The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-07-02

Why not? Why should not husbands
and wives, bound together as they are in
the most intimate of all earthly relations,
and necessarily in constant intercourse
with each other, consecrate and hallow
the sacred relation, and bless themselves,
by always using kind words when they
speak to each other? Where is the place
for hard words, angry words and words
OF reproach and bitterness Such words
always leave a sharp sting oehlud them.
They are not the words of affection, and
bscOme neither husband nor wife. They
contribute nothing to the happiness Of
either, and are the prolific sources of a
large amoun of misery. The husband
who abuses his wife by his words, and
the wife who snaps and snarls at her hus-
band, are alike untrue to their marital
pledge, and are really in a very bad way.
Such husbands and wives ought at once
to repent of their sins against each other,
and acquire better affections and better
nne
Speak kindly. Why should not parents
dren, n why should not children always
so speak to their parents? Ii parents
thus speak children will naturally leaIn Ii 10
do the same thing. The example by the
parents will reproduce itself in the prac-
tice and habits of the children and the
latter will grow up into manhood or
~womanhood with a gentleness and soft
ness OF manners, and a ca~refulness in the
use OF words, that is characteristic of re-
fined and cultivated beings. Authority,
when exercised through kind words, is
scarcely felt simply as authority. The
element Of severity is withdrawn from
1t; and obedience to it is secured by love.
Parents who allow themselves to get into
fits of passion with their children, and
then thunder and storm a. them in the
language and vehemence and anger, are
making a gravemistake in the matter of
family government. Such parents need
first of all to govern themselves and put
their own passions under a healthful re-
straint.
Speak kindly. Why not? Why should
not brothers and sisters living in the same
house, eating at the same table, and fed
and clothed by the same bounty, always
speak to each other in this way? By S o
doing they will minister to each others
happiness, avoid petty quarrels, make
home pleasant, cultivate good affections,
gratlfy their parents and please God. AS
they become men and women they will
be scattered hither and thither and when
thus scattered it will be pleasant for them
to look back to their childhood days, and
remember that their intercourse with one
another was kindly and affectionate. The
friendship then formed will follow them
through life.
Yes, speak kindly. Why not? Why
clo,1l oo+ MAN -h4 occ0oio+o1 To
gether IN business study and practice the
law of kind words toward each other?
Why should not the master speak kindly
to his servant? Why should not n
speak kindly to a stranger who may ask
him a question? Why should not those
who differ in opinion address each other
in the use of respectful and kindly words?
Why should not those who oppose moral
evils temper their language with the law
Of kindness in the form Of utterance?
Why should not the minister of the
Gospel, the doctor and the nurse in the
sick-room, the buyer and seller, the banker
and the merchant, the governor and the
governed, the judge on his bench, the
warden of a prison, and, indeed, every
man and every woman, on all occasions,
in all circumstances and under all provo
cations, both study and practice the law
of kind words in the total intercourse of
life from the cradle to the grave?
We would like to have our readers,
each one for himself, ponder these ques-
tons; and also the title placed at the
head of this article. There is an amazing
power for good or evil in words. A
large part Of human influence is exercised
through this channel. What one is in
life, how he affects others, and how they
will feel toward him, depends very greatly
upon the use he makes of his tongue. If
he goes through life with a lawless and
acrid tongue, as the instrument of an
equally lawless and acrid heart, hurting
epithets right and left at others, blister
ing the sensibilities of his fellow-men by
his own vehemence, and disgusting them
with his vulgarity, he may sit it down as
a fact that he will make himself a nuisance
in the social system. Everybody will be
afraid of him, and manage, as far as pos
sible, to keep clear of him. If, on the
other hand, he sweetens his own life with
kindness of feeling and kindness ofwords,
he will always be a pleasant person to
meet, to talk with, and be acceptable
and agreeable anywhere and everywhere.
Society will find good use for such a per-
son, and will use him to its advantage
and his advantage. Kind words are the
cheapest, and at the same time, in prac-
rical power for good results, the most
potent words that one can use. Reader,
speak kindly. You will thereby avoid
saying what might be offensive to others,
and while making yourself happy also
make others happy.-IHe Independent