The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1897-10-22

THAT AWFUL SILENCE.

ssO ~ JIIDlIUnf
TO constitute any criterion, the mos,
admirable feminine virtue is silence,
The laxative woman has furnished
the text for many \ song and sermon.
Wits have derIdcd her garrulitv
moralists have groaned over her
tendency to gossip, aud declared that
a woman's tongue was always found
at the bottom Of all trouble. "Your
children are oil dumb" inquiries that
loyablc old yagabOnd Rip Van Wrinkle
OF the gh0stly dwarf of the Catskills.
"And they are oil boys? Ny, nv.
what a pity! What wives they would
make !"
No doubt there arc many occasions
when speech Is %silvern, and silence il
golden" as the proverb has IL. We
must all plead guilty to having said
many things that had better been left
unsaid, yet there are times when
silence can seem mole appalling than
any freedom OF speech. The most Cd.
pressive Of domestic tyrants are not
those who say what they think, and
are done with Il. They are those who
wrap themselves In an awful silence,
under whose gl0stly influence cheer.
fulness withers away, and converse.
tiOn languishes and dies.
This IL not often a feminine fault.
Women like to cry aloud their griey.
ances and get Il kind Of recompense
from suffering by the pleasure of dis.
cussing II. The sullen silence is
generally u masculine fOible. It Is
often the l0rdly way with which q man
Furnishes the women Of his household.
lie dcscends To breakfast, or comes
home to dinner with u face like q
thunder Cloud. Something Is wrong.
lie eats and drinks In silence. lie
reads his paper with q portent0us
dumbness that strikes despair and
c Dnstcrnati0n into the bosom OF his
family. In vain they ask what is the
matter. Is he i'll? What has gone
wrongs? Who has offended? To all
their solicitiOus inquiries lie responds
nothing" In u tone Of voice that i'm.
plies every thing, and Is an arrai IN.
mcnt Of the entire household from the
wife to the kitchen maid. Such a
man always takes great credit to him.
self for not Saying anything" when
he is angry, but the average woman
would rather deal with the cheerful
simmer who swears what Is known as a
''blue slrcak" when he is mad, and
, then lets the matter rest. The man
N who speaks his mind can NJ least be
dealt with openly and frankly, and at
the wrist gives a woman a chance u
defend herself. Against silence ono
can bring M cOnnter accusation, W
urge no excuse. 1t is an arctic wall
that freezes up all approaches to an
understanding and reconciliation.
Too much silence Is M less n MANAGE
to friendship, than ton much speech.
How many Observation-Disclosures, and
how many heart burnings could have
been avoided II only there had been y
. little more candUr. One fancics %
slight; one imaglnes a friend Is .
little less cordial, or something occurs
that one does not quite understand.
Often, almost always, the trouble
could be set right by n slight explaDa'
ton, and 10 Is n Of the tragedies Of
friendship that VIC trust 1t So little VIC
dare not ask II what hurts ny Is Of in.
tcntiOn, or by accident. Pride coun'
sells silence, and ~ we 20 our lonely
way on either side Of q chasm that q
word might bridge.
Perhaps, after all, silence Is u yirtho
J we admire chiefly In the abstract.
The taciturn and moody woman Is
never the one we voluntarily choose
as q companion. Better the one who
chirps as blithely and Us meaningless
ly as u chanary, than the y who Is
, dumb in the face Of our joys and mis-
fortunes, and knOws not how to say
the right word 10 the right place.
For there is = duty II speech no less
than q duty Of silence.