Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1875-01-07
Rutland aailp aerald.
THE RUTLAND HER AID
TOLD you SO.

TOLD you SO.
Twitting upon facts is generally con-
sidered an unamiable thing under any
circumstances; not even excepting when
in the newspaper sense one has to deal
with jealous and unreasonable cotem-
porary. In high alterations between
angry and excited men it is perhaps
sometimes practically unavoidable. On
many other occasions, when from any
cause, the temper is ruffled and one sees a
chance of either silencing his adversary
or of exasperating him beyond measure,
the temptation to personalities of this
sort Is almost irresistible. There is the
quick overmastering impulse to say some.
thing cutting, some Damascus, bladed
word, to let something out which has
been lying back in the mind as a ''for-
lorn hope or as a terribly impatient
body ~ reserves which are eager almost
beyond control to mix into the thickest
of the fight. Personalities in formal
public debate, whether in the decorous
sessions of grave deliherative bodies or
in the meetings of any organized popu-
lar assemblies are unparliamentary Ia
the every day incidental gatherings of
men at places of public resort, at the
store or tavern or post-otfice or street
corners, they are accounted ungracious. \
1t is true they are highly enjoyable to
the bystanders, especiallyff emphasized
bya shaking of the fist or actually cul-
minating In a knock-down, kind of ad
I0minem style of argument which has
its admirers in even the best ordered
communities. s'You lie I" for all practic- |
al purposes amounts to about the same
thing. These words are apt to suggest |
blows, even If blows are not dealt, and !
so the Imagination is about as we'll satis- |
fen. .<} 4
In the general balancing OF accounts t
some good may possibly come OF such |.
plain speech, Very likely in the more
private talks between maR slnd man, be-
tSYcong men who have been 0I4sE;es1it,z;
old grudges against each other; talks in
which neither party has to put up with
the dreadful aggrayation of the sneers
or jeers or laughter of crowd of out
siders, when men free their minds and
say what is in them without let or him
derance; in short, when men blow off
through some unthought of safety valve
when otherwise there would most likely !!
have been most disastrous explosion
in such case some good may actually |
come of wholly impulsiye speech of the !
sort in question. 1t may result in good |
mutual understanding where there had |
never really been any before. Every |
one knows what relief it is to have his
re cations with men clearly defined. |
Those antipathies which lie smouldering |
under the conventional forms of polite
ness are often most effectually destroy
ed by having vent given to them so that
they can burn themselves up. And the |
man who was intolerably disagreeable |
when standing on social terms with us
becomes, in consequence of the collision
which must in the nature of things have
come sometime, and the occurrence of
which was a mere question of time, an
object of entire Indifference.
But it is of another and much more
common way of twitting upon facts that
we were intending to speak when we
began. 1t is a certain habit of familiar
speech which a vast number of good
people have without being sensible of 1t
hardly, simply, perhaps, because it is a
habit. II there is any one phrase that
is continually in the mouths of all sorts
of people, which never did any good in
the world and is almost always doing
harm, it is this, didn't / tell you so 2"
Iterated and reiterated with variations
to suit circumstances, dinned into ones
ears from morning to night till it has al
most seemed to symbolic the very per-
sonality of the perhaps unconscious
scolder, il has doubtless alienated hus-
bands from wives, children from parents /
and caused everywhere and IN number
less ways an untold amount of i'll will t
really well meaning and good
dispositioned people. And all for S9IIllssoT
Simply to crafty self, to vindicate ones
own batter judgment, to make sure that
the unhappy victim of his own impetu-
Gus self-wilI or needless unthinking i'm
pulse knows in his dire trouble that yo1
warned HIM beforehand. 1t is the most
natural thing in the world to say TO a |
man who has gone down on slippery
place, in spite of your caution, didn't /
/ tell YOU to look out p or to a boy who
would persist in whiting toward him
self, "didn't say you would get cut Z"
These. or like words, are at the tongues
end AT such times, and have either to be I
swallowed instanter, or forcibly elected
before any better ooes can be spoken. !
With many mothers who have the quick
est natural feelings and tenderest sym |
pathies, who would do anything for
their children, and die for them even If !
il came TO that, it is a very unhappy |
habit of speech. These good mothers
win sew their eyes out, knit or darn
their fingers into palsy, get red In the.
face as fire itself over the stove, cook !,
ing something nice for the children;
xrill hug and kiss the babies, tuck them |
no in bed in the snuggest and ienderest |
manner possible, any yet they mrlsf al
ways remind them whenever they 30 /