Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1889-03-29
"r,ANoLlNG ELNos."

Robert conyer's Mother couIdn't Abide
Them. Because Of What r,Iey siguified.
What lasting influence good, earn
est, rugged minded woman can leave
behind herl This has free uently been
borne in upon my mind when / have
heard Robert Collyer begin MY good
mother used TO say" and then give
some nugget of wisdom m common
sense that was a good and sufficient
text for whole sermon, or & sufficient
''clincher" for some able moral argu-
ment Of her sons. One of her say
ings, that no doubt she repeated often
enough TO keep il alive forever, was
this: Il can't abide dangling hands"
Don't you hear her saying it, Don't
you see her saying it-she, whose
hands never dangled in all her lifei
That cant abide" is an old fashioned
phrase, but 1t seems 10 mean more than
our modern cant endure, does il not9
One of the dictionary meanings Of
abide is ITO dwell" 1t is very hard
TO dwell with dangling hands. an
other definition is ITO be patient with I"
and it is equally hard to be patient
with dangling hands. Whyf Not
because they may not be beautiful.
They are often small, shapely and
white. Not because they are doing
disagreeable things, for they are doing
nothing. Then whyi Well, because
they are not Just hands alone, but are
also part of a human being, and that
human being, man or woman, is the
disagreeable thing about the hands, II
l may be allowed to use somewhat
peculiar, involved language. You all
know what / mean.
Dangling hands stand first of all for
laziness, and who can ''abide" thati
The lazy person not only does nothing
for others, but she does nothing for
herself. Things must be done. The
lazy person is always the last one to
wish things left undone that pertain
to her comfort and ease, and so some
one else must take up and do what
should be the work of those dangling
hands.
Again, dangling hands mean self
ishness. II we go through life doing
nothing with the instruments given us
to use, some one loses something;
blessings are not dropped along the
way, stones and briers are left in the
paths OF struggling fellow mortals that
helpful hands should "eather out"
warming fires 60 unlindled and some
one is cold, the dark shutter is not
flung wide open to let the blessed sun
shine in, and some poor, suffering ono
sits in the dark. Is not this muchi
Dangling hands mean shiftlessness.
Opportunities slip by, bits of happiness
and materials for comfort 90 10 waste,
pleasures and duties get lost, better
things than gold slip through the
cracks Of ifels floor and are never see
again, the zest of living is gone, life is
1avorless. There is sort Of opinion
prevalent that il one does nothing evil,
he is good. II is not always true.
So far as the doing nothing evil goes,
ho is all right, but he must also do
GOOD il he would be good. We can
not stand still. II we are not march
ing forward we are marching back
ward. II we stand with dangling
hands, good life slips by us and we are
left behind, and we might as we'll have
turned our backs and fied-better, I
think.
A homely old proverb here comes to
mymind, Handsome is that handsome
does, and so, in no sense can dangling
hands be beautiful, no matter how
perfect their symmetry or fair their
color. II our hands and our faces do
not stand for something beautiful
within, then TO the clear, far seeing
eye they are not beautiful Let us al
say, and mean il as we say it the
good words of Madame Collyer; II
can't abide dangling handsTCJuniata
Stafford in Good Housekeeping.