The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1892-12-23

the eloquent silence, and the glance Of
the eye, and the toss of the head gener-
al y suffice to give the children at least
M inkling of what the mother thinks
She is so honorably keeping to herself.
But there are other women in other
walks of life who may have use for Lot
TVS favorite motto, or who put to them
selves the cynical query:
Is it better to shut up or pay up?
Households are there where sordid
questions of want are not raised, since
money is abundant and the luxuries of
life assured. But few people nowadays
feel contented to follow Paul's edict,
Having food and raiment Herewith be
content" not even when houses and
bankbooks are added, for these modern
rebels, especially the female half of
them, contend that the luxuries Of one
age are the necessities of the next, and
that so far from being content with food
and raiment, houses and bankbooks
they count all those as naught and less
than naught if they are not accompanied
by sympathy, delicate consideration.
harmony Of temper and taste, and that
peace and sweet content only to be
found in congenial companionship.
These women, having married an ideal
hero of their own imagining, and sud-
denly waking to the consciousness that
they have played upon themselves just
such trick as did Titania when she
crowned an ass head with flowers, when
their "dream of bliss" all of sudden
resolves itself into an "eternity of VICE."
naturally seek to ease the shock of the
discovery by an outcry more or less
audible, and it is very natural that they
should.
do you happen to know that the sur
geons aver the deadly effects of pain
to be very much mitigated by outcries?
One of the most diabolical reinements
of torture in the inquisition was to gag
the victim so that he remained per-
force mute Men have thus died under
suffering they might have sustained had
nature been allowed her free course.
And so with the woman who feels
that life has become too complex and
too painful to be governed by the girls
motto Of "Mum's the word" Matters
have come to such head with her that
the question now is, Can l pay up, and
if I cannot, what thenp Why, the al
tentative is, shut up, and most women
some of them with full intention, and
some of them with the defensive in
stinct that makes even q dove peck at
the cruel hand that squeezes twill
begin the process of paying up by tell
ing out their causes of complaint and
putting their intimate enemy to an open
shame. l say open, for it is sure to be-
come so, even though at first the secret
is only brea+hed in the ear of an init
mate friend or even told in the confess
sional.
Some cynic inquiries, "Why should
you expect your friend to keep your
secret when you could not keep it your
selfP' And why, indeed?
rernaps 1t Is not only uolo TO one lnn-
mate friend, perhaps it is to several
to everybody, to the newspapers, to
the divorce court. In either way or in
all ways it effects it's purpose, and the
unhappy and wronged wife-weak and
timid though she is-pays up her tyrant
better than she could with even the ''six
shooter or bowie" of Lotty's western
friend.
having shut up as long as she was
able, is she not right to pay up in the
end? think 80.