Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-02-14
MEETING QUEER PEOPLE.
Bah Gives Us an Insight Into the
Lives of Odd Esings.

MORAL PINCUSHIONS CONSIDER
ED-IF PEOPLE WOULD FORGET
SELF LIFE WOULD MEAN MUCH
MORE FOR THEM-SEARCHING
AFTER UNHAPPINESS - TRAIN
ING UP A CHILD IN THE WAY 1T
SHOULD GO-THE SISSY AND
THE TOUGH-TYPES OF ANNOY
ING AND SELFISH WOMEN
MATCHING HUMAN BEINGS TO
THE SOULLESS ANIMAL.
From Our Regular Correspondent.
New York. February 10, 1897.
Do you ever stop to think OF the
queer things and the queer people IN
every day life? A little while ago
met the type of women that | call the
moral pincushion." Everything stuck
in her; but, unlike the hard, common
place pincushion, that one which is on
ly receptacle for pins and needles,
this poor, moral pincushion was hurt
by every point and WINGED as each pm
or needle was directed, as she thought,
at her. The moral pin cushion can al
ways be made to suffer by the people
who make little malicious speeches. IN
doubt as 10 the becomingness OIL -her
frock,, she meets Miss Young Lady,
who says to her: An you've got
new gown. | thought Of getting that
color myself but | was afraid 70 FISK
it," That one speech means suffering
20. h 20
since she must wear her dress, and she
is now convinced that she looks thous-
and times worse in it than she really
does. She runs across an old frlehu'
who says 10 her: How the years have
gone by since you and l went to school!
And you married Charley Brown
well, well, | could tell you something
about Mr.. Brown, but | won't" Now,
there comes worry and misery. Ihe
pincushion is convinced that her hus-
band loved some other woman more
than he did her, and that he propably
spends his days in regretting MS
choice.
HUMAN PINCUSHIONS.
Any little speech that she can posi-
bly, take unto herself and make her
self miserable about she seizes with
an avidity that is so remarkable that
one almost wonders if she isn't greedy
for stabs Its true she's kindhearted,
and her eyes will fill with tears as you
tell her Of some tale Of woe, while she
is the first to help where assistance IS
really needed. But, from childhood up
she has made herself the receptacle for
all the nasty speeches uttered before
her. She has allowed her imagination
to make the worst of everything; I'M
til she is convinced that she is the most
maltreated, as well as the most super
sensitive woman in the world. 1t
never enters her head to protect her
self. She never thinks that all these
careless speeches may not be meant for
her; no, she goes along through life
hurt by every pin-prick Of thoughtless-
ness, wounded by every needle-point
of sarcasm, and unnecessarily unhappy.
There are few families in which
there is not a moral pincushion; and the
people who are forced to live with him
are the only ones capable Of telling
just how aggravating these self-made
martyrs are. | say self-made because
the moral pincushion is usually a PR
son eaten up with self-cOnsciousness.
If she could eliminate the thought Of
herself from her life she would be hap
pier, if she would devote more time
sympathizing with other people and less
with a continual seach after unhappi-
ness in herself she would not only be
more agreeable, but better looking. The
type of women gets wrinkles around
her eyes, has her mouth drawn down
at the corners, and her forehead with
heavy lines across it, the result OF deep
study as to how each wicked speech
could be meant for her.
IT'S THE DUTY OF A MOTHER
to find out which one of the little peo-
pie in the nursery is inclined to be a
moral pincushion, and to subdue the in
clination by doses of common sense,
administered, not only daily, but hour
~ Speaking of the nursery, how many
women know how to train up a boy in
the way he should go? The average
only boy, educated among lot Of wo-
men. is, | am sorry 10 say, either a
molly coddle or a hypocrite. At seven
years of age one of these mothers boys
criticized the right Of preacher to hope
that all the little dead babies wouldn't
be sent 10 everlasting torment. | don't
know what medicine would have been
good for this young man-sometlmes !
think a mixture of calomel and castor
oil. with a limited acquaintance with
those bad boys out on the street,
might have made him something Of a
I
else went boating he charmed the ladies
of his family by preferring to study his
catechism; when everybody else played
tennis, or crOquet, or basketball, he
chose to count the pennies that were
to be used by the missionaries TO teach
young lady cannibals how TO arrange
their locks in Psyche knots. Don't mis-
understand me. | don't like bad boy
but bad boy could reform, while this
boy would never reform unless 1t
should be when he got into the peni-
tertiary after embeZzling the funds OF
some charitable association.
like A POLITE BOY.
Int I like a boy who enjoys life as a
how should: who enjoys being out in
the oper air: who likes boys books
and BOYS games; but boy who has
been bred So well that, even at an early
age. he knowg how TO act as a gentle
man should. Now, object to the sissy
and | object to the tough; | long for
the happy medium. And there are
plenty of nice boys. Generalizing, they
are more agreeable than small girls,
though they are seldom as smart. The
small girl is Over. nngly conscious,
unless girls are plentiful in her estab-
Iishment Of her best clothes; she don't