Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-07-15
thus taking person out Of himself is
very strongly proved by this well known

thus taking person out Of himself is
very strongly proved by this well known
fact
The common lot OF women is to bear in
silence and in hope deferred the varying
fortunes of the men-husband, brother,
father or son-7on whom they happen to
depend; to take with equanimity the sud-
den reyerses which await them in this
country; nay, worse, to see such near
friend going down into drunkenness or
into dishonesty and to have no power to
| stop him. Such is the story OF Tantalus,
| the sword Of Damocles and the carrying
| water in sieve thousand times repeated
and yet more than half the women in
! the world are suffering that particular
! form Of torture all the time.
What shall help them? First, of course,
| the angel of consolation; secondly, the
| handmaiden HaJit Women in such po-
sitions fall into habits, very monotonous
| ones-their duty first, then their little
pleasures, their cup of tea or their even
| ing church, their little gossip with soane
| their sorrow. They do not know until
perhaps their poor little possessions
are taken away what a pleasure it has
| been to go in and loop back the curtains
| of the best four posted bed or some other
| innocent pastime or habit. One poor gen.
| tleman who fell into bankruptcy and had
to give up his watch suffered immeasura-
bly, when he came to the hour Of winding
it, and finally borrowed one of a friend at
winding time.
| "Let me come in on melting days."
said the retiring tallow-chandler.
| The powerful story in Dickens "Tale
of Two Cities of the doctor at his shoe
making is picturesque account of the
| tyranny of habit.
Every physician to the insane would
have some such story to tell. Habits pos
sess us after while, and may become our
masters; but they are less apt to injure
than to console--even the habit of smok-
ing, sometimes called one of the bad
habits. | believe that it has done far more
good than hurt in giving weary man a
moment Of consolation, when, but for
that, he would have fretted and fumed
himself into a fever. The clever author
of THE Narcotics We Indulge In thinks
immensely we'll of these drugs, and roots,
and herbs and berries-tobacco, tea, cot
fee and the like--which poor human ma
ture yearns for to repair its waste. We
all know the power of a bad habit
opium, hasheesh, drinking and the like !;
so it is very important to us to give our
good habits a certain hold on us that they
may drive out the bad.
Those people who have no habits suffer
terribly under afiliction if compelled to
stay in one place There are natural born
nomads-Arabs by nature, who hate to
keep quiet They want to fold their tents
and away. They never can care for the
dinner hour, have no particular place at
the table, are not tied to hours or seasons,
have absolutely no choice between hot
and cold baths, cannot for the life OF them
make Tuesday resemble Monday. Change
is the order of their nature, and when an
affection comes they are particularly mis-
cradle. For, in the case of a death, pub
lie opinion is neXorable-especially must
a woman not be seen out of her house,
nor view nature other than through a
black veil. If she does she is considered
heartless and as treating the memory of
the departed with disrespect. A lady who
was very fond of music lost her only little
son and was as heart broken as a mother
could be at this greatest of calamities.
Her friends and her husband finally begged
OF her to 20 to the opera or to concert
somewhere where she could hear some
music. She went to the opera and
found great comfort and help from it.
Music is ever consolation; but she
was espied by Mrs. Grundy, even
though her black dress and sad face
should have surrounded her as a shield
and called heartless and frivolous. The
whole world conspires to made the period
of mourning exactly the most unhealthful
and most dangerous to the morbid mind
A very sagacious physician in Boston
took another view of this subject. lie
had terrible case of grief on his hands
lady who had lost grown-up daughter
She would not be comforted. He found
that she had been fond of playing whist
and he made it professional order that
she should play every evening. Sunday
afternoons became to her dreadful period
of time to get rid of, and he finally ordered
the family, if they would save her reason
to sit down and play whist with her every
Sunday afternoon. So the queer spectacl,
obtained of Puritan family, very relig
ious, Sabbath keeping, playing cards regu
larlv on that day. There was very LITTLE
amusement in it, of course, but the regu
lar sequence of the game, its monotonou'
: laws and its curious combinations tool
her mind from its sorrow, and she wac
) saved ---ippiet0AS' JoHyTd(.