The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-01-21
VALUE OF THREATS.
HOW DESIGNING PERSONS TAKE A
MEAN ADVANTAGE.

Husbands, While Scapegrace sons anu
wayward Brothers Use Their Positions
to Extort Money.
The threat as a weapon Of social war
fare has not yet been given its truly i'm
portant place. The sanest persons are
inclined to regard the threat as the out
come of a vain and feeble mind and are
prompted to laugh when the villain
cries "Beware!" Much as we may de-
spise the threat, yet it is indubitable that
more people are influenced and made to
do what is against their wishes by this
means than by actual violence.
The threat wielder is naturally punily
proportional, mentally and physically,
and exercises his power most etfectually
in the woman's world. Women more
than men have reason to dread the
threat, for man can either afford to run
its dangers or proceed to immediate
punishment. The woman is defenseless,
and though she would frequently like
to proceed to extreme, yet traditional
convention keeps her within bounds.
Threats are SO varied that it would re-
quire a large volume to describe them
all, but we will speak of the more ON
mon.
The dissatisfied son is we'll known to
society. He greedily seizes every occa-
sion to drag his name through the mire
and besmirch the family. He is fire.
~quently demonstrated with; prayers,
tears, exhortations are in vain. Then
m the last injunction, eff you per-
c;c% -, {l;o 1oc+ aD,,rco T mill 1iCip1orit
YOU" "Go ahead" replies the young
reprobate; "you cut off my supplies, and
I'll disgrace the whole family"
One threat is sufficient to procure the
means for his vile wants, and the house
hold lives in abject terror lest the
threat wielder put into execution his
promise of further fortunes. 1t is not
only bad sons who exercise this baleful
system of money getting; it is as freely
employed by bad brothers and husbands.
The pleasant and affectionate brother
is probably now reading the society col
umns of the daily and weekly papers
with the utmost care. His drunken
comrades once twitted him about his
~''craze."
WELL" said the unblushing scoun-
drel, ''d'ye see, / have a sister who's no
end way up, and when 1 find she's going
to give a party to the nobs / drop her a
line and say I'm coming. 1t fetches the
stuff, it does" This heartless scheme to
fitch from her money to cover her dis
grace found a peculiar charm for the be-
sotted minds of his companions. The
threat was more potent than the per-
Torrance, for if the good lady had had
the moral courage to send for an officer
and declare the fellow a lunatic she
would have been saved from his now
never ending persecution.
How many women suffer from the
threat of their devoted husbands? And
how many wives slave themselves to
death through threats from their spouses?
The threat cannot be successfully
welded by men whose mentality lacks
intuition. To a man whose intuitions
are good, and who reads human nature
easily, the threat is a powerful weapon.
1t really requires Il nan who can analyze
emotion and passion to reach the acme
Of perfection as a threat wielder. The
vulgar threatener loses his charm, but
Ill dCCOIllp llSIICu NllldIIl Gall 81 torture
his victim or victims that the pangs en-
dured by the patrons Of the auto da fe
were exquisite pleasures in comparison.
Apparently the kindest and most sub
servient husbands can, by judiciously
handling of the threat, drive their wives
almost to desperation at a social func-
ton, and none but them know of the
secret punishment. To employ the
threat so that it posters every fiber
points in your opponents armor must be
known. That once being discovered it
is marvellous what ramificatiOns the
threat can take. The merest glance can
become a threat, and the person is as
completely under the glamour of this
delicate inquisitiOn as the diminutive
mouse in the claws of a powerful cat.
The most successful threat is not to
the woman herself, for a woman's pa
tience and pluck under such circum-
stances can be provokingly humiliating, |
and there is no man who feels exactly a
hero when the person he has sworn to
honor and protect will regard him with |
humid eyes and meekly say, LAS You
like, dearest"
Women, as a general rule, love martyr
dom, and there are some so peculiarly
constituted as to derive the ~severest en-
jOyment from the contemplation that
their liege lords were harboring in their
minds some hideous schemes Of venge-
ance against them. But where this
would fail the threat of the amiable H.
dividual to do something to himself
would be eminently successful. Women
above all things feel disgrace, and the
anguish at the loss of an unamiable hus-
band by being hit over the head with a
b~ungstarter is trivial when compared to
the sorrow for the manner of his death.
1t wonld not be for the flight of her hus-
bands soul the tears were shed, but for
the ~disgraceful circumstances attending
the departure. The fact that it was not
a respectable demise for which she could
be properly consoled would be the ONLY
bitter remembrance of her sweet widow
hOod.-San Francisco Chronicle.
Fun for the Monkey.