The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-05-18
CRUSH ALL SUSPICIOUS.
How to Avoid Drifting to q Miserable
Condition of Mind.

| How to Avoid Drifting to Miserable
Condition of Mind.
There are few things more productive
| of evil in society than suspicious dis
position. He who is always on the watch
for wrong-doing actually fosters it. He
NAV fancy that he is foe to evil. but
in truth, by letting it dwell it his mind,
he becomes it promoter. The gross in
Justice he does to the innocent is but
part of the injury. He stirs up re-
| sentful feeling, destroys friendship,
embitters intercourse, sows seeds OF
distrust everywhere, poisons both his
own happiness and that of many others.
Somanifest are these results that there
is very general stigma placed not
| only upon the suspicious person, but
upon all suspicion itself. '.If its con-
tinual presence be SO baneful, let Us
Danish it altogether, say many social
well-wishers. A little deeper reflec-
ton, however, would show that this
utter determination of suspicion is
neither possible nor desirable for as
long as there is evil in the world there
must be the fear Of evil, and suspicion
| in its first formation is but fear,
a doubt, an uncertainty in the mind,
based upon more or less reasona-
BILE grounds. A man, for example,
some one in his employ of I'M
faithfulness. He may have strong
cause for the suspicion, or there may
be but slight foundation, or it may be
entirely Pigment of the imagination.
In any case he, perhaps, can not avoid
in the first instance the entrance of the
suspicion into his own mind, and it
may be we'll that he can not. His own
interest and the cause OF justice might
otherwise both suffer. Being there,
however, the question i'm mediately
arises, What shall he do with it? There
are three paths open to him and to
every one who suspects another OF
wrong-doing. He may test the suspi-
cion, he may quench it or he may
cherish and retain it, The last of these
methods is the most common, and this
it is that works so much evil and grad
ually develops the suspicious DISPOSE
ton. TO retain the suspicion, to let it
rankle in the mind even slightly, is
both unjust and unwise, and when to
this we add the very common habit of
confiding these unprovoked doubts and
fears to third party tie injury is
multiplied.
There are many suspicious that need
crushing in the bud. We fancy our
friend is cool to us; we imagine some
one has sighted us; We suspect our
neighbor of having spoken ill of us.
Most likely we are mistaken, and, in any
case, we could never profitably search
into the matter. Our trust in our
friend or our own self-respect, should
lead us to put away such thoughts, to
abandon such suspicious. Some one
has, perhaps, dropped poisonous
Danish it from our thoughts with scorn.
Circumstances may tend to cast sus-
picion on one whom we may honor; let
us continue rec ~-cfust him in our heart
of hearts. We may fear that some one
has committed a fault, which, how
ever, does not concern us in the least,
and in which we are not called upon to
interfere; let us expel the idea of an
unwelcome intruder. In one of these
two ways every suspicion may be right
ly dealt with. If as Il warning it has a
mission to perform. it will do its work;
lift is an unworthy or an idle conjec-
ture it will be dismissed. In either case
it will pass away as all suspicious are
meant to do. AS transient guests OF
the mind, they may be useful in
establishing the innocence which
should be brought to light, or in prov
ing the guilt which should be purged
away. But as permanent inmates of
the mind, their influence is most per-
nicious. Suffered to remain, they
rankle and tester, and produce all man.
ner of social corruptions. People are
not naturally suspicious, as is some
times supposed. They have brought
themselves into this unwholesome and
unhappy condition by failing to deal
rightly with each separate suspicion as
it arises. Instead of courageously test
ing it, or firmly resisting it, they have
permitted the constant presence of one
suspicion after the another until they
clond the mind, darl1en the thoughts,
and fill the heart with distrust and
bitterness. But he who deals intelli-
gently and faithfully with his sus-
picions, mastering them, and never
suffering them to master him, will
never sink into the miserable and
misery giving condition that every one
must occupy who has a suspicious
character.
According to a news item, two
young men recently fought duel for the