The Republican., 1892-04-22
THE LIVELY WOMAN.
a Parsonage Who Helps to Brighten TIL
Dull World.

a Parsonage Who Helps to Brighten Thf6
Dull World.
There is no doubt whatever that the
lively woman is an excellent institution,
and one which would be greatly missed.
Like the reading-room of a public IL
brsry, she is a refuge for the destitute,
who find in her, if not "A friend at any
rate an acquaintance who is never dull
and who brightens up the dismal and
the dyspeptic by sheer force of her own
brightness. The lively woman laughs
defiance at the old dict I'm that there is
time for everything. She is always
cheery and bright. She brings her live
illness with her to the funeral as well
as to the wedding, and is almost
as ready to dance over a grave as
over a ballroom floor. And she means
no harm. On the contrary, she deems
it her duty to see the silver lining and
to absolutely ignore the cloud, to join
in the laughter but never in the tears,
to be sympathetic to a joke but never to
a groan. At dinner parties the lively
woInan-who be it noted. is usually
small and compact-is as much in her
element as goldfish in a bowl Of water,
or a caulihower in coniurers hat.
Conversation is not an exertion to her.
but a pleasure, and she enjoys setting
the table in a roar. She Sparkles even
when the ladies are alone together in
the drawing-room- period when
feminine vitality so often sinks to its
lowest cbb and when the black-coatcd
troop of men at length energies from
the dining-room she has always some
thing whimsical to say, which tides over
the awkward moment which follows
their entry. and prevents little arrange
ments for firtations and confidential
conversations starting into undue or
confusing prominence. For this virtue
all young lovers shower blessings upon
her unconscious head.
At picnic the lively woman makes
up for the continued absence of the sun.
or the inadvertent omission TO pack the
lobster salad in the provision hamper.
She turns serious misfortunes into anus
ing ontretcmps and extracts wholesome
merriment even from such unpfomiSing
materials as superauous spiders and too
inquiring toads When the usual thun-
derstorm duly puts in an appearance
and all is disquietude and dampness,
her repartees fash more brightly than
the hghtnings, her laughter gives gay
music to the thunder. She is a sort of
social umbrella, and keeps everyone
mentally dry. 1t is only in times of
sorrow that the lively woman is apt to
prove broken reed and to lose some of
her well-deserved popularity. AS a rule.
she is inclined to slap someone in the
face if he puts in an appearances but
when the pale intruder enters and will
not be denied. when he hangs his hat
upon the hook behind the door, folds his
coat in its place, assumes the worn slip
peI-s and sits down by the hearth. when
he makes himself at home and shows
that he intends to be a visitor and not
merely an hours guest, the lively wo-
man Shrinks away too often, and is be-
frightened, angry and ill-at-
ease. She chooses to look upon the
bright side of life and she hates to be
thwarted. She is inclined to take the
grief of Others, if intluded upon her
notice, as personal injury to herself,
and to claim as her own perquisiteS the
pity which she ought to extend to those
who mourn and ask her for sympathy.
Determined to be lively at all costs, she
often becomes merely hard, for joke
out of season jars more than a tear, and
laughter in the chamber of death seems
more out of place than weeping at
bridal feast Yet, luckily, the lively
woman is not always superficial, not
always heartless Sometimes the in
ward spark of vitality, instead of merely
flashing and twinkling, can shine with
a steady glow, earnest, stcadfast,
beacon-light to guide poor human ships
in distress, driving before gale of |
trouble, battered and dismasted by
waves Of misfortune Then |
the joke becomes the encouragement, |
the pun the prayer, the merry laugh |
the tender smile, which bids the bowed |
down sufferer look up again, and sends
the tears fieeting as the shower that |
makes the grass SO green in the April |
wealth er of the gentle springtime. Once
a Week