The Virginia enterprise., 1899-02-17

s X Gossip for the Ladies =


- 0OoolP III
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
q. s5's ,''s5ss- ''rhe Messase.'' - ~.
I had message to send her, to her whom
But ] had my task to hnlsh, and she had
TO rest il Dts the far "a 'fs bright heaven; oh. so
1t was vain to speak to my darling, for
1 knew she coula not hear.
had message to send her so tender, so
I lopge9 for an angel to bear it and lay
=, 1t down at her feet;
PLACED 1t one summers evening ON a
! little white clouds breast,
! But It faded In golden splendor and died
i IN the crimson west, -.
/ I gave it. to the lark next morning, and
| watched 1t soar and sour:
I But It pinions grew faint and weary, and
l. 1t huttered to earth once more.
/ cried In my passionate longing, HAS the
| earth no angel friend
Who Will carry my love the message my
! heart desires to send?"
When heard a strain of music, SO mighty,
That my very sorrow vast silent and my
i heart stood st till to hear;
1t rose In harmonious rushing Of mingled
And / tenderly laid my message on the
i mnstc's Outspread wings,
/ And l heard it float further and further,
! in sound more perfect than speech.
/ Further than sight can follow, further than
! soul can reach,
| So my heart Is no longer restless and l
nm content to wait,
And know THAT at last my message has
| passed through the golden gate.
The Wise Womap Keeps Her. Own.
Counsel.
| The popular idea of the highest affec-
] tion has always been perfect confidence
existing between two people-somethin
that realized the poets dream of "two
souls with but single thought, two
hearts that beat as one" We have de-
manded, as the very first condition of
friendship, this surrendering of it's in
most self, and have felt that it was the
| foundation stone on which all matrimo-
/ NAL happiness must be built.
! 1t is all true enough in the abstract,
and really the great sterling principle
when rightly employed, but the trouble
is we have Carried our theories about
! confidence too far and abused our privi-
leges: There can, of course be no real
friendship without confidence, but the
folly of spreading out ones thoughts,
and emotions, and hopes and desires, as
one might spread out the contents of q
shallow drawer, for inspection, is one
that many woman has rued in bitter
ness and tears. Friendships, alas! are
not always eternal, and even when they
are true and loyal, they are SO often in
discreet, and the woman who keeps her
own counsel is. the one who has least
cause for subsequent regret.
Then, how often we make the plea of
confidence serve Us cloak to cover our
own SelhshnesS in laying our burdens
ON other peoples shoulders. The world
has gone wrong with us, or, perhaps, we
are merely reaping the results of our
own mistakes and weaknesses. We
ought to be brave enough to bear it by
ourselves, but we are not. We never stop
to think we have no right to sadden 9TH
! er people with our sorrows, but instead
rush of and tell it all to some friend
who, perhaps, has already all she can
bear.
In the more serious affairs of life. the
question of absolute confidence is still
an open one. 1t is hard to see what
good can come of telling person a thing
that is past and gone, an unpleasant in
cident that is closed. as diplomats say,
but which is bound to rankle in the mem
Ory like wound that never quite heals
and that is ready to break out into a
! fostering sore at any moment. Surely 81
lence is better and wiser, and braver. The
burden shared with another may be light
ened to the culprit, but it is not love, but
eowardice, that lays it Oh one we should
shield.
! The truth is that the perfect confidence
theory, like many another theory, is one
| more honored in the breach than the OBJ
Eservance. We deceive ourselves with the
specious plea of soul communion, but in
reality it is generally either selfish ego
stisnl, or vulgar, curiosity, says the New
Orleans Picayune.s.s~4-y ; g
f. We want to talk about ourselves or to
hear the affairs of others, and be told
things we have no right to know.
After all, the summing up of the whole
matter, aid the one unanswerable argu-
ment is supplied by our own experience.
We often regret the things we have con-
| tided, even in those near and dear to
us. We are never sorry for the things
we have kept to ourselves.
Duties of Fathers and Mothers to
Sons in College.
To the dean of large college, who has
most to do with students and their pa
| rents in all academic sorrows, says I.e
Baron r. Briggs, dean Of Harvard col
lege, in the Atlantic, it soon becomes
clear that parents are accountable for
more undergraduate shortcomings than
they or their sons suspect-and this after
liberal allowance for faults in the college
and its officers. II have spent an hour
today with Jones' father" said college
president in formidable lease of dis
cipline.' II have conceived a better
opinion of the son after meeting the
father"-and the experience is repeated
year by year. Five minutes or two min
utes, with father or mother may reveal
the chief secret of young mans failure
Or misconduct, and may fill the heart of
an administrative officer with infinite
compassion. ''You say he CANDLES" says
of it? Gentlemen always play cards"
II told my boy" says: a father of dif-
ferent stamp, 'that did not myself be-
| lieve in what is commonly called
"vice"] but that if he went into that sort
of thing he must not go off with the
crowd, but must do it quietly in gen
tlemanly way"
Hereditary and home influence less
palpable but quite as pe1vasive and near
" as demoralizing is that of the trivially
geographic mother, who,. while a dozen
men are waiting at the deans Office door,
assures the dean that her son, now on
trial for his academic life, was a lovely
baby, and who, SO to speak, grows, up
with him then and there, tracking him
step by step, with frequent counter
marches, to his present station;
or Of the father who is tickled by the
"reminiscences of his own youth that are
evoked when his son is caught stealing
a poor shopkeeper's sign; or of the father
who suggests that the college should en-
ploy at his expense detective against
his son; or of the father who at
crucial moment in the life of way
ward son goes to Europe for pleasure
Though, to do him justice, he has been
of little use at home); or of the father
who argues that his sons love of drink
cannot be hereditary, since he himself
Strengthened out before his son was
born.
Cultivate the Love- Natures OF Your
Children.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, writing in the
Woman's Home Companion of Building
Love-cells,' explains that ''the human
brain is one vast aggregation of cells:
and science informs us just where the
cells of sight, sound, feeling, love, anger
! md in all tho mental ,,,o,o1 -