The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1884-04-10
CRITICISM.
The World is not Won by Denunci-
alton.

" e@S~ - @~SN " 49, 49, a6S
n Sarah K. Bolton.
J. Human nature seems to deligI
u to sit in Judgement upon its fe
lows. 1t is easy to cricise the mil
It lister, the church, the school, tn
world in general. Of course W
i cannot be intelligent human being
d without having definite opinion,
K but these are sometimes needlessl
e or harshly expressed.
o A prominent christian said one
to a young convert:
r do you know that people sa,
you are always blowing your owl
t horn?'
That judicious s.remark nearly seal
: ed the lips for forty years of one Of
Boston's godly men.
d. L. Moody was right when ht
said: at don't take brains o.
heart to find fault" Nothing is
easier than to sit in ones parlol
and write letters to public journals
blaming young women because they
will not go out to domestic service.
Would the writers go out if they
were poor and similarly circum-
stanced? When ladies themselves
treat girls in the kitchen as polite
| ly as those who sell ribbons and
laces, and teach their sons to be
courteous likewise, the word "ser-
vant-girl" will have different mean
ing from what it now has.
The world is not won by denun-
citation. Tell boy he is disagree
able, and how quickly one has lost
influence over him. We must com
mend the good in people, and kind
ly pray over the reason about the
bad. Most persons can be led, few
driven, even children, without spoil
ing them. Law is essential, and
obedient, but true justice is always
tempered with mercy.
know a family where the wife is
continually telling the husband and
children of their shortcomings; how
they fail in mental development, in
good manners, in success, and the
peace and happiness of that home
may well be imagined. 1t is quite
as easy to say to a child,''I am glad |
you are not rough as some are," as
to say, "why do you always talk so
loudly and be SO impolite?" 1t is
quite as easy to say to a husband,
& am glad to have you come early"
as to say, "why are you always
lateP We lead people naturally
up to the very things which we
commend in them. We trust peo-
pie and they become worthy of our
trust. Harshness is the poorest
policy possible, if we desire to win.
So antagonize people that they dis
like you, and your power has gone.
The man whom you have alienated
proves to be in nine cases out of ten
the very one who would have been
valuable to you in some business
or social success. He could have
helped you to a position, rather
than hindered. As we grow older
we learn as we never knew in youth,
that lives are like brick in a build
ing. They are put together by the
master builder, each dependent up
on the other.
II you wish a servant to be neat,
notice and speak pleasantly of it
when he or she is so. 1t is very
easy to complain when things do
not please, and quite as easy to for
get to commend when they are well
done. Many child has grown in
different and calloused in heart
from being constantly found fault
with. Many man has been help
ed to greatness because of a word
of encouragement. John B. Cough
came to eminenee because a friend
ly hand was laid on his shoulder.
John G. Whittier owed his inspira-
tjon largely to Garrison's commen
dation of his first poem. Capt Jas.
B. Eads got his taste for engineer
ing from book furnished him by /
his bachelor employer when boy
in his store.
We are creatures largely of cir
cumstances, therefore liable to
change in a day. Therefore, all the
more need of charity in our criti-
cism. A prominent author once
ridiculed Lydia H. Sigourney, be-
cause, in the blindness of her sym
pathetic heart, she often wrote obit-
uary poems. By and by a petted
child died in the authors home.
Mrs. Sigourney sent to the crushed
family some tender poems. Moth
ing could have been more comfort
ing. The poet was never ridiculed |
afterward. A leading family of my
acquaintance were opposed to wo-
men speaking in church, till their
own daughter, cultured and noble, |
was led into public work, and their
opinions changed at once.
We shall not hold the same opin-
ions on scores of subjects twenty
years from now that we have at
present When we are tempted to
any harsh things in private, or on
the platform, we might wisely re-
member the words of the old rabbi,
who was. awakened by one of his
twelve sons, who said, 'Beholdi my
eleven brothers sleeping, and 1 am
the only one who wakens to pray in
the still watches of the night"
"Son," said the wise father, "you
had better sleep too than wake to
censure your brothers"
A Belled Buzzard.