McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-03-27
Sensible Women.
London Queen

Sensible Women.
London Queen.
A sensible woman take life philo-
sophically, which is by no means the
same as tepidly or unfeelingly. What
she can conquer by calm, strong re-
sistance she does; what she cannot
conquer she submits to patiently and
quietly. Where a shrek would free
her from danger she would scream as
loudly 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 even 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, Ber-
mondsey is not inviting, and her
fathers place down in Somersetshire
was very heaven of rural beauty. But
if she cannot have ftp What is the use
of crying over the inevitable, of desiring
the impossible, of trying to churn the
split milk into butter? When she mar
ried her Janus she married into the
contingencies of clergyman's life,
among which is counted the necessity
of taking that which will give suffi-
cient amount of family bread. Again,
if, on the other hand, she has been used
to the intellectual life and vivacity of
london, she does not moon away her
life in unavailing regrets when she is
sent down to that desolate, COM
panionless living on the edge of
the fens, but sets herself to
make the garden trim and the house
pretty and homelike within, and when
she is forced to look out she speaks of
the sense of expanse in the sky and not
of the ugly dreariness of the land
scape, nor yet of the desolate solitude
of her surroundings. She is far too
sensible to spend her strength in re-
grets, 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 unavailing ir-
ritation. Things which have to be
done at any cost, things which have to
be borne at any price, she does not bear
with the wise courage of common
sense, by which she avoids the pains
courted by fretfulness, and, in making
the best of things, has always some
thing in her hand which at least is rel
atively 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
units, stiff, strange and shy, in the
drawing.room, where they are the
guests of the hour. If the hostess is
inapt, the sensible woman supplies her
deficiencies and takes her place natu-
rally, as of right and by orderly ar
rangement of things. No one knows
how she does it, but in short time she
has put all in train, when the ball is set
rolling, and the fun of the fair has be-
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
timid, helps the awkward, gently re-
presses the rude, tames into due sdbor-
dination, without cxtinguishing, the
rampant spirits of the boisterous. She
makes herself the center and the soul,
but always with moderation; and what
without her, would have been fiascC
for dizziness or a riot for rudeness, she
makes into an evening of which the
little creatures talk for weeks after, ant
remember for years as a glimpse into
fairyland. So in any home where she
may be with young people long pas
mere childhood. If wet day comes
she sets everything in motion, and turn!
what else would have been gloom anC
ennui into pleasure and brisk amuse
ment. And all this without any kline
of self-assertion, though, being a scnsi
BILE woman, she is nationally fond O
amusement for her own share. Still
it is as much or rather more for Others
than for herself that she works al
s'making things co." and her desire tt
amuse others is stronger than even he
own wish to be amused. The sensible
woman takes healthy interest in he
neighbors, but she is by no means
gossip, still less scandal-monger
At no time will she be brought int
the folly of discussing mo
tives, or Judging of things by tn
seamy side of appearances. And
| pCISlSGCAbiJ OoAOo Wy CuOoC VIII Ahei
pleasure in seeing all things a traver
and all people more or less scoundrel
undecided, she does her best to NIT
gate what she can not prevent. Sh
has strong principles, but she is not a.
active proselyter. She lets others thin
for themselves, and, only when calle
on to testify, raises her own privat
flag aloft. She knows the differenc
between constancy and aggression, and
with the courage of her opinions, ha
also the modesty of reticence. Sh
treats her servants as, in a certai
sense, her friends, her children, Will
still keeping the reins of home govern
ment in her own hands. But they al
know that when they do their duty, sh
will reward them, or at least recogniz
by kind words and hearty acknowledg
ment that they have done well, and tina
when they neglect it she will rebuk
them. She will be neither Indifferent
on the one side nor remiss on the other
and thus her household ALWAYS feels an