Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1889-03-22
AN ARMCHAIR SERMON.
Sarcasm That Chills Enthusiasm
and Kills Love In Many Home.

/ pounuS' w hOb pIooVOu W NN "'N
deed by cruel and protracted methods.
writes amber" in the Chicago Trf-
| bune. l should be arrested by the
Humane Society IL | won't TO work to
put poison in the doomed fowls daily
rations, or nip it slyly now and linen
with a red-hot hairpin.
The cat that was killed by care suf-
fered far more than the cat that per-
ished by a quick bullet.
When horse is disabled and unfit
for service, the merciful man knocks it
in the head with "a well-aimed blow,
and that's the last OF it. But we have
different ways of killing love, and
trust, and kindly feeling In one an
others hearts. We make use, all too
often, of the North American Indians
original method of protracted torture.
And love, and trust and kindly feel
ing, although they die hard, and are a
long time dying, under the process, are
as certainly doomed as the chicken,
| the cat and the disabled horse are by
the blow of the Ratchet, the sting of
the bullet or the crash of the club.
There is many a home to-day where
love is slowly dying under the torture
inflicted by sarcastic tongue, or where
ii already lies dead under the
peculiar processes of this cowardly
mode OF torment The drunkard's
wife is not more TO be pitied than the
wife of the cold blooded husband whose
! tongue holds the venom OF a dozen SER
penis l would rather be mated to a
man who should throw chair at me
/ To Inns
as we see occasionally, who murders
his wife's peace and happiness slowly
yet surely from day TO day with cruel
and biting words OF suspicion and con-
tempt | might dodge the chair, but |
couldn't dodge the word, and, besides.
bruises inflicted on the body heal under
the application OF liniment and arnica,
but there has no salvo boen found yet
TO cure the hurt Of a sarcastic tongue.
There are many unhappy homes in the
world and many broken hearts, and
there is a great cry raised against the
causes therefor A crusade is even be-
ing raised against the giant forces that
combine to break up the harmony OF
domestic concord, yet the lesser intlu-
ences for evil are ignored and forgotten.
1t Is as though we armed ourselves 10
go out and shoot elephants in a country
where rabbits were devastating tho
crops, or fitted out feet to catch
whales in a fresh-water pond full OF
cells and catfish. Iutemporance, and
unfaithfulness, and all the greater
causes of sorrow in the worlds homes
have always plenty OF armed and stead
fast OppOsers and foes, but the littlo
hidden foxes that spoil the vines run to
and fro without molestaton.
1t takes as much heroism often to sit
down and endure for half-hour the
electric buzz-saw OF a modern dentist az
it takes TO march TO battle behind IL drum
and flag; but who ever wrote n poem
TO the hero or heroine OF the dentists
chair? IL takes more Christian grace to
live in the same house with a sarcastic
tongue than 10 wear "a hair-cloth shirt
and do ante-sunrise penance, and yet who
stops TO say a word Of comfort 10 the saint
1 Injured to domestic torment, or learn d
lesson from her sublime patience and
enduring courage? 1t is not going to
be those who march up by and by and
show saber cuts on the body who will
be called heroes, but those who display
scars made in the heart that were silent
ly endured. who will wear the laurel
and the bay We all pride ourselves
on the etiquette that teaches us TO be
gentlemen and ladies in the drawing
room or in public places, but when
some of us have learned the etiquette
that teachers us TO DC more gentleman
ly and ladvlikc as fathers and mothers.
sisters and brothers, parents and chill
dren. we shall have learned new code.
The man is coward who is civil only
where he dare not be otherwise, but be-
comes bully behind the closed doors
of his home. What we need is less man
nerism for show, and more courtesy at
home. You would never dare to speak
to lady in society, sir as you speak
TO your wife and daughter, and | say
you are the worst sort OF cad when
you take tone with the defenseless
ones at home you would not dare as
sumo TO a stranger
All politeness that is put on merely
for show is like the stain the cabinet
maker puts on a pine board; politeness
that amounts to anything is In the grain
OF the wood, not an external applica-
ton. We make a terrible fuss when
our growing children put "a dinner
knife to their lips, yet say nothing when
they poster and harrass one another
with mean and sarcastic speeches until
good nature flies out the window and
evil temper stalks in at the door.
| will take my chance any day to live
with the person who commits the sole
cism of putting his knife In his mouth
rather than with the person who deals
in anger-provoking speech and inuen-
/ do.
You take it greatly to heart when tho
slugs get into the roses and your juno
/ gardens are despoiled OF their sweet
ness and beauty. And yet there is
something worse that gets into the
| home, that garden of delight, when un-
| kind and sarcastic speech On eeps in
with its chilling blight. | have in my
minds eye as write a family OF grow
! ing sons and daughters more desolate
than any garden devoured by slugs or
withered by devastating blight The
! father sets over against every thing
that is spontaneous and ardent and
earnest with his cold and clanmy ridi-
Guile; the older boys emulate their
father, and the girls are ashamed to be