Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-01-15
DON'T NAG"
Advice THAT If Followed Would Make
Many Homes Much Happier.

A" AN"e "oui mako
Many Homes Much iIappicr.
am a privileged visitor at the breakfast
table of certain friends. When one, by the
way, understands the charm of such break
fasts, he will have discovered one of the
rarest of all delights that fall in the way of
a wanderers life. There is, first, the little
stroll in early morning, with the freshness
of dawn still in the air. There are the
greetings full of welcome by the house dog;
then the merry chirp-thcre is no other
word-of the child coming down the stairs
to meet you Then there is the well known
crackle of new logs behind the shining
fender, which, the family being somewhat
late, you and the child enjoy for Il moment
alone. All, chat fire! Never is eve,. ,he
fire at twilight so fine as this of new lit
logs in the morning.
There are Il freshness and n liyhtuess
about it, a snap and a sparkle, II rush, and
even an a%lrlness, that stimulate you with
enthusiasm quite as much as they cheer or
even warm. You are affected by this
enthusiasm, you feel this atmosphere on
the very threshold Of the room, aud these
so fill you n 80 sway you after Won
have stood on the hearth rug a little that
you throw into your greetings of your own
hosts as they enter an enthusiasm and a
glow no mere diner ont ever knows how
to feel.
With the family come the tea urn and
the kettle, the merry faces about the board,
and then-the letters! Being privileged,
us I began by saying, l hear many of these,
and that is how l happened to hear one
from all old Aunt Molly, in another part
OF the country, who had written IL con.
cratulatory letter to her niece on her ell
gagement. The letter differed little from
Others Of its kind, except that in under
scored capitals it contained this one bit of
advice, Don't nag"
How like Aunt Molly! every one said
with a laugh. But for myself, I found
much food for meditation in what she had
said. For ] remembered with how many
people this perpetual nagginS was going
on. How nsany fathers were forgetting
how their sons had grown, and were con
stantly correcting them before others, only
to Il afterward why their influence
had lessened. l remembered how many
mothers were always at their daughters
about the way they held their feet and
hands, or how they laughed and spoke,
and all this before the embarrassed visitor,
instead of in quiet talk up stairs. | began
to think Aunt Molly the wisest of women,
NA 'lN wives
were not always altogether exempt from
this little failing. What sometimes began
as playful fun often dcgenerated into dis.
agreeable teasings, into writings about
peculiarities, about personal tastes and
! failings, unpleasant fer others to hear, and
. alternating to those who indulge themselves
that way.
And then l remember how old Il fault
this was, this %naggiug, and to refresh my
own memory | turned to this testimony,
in all it's quaint phraseology, from Lr.!y
Jane Grey:
When l am in presence either of father
or mother, whether | speake, kepe silence.
stande or go, cate, drink, be merle or sad,
be sewying, playing, dancing or doing
anie thing else, l must do it as it were in
such weight, mesure and number, even so
perfitelie as God made the world, or els I
am so sharply tainted, so without measure
mesordered, that l thinke myselfc in hell
till tyne cum that / must 90 to NJ. Elmer.
-Harper's Bazaar. "a