearhssly and
break the shackles of cus.ob, simply
because she doesn't want to, /" But. if
we speak to strangers, how d. we know
they are respectable you isk. Are
you so immaculate that yol think il
: would contaminate if you s,ske tcssome
J one who was not respectalef | think
: | see you shrug your shoulders and curl
your lip at the thought. But, pray tell
me, does the mere introduction make an
J individual respectable II 50, i i .
! sham responsibility.
/, Reader, make frieis and speak f
strangers, and if you aouid come acros.
: one who is not resectable. instead d
q holding your musk -ssnted handkerchie
8 to your face and fo@sing to the othel
: side of the streetytep down from you
. pedestal Of prideieaving some Of you
. exclusiveness be,nd you. You won'l
s miss it. Speak kindly to the unfortu
! nate and erin, and endeavor to leat
! th.m back intethe right path, and yol
will feel far hppier than If you waitet
: for an irsro5clion. Try it, and let mi
{ know the rfult. California Agricstlt's1
: ist.