The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-08-03
LITTLE THINGS,

The art of keeping ones private af
fairs to ones self has been assigned by
writer as an essential quality of
good breeding. This we think is quite
a correct estimate. Those strangers
who, thrown into our society for half an
hour, employ the time in detailing fam
lily cares and trials, husbands peculiari-
ties and wife's frivolities, call each other
by their Christian names and detail the
general course of events with them, cer-
tainly fail to win either admiration or
sympathy from their listeners, and fas-
ten upon themselves the stigma of ill
breeding by the most casual observer.
How so many persons can subject them
selves to the ridicule of acquaintances
and the contempt of strangers by maxi
ing personal matters public property,
we are at loss to divine. The least
sense of dignity possible must make
persons consider their own affairs sacred
enough for silence, altogether too sacred,
at any rate, for their slightest clue to be
given to the strangers ear. Then the
assumption that our own business af-
fairs or family trials or joys are as in
teresting to others as to ourselves, is to-
tally unwarranted, and could spring
only from selfshness or from egotism.
In the "little things" that go so far
toward making up the sum total of
every life, common sense and kindness
are the surest guides. As has been OBJ
served by lady of literary note, "Com-
mon sense tells US whether it is well bred
to glance in at an open door as we pass
by; to read the superscription on a let
ter passing through our hands; to pass
a spoon so that the bowl or handle shall
be next the extended hand"
If common sense is in these and kin
dred matters a sure guide, kindness is
AN equally unerring one in debating the
gentle closing of the door when passing
out, the low tone used in the sick-room,
the restraint imposed upon OfficiOus or
wordy consolation to the bereaved, and
hundreds of like acts of courtesy and
thoughtfulness.
Trifies make the sum of human things,
and the happiness or unhappiness OF
many, many lives turn upon them.
Fault found with a dress that was ar
ranged with the desire to please will
cloud an evening of expected enjoy
ment and cause it to be succeeded by q
day of lassitude, if not of discomfort
Every woman knows this, and every
man should learn it. Nor are these
things so small as we are apt to suppose
We remember to have heard a friend
express an opinion which in the main
did great injustice to a genial, kind.
hearted man who was guilty of the gros:
politeness-to call it by no harshel
name-of reading in her presence the
message on postal card given into hi:
hands to deposit in the post Office.
'He may be good enough" said she
as lie disappeared still trying to "mak,
out" some obscure word on the card
"but he lacks delicacy, politeness, anC
common sense"
We were forced mentally to concur
while we felt constrained to offer a de
fense.
Since a proper observance of the small
courtesies of life contribute so largely t,
its happiness, and their neglect detrac
so much from it, who, whose presen
business is to make the most of life, will
undertake to pass them by scornfulIy a
"little things?"