The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-04-05
Sensible Women.

A sensible woman takes life phlo-
sophically, which is by no means the
same as tepidly or unteelingly. What
she can conquer by calm, strong resist
ance she does; what she can not con-
quer she submits to patiently and quiet
| w. Where shrek would free her from
danger she would scream as louldly as
her neighbors; but where it would do
nothing for her own safety and much
for the distraction of those who heard
her, she keeps calm sough and betrays
nothing oven to the reeds. If fond of
| the country and her fate lands her at
! Bermondsey she makes the best of what
| she has, and refuses to shape the wood
| of her house tree into cross she can
never forget. Certainly Bermondsey
is not inviting, and her fathers place
down in Somerse.shire was q very hea-
ven of rural beauty. But if she can not
have it, what IS the use of crying over
| the inevitable, of desiring the impossi-
BILE, of try ing to churn the split milk in
to butterP When she married her Janus
she married into the cont ngencies Of
clergyman's life, among whichis count
ed the necessity of taking what will give
sufficient amount of family bread.
Aud aga n, if on the other hand she has
been used to the intellectual life and
| vivac'ty of London, she does not moon
away her life in unavailing regrets
when she is sent down to that desolate,
companionless living ON the edge of the
fens, but sets herself TO make the gar
den trim and the house pretty and
homelike within, and when she is forced
to look out she speaks of the sense of
expanse ia the sky and not of the ugly
dreariness of the landscape, nor yet of
the desolate solitude of her surround
ings. She is far too sensible to spend
her strength in regrets, and she thinks
the best way of bearing burdens of all
kinds is to pad them with cheerfulness,
| and not to cut her shoulders sore with
unayailing irritation. Things which
have to be ne at any cost, things
which have to be borne at any price,
she does and bears with the wise cour-
age of common sense, by which she
avoids the pa ms courted by fretfulness,
and, in making the best of things, has
always something in her hand which at
least is relatively good. Cheerful and
fond of children, as all sensible women
are and must be to deserve the style and
name, she is the life of the small brood
when they gather in little groups or
isolated uni s, stiff, strange and shy, in
the drawing-ro m where they are the
guest of the hour. If the hostess is
inapt, the sensible woman supplies Ter
deficiencies and takes her place natur-
ally, as of right, and by orderly
arrangement of things. No one knows
how she does it, but in q short time she
has put all in train, when the ball is set
| YNll5nor fho Cav II l,a Tos H. l.,
gun. The children look to her as their
leader, and she knows how to smooth
away all the difficulties which may
arise. She encourages the tim.d, helps
the awkward, gently represses the rude.
tames into due subordination, without
extinguishing, the rampant spirits Of
the boisterous Sic makes herself the
center and the soul, but always with
moderation; and what, without her,
would have been fiasco for dullness,
or riot for rudeness, she makes into
an evening of which the little creatures
talk for weeks after, and remember for
years as glimpse into fairyla So
in any home where size may be with
young people long past mere childhood.
If a wet day comes she sets everything
in motion, and turns what else would
have been gloom and ennui into pleas
ure and brisk amusem mt. And all
this is without any kind of self-asser-
ton, though, being sensible woman,
she is nationally fond of amusement for
her own share. Still, it is as much or
rather more, for others than for herself
that she works at ''making things CO."
and her de ire toamuse others is strong
er than even her own wish to be amused.
The sensible woman takes a healthy in
terest in her neighbors, but she is by no
means gossip, still less scandal
monger. At no time will she be brought
into the folly of discussing motives, or
judging of things by the seamy side of
APPEARANCES. And persistently bored
by those who find pleasure in seeing
| ali things a travers and all people more
or less scoundrels undetected, she does
her best to mitigate what she can not
prevent. She has strong principles, but
/ she is not an active prose'yter. She
lets otf ers think for themselves, and,
only when called on to testify, raises
her own private flag aloft. She knows
the d ference between constancy and
aggression, and, with the courage of
her opinions, has also the modesly of
reticence. She treats her servants as
in a certain sense her friends, her chill
dren, while still keeping the reins of
home government in her own hands.
But they all know that when they do
Their duty she will reward them or at
least recognize by kind word and hearty
acknowledgment that they have done
well, and that when they nealect it she
will rebuke them, She will be neither
Indifferent on the one side nor remiss
on the other; and thus her household
always feels and knows that her eyes
are open and her heart is warm. Lon
don QUEEN.