The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1877-06-09
"Never an Encouraging Word.n


"He never speaks an encouraging
word to u.s." said servant of Mr..
Towne. "Is that so?" "You may
try your life out to please him, and he
never speaks an encouraging word. 1t
is life under the harrow there, and I've
| left"
His children cannot leave home. He
has two boys. They are some lines at
work in the garden, pulling up weeds,
cutting grass, making martin-houses
and windmlls. They put no heart in
their wcik; it is dull aud spirltess.
They are forever haunted with furi.
tive fear. Try as they may, and try
they do, tAeir father never encourages
them. Nothing but dismal drizHle of
fault. finding falls from his lips. A
sound scoldIng, genuine cutting when
they deserve it-aud children know
! they deserved 1t sometimes like thunder
,tuim, purify the air and make every
tn better and brighter. Then the
clouds clear away, and the GadeSt sun
shine follows. That is not MIR. Towne's
way. He is never thunder and light.
ming and over it, not he ; but perpetual
drzzle, damp, dark, murky. Nothing
pleaseS, nothing suits him. Putting his
eye on his boy is mark of il.fav0r.
Every child breads his gaze, shuns it,
Is ! at ease, awkward, squirming, un-
til it wTiggles out OF the way and is
gone. There are no glad voices In his
presence; no outspoken, frank honest
utterance; only hesitation, incunse-
quence, selfcOntradictiOn for fear al
way beclouds the brightest mind and
tile simplest heart.
"There is 10 use telling it before
father" the boys say in bringing home
bit of news or q tale of adventure.
But. worst of all, "There is no use
in trying" as they often say. And
the dishpa:tenment will presently merge
into Indifference, possibly into some
thing more active. They will run
away. Evil "speaks pleasantly" at
least, and many q young person has
turned from home and sought other
companions for no other reason. The
heart, with all its warm impulses, and
with them its sense of shortening and
incompleteness, needs enlargement -
must have it in order to grow strong.
mot one encouraging word from
fathet!" Poor bOysl Bridget can leave,
they can't.
Nor can his wife leave. Poor wo-
man! She Is brave woman, too. What
a hopeful smile she often wears. 1t is
because she will bear up; and smile she
must, an answering smile TO the love of
friends, the courtesy of society, the
beauty of flower and grass, and the
slant sunshine through the trees. But
there Is no Joy within. Home is joy.
less spot; for her most careful house.
wifery there is never an encouraging
word for the taste and grace with which
she tries TO make home attractive there
is never an encouraging word. The
glance of her husbands eye only takes
in what happens to offend; the word of
his mouth only expresses what he finds,
and these ale faulto, spots, something
forgotten or overlooked. She breads
him, she fears him, she shrinks from
him. There is no freedom or sunshine
in his presence. Perhaps in her yearn.
ing woman's heart she has lOnged for
his return, forgetting in his absence the
small tyranny of his eXacting spirit;but
the thrill OF his coming is soon deaden~
ed-"No encouraging Words" and she
silently slips out of his sight to swal E
low her disappointmentand heart break.
ing alone.
There is a sense of misery in the
house which no stranger can detect I;
perhaps this is too positively expressed; |;
it is rather an absence of joy, every
thing. spontaneous and cheerful and
glad held in check. A minor zone runs
through the family life, depressing TO
every one. The prints of an iron hand
are on every heart.
"Never a word to encouraged" slip.
ped unawares from her lips one day.
1t does not seem much; but who that
has felt it does not know that it Is Tile
secret of many joyless childhood,
many a broken spirit Family Friend.