Arizona weekly republican., 1893-01-19

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 with tinlling little laugh, and as il the phrase tickled her fancy she repeat. ed it still more blithely. "Yes, mum's the word. That's the best rule of life know of"
 There's another that they use good deal in the mining districts, ' said mans voice, with little laugh, "and that's Pay up or shut up Don't you think that's better advice, Miss Lofty"
 'I don't just see what it means" re- piled Lofty coquettishly.
 "Why, if one fellow has done another fellow an ugly turn-say got his money at cards-and the first man thinks he didn't play on the square"-
 "Oh, dear, l don't know anything about such dreadful people" interposed Lofty, and the older woman added. And hope you don't either, William" "
 Course don't, mother, and of course you don't" returned William, with a choked laugh struggling under his voice, ''only I've heard it, you see, and it seems to me better rule to work by than just to keep mum, no matter what anybody does to you"
 But you didn't finish explaining what it means" interposed Lofty. Suppose one of these horrid men cheats another horrid man at cards, for suppose that's what you mean|
 That's about the size of it, Miss Lofty" replied William cheerily. s'Well, then, you see the fellow that comes to grief feels mad and wants to pay up"
 "Why, he's got to pay up if he's lost the money, hasn't he;"
 "Oh, well, it doesn'tmean that kind of paying up. If the other fellow carried couple of aces mp his sleeve, why yen want to pay him up for cheating, don't you?'
 Want to be revengcd on him?"
 Well, if you put it that way. Any how, if he's plucky fellow he'll go for him-fsts or six shooter or bowie, solne- how or other--and pay him up for being such sneak, don't you see? But if he isn't plucky, and feels as if the other one had got heavier fists, or quicker aim, or handler knife, he sort of crawls away and goes around scolding and snarling and blowing"
 William, what sort of associates have you been among in the west;" put in the mother in tone of dismay. But Lofty, with her little, tinkling laugh, suggested:
 "So, then, the other man tells him if he hasn't the courage to pay up his grudge he had better shut up and not talk about it. Is that it?'
 "Yes, Miss Lofty; that's just it, and l think it's pretty good advice, isn't it? If somebody's done you a mean turn, why, pay him up for it. And if you can't pay it up, why, shut up till you can, but don't take it out in swearing
 The cars stopped, and when they went on the voices had ceased. Evidently my friends had got off, and never had seen them but the net result of the little overheard discussion crystallized in my mind into the question::
 Is it better to pay up or shut up, or is "Mum's the word" the better rule of life-better than either to pay up or shut up?
 All of us, especially women, have plenty to compl in of as we go through the world. Islmaels children, whose hands were against every man and every mans hands against them, are never hard to find; indeed, it sometimes seems as if, more or less disguised, they pervaded society in all its grades and all its relations and were impossible to avoid, even though the exterior seems to promise better things.
 Sometimes indeed a woman's foes are those of her own household, and be- hind the closed doors of what to the world seems a happy home a system of persecution or of struggle is carried on which nobody suspects, unless in- deed the victim, finding it impossible to shut up' any longer, desperately re- solves to ''pay up by exposing her ty- rant to the vengeance of the public.
 Do you doubt the existence of these silent sufferers?
 If so you are not one of those persons endowed, to their own misfortune, with what is known as sympathetic nature, persons to whom everybody tells their story almost at sight, often ending it with some such remark as this:
 "I don't know why have told you all this. l have never spoken of it outside of my own home to living creature. But there is something about you that seems to open my heart and assure me that l may place confidence both in your sympathy and your discretion"
 Of course one can but assure these poor wounded ones of both the sympathy | and the discretion, and finish by admin istering such advice or comfort as sug- gests itself, though often with dreary sense that neither the one nor the other will do any real good.
 Still the telling of the story does seem to do good to such persons, and often enough they finish the interview by avowing that they feel happier than