The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-07-04
Sitting in Judgment.
BY b. NJ. b.

OF the sins not exclusively feminine.
yet which have been often imputed to
woman Is that of evil Speaking. If
one, being a woman, could deny the
charge with any show of truth or con-
sistency, it were well worth dying in
the attempt. OF course we cannot
help forming our ideas concerning the
ndu OF our associates, but it is
quite within our power to avoid max
ing their deficiencies the subject of
general criticism.
Who cannot number among their
friends those who are hospitable, kind
hearted, and in the main estimable
people, yet who have formed such a
habit of sitting in judgment on their
friends affairs that a sensitive person
would feel about as comfortable in a
cage of wild beasts as in their pres
ence. Everything that happens is re-
viewed and enlarged upon, as though
they had been chosen a select scruti-
nizlng committee, and were expected
to make ample report. Their cquain-
tanceS are under surveillance in the
smallest items. Some one passes car
rying a bundle, this is observed and
commented upon. Some ones blinds
are open or shut. this is a subject of
grave conjecture. The slightest change
III the social atmosphere is under i'm
mediate consideration. One never
feels secure III their society. There is
a constant fear of beng dragged be-
fore their tribunal, and made to answer
charges. Perhaps the best and safest
way IS to keep clear from such o~fficious
friends, but one must consider that
such a withdrawal is attended with
difficulties.
A. rln,.n aa,,.l 10 fo--
large community, who would take the
general oversight of their neighbors'
affairs, the sin of evil speaking being
nus within bounds, might not appear
SO formidable. 1t is but Just to sup
pose that Ill the floating judgments
affecting IN much or little the reputa-
ton OF people are not the deliberate
summing up of faults and follies by
the Judge, but a mere chance casting
out OF CRITICISMS that would have been
Kept within, it directed by either a
good heart or a wise head.
driving, thriving business woman
mounts h Judgment seat, she has
her w standard of values and uses
and is as ineXOrabie in her demands
upon others as the veriest tyrant. In
efficiency is "a vice she was sent into
n world to destroy, and it is not her
1ault that 1t Is not destroyed, root and
branch.
a little woman must needs
set up her standard. Then trifies light
as air are hunted down. All sorts oil
preposterous notions are nourished
into lmplsh existence. Her friends
must conform to her moods and lenses.
or be cast aside with venom. A woe
man who has one good quality, if being
a nice housekeeper. is perhaps the
most eNacting OF judges. With her
spectacies wiped clear, she is ready to
investigate her neighbors' premises.
Dirt and disorder she considers to he
the two dlrest evils that beset human
lty. A stray cobweb has more signif-
canoe IN her eyes than the rise and fall
OF empires; she scrubs and she scrubs.
and those who don't scrub are unclean,
she Is not a good housekeeper." j.
the o scathlng criticism She can
make.
But the standard which most de-
grades a woman, is that which makes
ne always suspicious that others feel
Above her. a miserable, narrow ont
look is that which is always comparing
ones self with others, III this way. a
good, true, self-poised woman, seldom
or never feels this, from the fact that
she Is strong enough, and wise enough
10 detect a spurious article from a gen
ulne. If some are really above others
: IN station or culture, well and good.