El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-02-16
For the Better Half.


Women carry their ideas of thrift
too far when they economiZe in their
language not in the quantity but In
quality. When they use one adjective
threadbare and let all the others lie
idle in the dictionary. they not only
wrong the one adjective by wearing
il out but wrong all the rest by let
ting them grow stiff and dusty by dls-
use Especially is this feminine tralt
noticed in the use of adjectives. thoush
with all the other parts OF speech
women content themselves with rlu-
iculously small supply of words with
which to express all their ideas ana
emotions. Most people. men and WON
On both have very small vocabularleS
and vet the thousands and thousands
of words which they could use 10 give
grace sympathy, meaning, and thouehl
are easy of access and reasonably Ia
miliar. Popular novels use shSntly
wider vocabularies, the poets seek 1or
fine shadings IN words with Which "
express the color. texture, light or
emotion they would tell of. and writer's
Of wisdom and art, know that there Is
always only one word with which to
express their exact meaning ROBERT
Louis Stevenson once said tnat an al
ternoon was not too much time to give
TO perfecting a phrase In ORDINARY
life one cannot spend a half day think
ing out every phrase, but in the most
ordinary of everyday lives. SECONDS
thought will supply more appreciat-
i've word than some common adjective
or expression that slips easily TO the
Inns because so oft used. The average
human being hobbies his speech with
a habit of using certain words ana
phrases He will not use one-tenth OF
the words he knows perfectly well. but
saws the first word that comes nancy,
regardless of how 1t fits.
One of the daintiest of AN English |
woman's Love Letters" is one wherein /
she describes making her new dress
into a love letter. 1t reads:
But oh, to get you interested in the
dress was making to you today the
beautiful flowing Opening-not TOO
flowing: the elaborate central compo-
sition where the heart of me has to
come. and the wind up of the skirt
long. reluctant tailing-off. full of com
mas and colons of ribbon to make 1t
seem longer, and insertions every
where. 1 dreamed myself in it. retiring
through the door after having hidden
YOU goodnight, and you watching the
long disappearing eloquence of that
tail. still saying 20 you as it vanished,
good-by. good by. love you so! See
SOO~ L
me how slowly l am going.
We'll. this is a bit of my dressmak-
ing, a very corporate part OF my az
lection for you; and you are not Dit
for l have shown you none
of the seamy side; it is that which in
terests you male creatures, Zolaltes,
every one of you
There is a general belief that the love
letters are not genuine personal docu-
mcnts. but are made up however
they are very notwithstanding.
passionate letters full of much droll
fun and reading very like real love
letters despite their brilliant criticism
Of books pictures. and men. Occas-
ionaIIy there are little lapses in ped
antry that does not belong in wom-
ans love letters. but usually they are
full of spirit. The critics say they
cannot be truly love letters. they are
too good They tell of a short and
tragic tale of love and the cause Of the
tragedy is held q secret from the read
er. though the preface states that nei-
Their the man nor woman was at fault
He gives up her love without giving |,
her any reason. but that his mother
has justified her opposition to their
marriage in something that she has
told him The girl writes a few pa
thetic letters and dies Of broken
heart The reader is annoyed by the
mystery 1t mars the book. The only
guesses which have foundation in any
thing the book discloses is that the
mans mother told him secret history,
probably of some shame, and that there
was some hidden tie of cOnsanguinity
that forbade any marriage between the
lovers ard was so much of a shame to
one or the other of them that he could
not toll her. This is not happy ex-
PLANTATION of the tragedy, but the only
plausible one so far offered.
Sidney Smiths saying, IF you make
children happy now, you make them
happy twenty years hence by the men,
Org of it, should be a mothers motto.
A grown up is fortunate to whom a
flower scent, or the freight, or certain
strains of music, or certain breaths OF
the west wind, bring back memories OF
a garden where he planted and digged
and brought to blossom posies the most
wonderful ever cultivated, or scenes in
an attic where the rain beat on the
roof while the children acted Walter
SCOTS tales or of country fields where
he chased butterflies. Such memories as
these are golden. A child can make a
Paradise out of a sand pile in the sun,
If he have any sort of parents A trap
exc, a birthday cake. an Easter egg
party. a glittering Christmas tree. a
trip to the sea, pet puppy, garden
space to dig and plant in. kingly para
phernalia composed of a box of beads,
the red table cloth and some silver pa
per to cover crown and sword for play
ing king and queen, these things be-
come the basis of a fortune of happy
thoughts which the millionaire. having
not. will envy the poor man. They
give life a glow that lasts until the
grave. But parents are sometimes in