Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-06-27
THE PAINS OF FEAR
The Exquisite Torture Endured by
the TImid Woman.

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Think what that poor, dear, timid
woman undergoes who nightly looks
under her bed for the burglar she be
lieves TO be- secreted there; who goes
round the house after the servants are
abed te see that all is safe, and that no
ticket-of-leaye man is profiting by his
liberty TO do her harm. With what a
sense Of dread she locks the doors OF
those dark, underground places into
which she dares not peer. Ghosts and
robbers-she turns the key on both
with n quick throb and trembling hand,
then beats a retreat with ever the same
feeling of nameless terror, the same
sensation of being followed by some
vague horror, which she has not the
courage 10 turn round and confront.
Night after night this torment Is re-
newed, as unfaIlingly as that which
the old hag inflicted on the merchant
Abudah,
II the night has its terrors 50 has the
day its dangers. such a person as this
in the country dies a thousand deaths
in quick succession, and the one is as
unnecessary Is the other. \ tramp
lettering on the highway names robbery
first and assassination after. y few
harmless cows going home TO be MIXED,
and driven by a child, are rs dangerous
as a stampede of buffalOs, heads down
and tails aIoft Cattle in field, how
ever well worn the public way across,
make that field taboo; for is not each
dull, slow, grazing OK, each mild eyed
''milky mother of the herd, ~ each
tangls poIled yearling calf, rs danger
Gus as a wild bull, ''man mad, - and to
be approached only with caution and in
torceg That distant, barking collie;
that restless, ueighiug horse prancing
up 90 the gap in the hedge, through
which he thrusts his sociably inquisI-
tive nose; that wayside encampment OF
travelling gypsIes-all the circumstances
OF the country are SO many causes of
fear 70 the timid pedestrian, beating
along the public road for cOnstitu-
tiOual, and taking no pleasure in what
she sees.
In a carriage she fares no better.
Up hill she is sure the horses will Jib;
down hill they viii slip and fall, or the
pole VIII break, and then heaven have
mercy on her sout On the plain road,
put 10 a sharp trOt they VIII run away;
indeed, they are running away, If
they vhisk their tails they are about 10
kick; if they cock their ears they are
SURE 10 shy. She screams at the small
est difference between them and their
driver; and when they have to meet an
other carriage, or pass a numbering
cart, she pinChes her companion black
and blue in the spaSm Of her fear.
The torment of fear is bard to bear
when it is ceutered on ones self. What
is il when It spreads itself abroad and
includes others - the belOved-in its
meshesI For the beloved, indeed, is no
security. Every railway journey in
cludes a smash; every sea voyage IS a
fOregone shipwreck; if an epidemic
touches the outside fringeS of the dis
triCt, il is sure to make 4 leap into the
home where the dear ones live. The
smallest cold is bronchitis; and when
the little people cough they have whOOp- |
ing cough, no less.
Some mothers make their mother |
hood long drawn agony by the fears /
with which they encompass their |
young. Is the nurse a quarter of an |
hour beyond her usual timer Straight |
way the grave is opened and the cher |
ished and adOred lie therein stark and |
cold. Wild wanderings to and fro, |
wild surmises as TO what can have hap |
pened, angry rejection of any common
place explanation as TO a longer walk
than usual, longer s. ssion under the
trees than was calcul q on passion
ate tears Of frantic despair, passionate
outbursts Of as frantic wrath; when lol |
the nurse comes quietly up to the house
door with her charge as fresh as a
flower and as gay as lark, and that
descent into Hades proves /
itself rs futile as it was unnecessary.
These fears accompany a mother OF |
this uneasy kind all through life. When |
her boys 20 TO school Sue is sure they |
will be mauled by the bigger rufiians of |
their class, MANNED for life in the play |
ground, oyerwOrked, underfed, put in |
To damp sheets and morally corrupted. |
She suffers more than they from the
dire necessities of learning, and wishes
that there was a royal road to knowl-
edge where her darlings could bowl
along ut railroad speed, with never .
hill TO climb nor a valley wherein to de-
sCend. She thinks the masters cruel
and the curriculum inhuman, and won
ders how so much can be expected
from such young brains and growing
Iodies.
All through life it is the same cry of
evil. The fortunes of war take her
sons here and there, and the mother
frets over the possibilities of disaster,
rs if that possible event were proven
fact and chance had no side alley foI
escape. And when it comes to matri-
mony the whole thing is renewed under
another name; for surely was there
never the girl born who was ut wife
for the son of such n mother, while the
finest man extant makes but n pooI
kind of n care taker for her daughterl
20 she peryerts the great gift of love
and the divine glory of maternity into
a scourage, and not a blessing, and
weeps behind her mantle Of self-madt
mourning because she has not the cour.
age to believe nor the common sense tC
hope.