The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-24

DIS WAS lIe uuly " loNt pACCN ~
blood. Nowadays. in what we like to
think more civilized times, there is the
old leaven-a man hates to be seen to
weep. He cannot go out killing, they
have made that a capital offense; he
can only profess a stoicism he very
rarely feels Losing a dear friend, he
must go dry-eyed to the bier, when he
feels. like the officers round the body
of Marshal Turenne, as if he could die
with weeping.
Shakespeare makes Wolsey regret TO
play the woman" in personal ship
wreck the most sad and pitiful, and in
an even stronger vein the bard raves
Touch me with a noble anger!
Oh, let not womans weapons, water
drops,
Stain my mans cheeks
A familiar instance of true manly
bearing, often quoted, is the Red In
dian, whose test of manhood is to
bear the worst torture without shed
ding a tear; long custom has made
the Indian a fearless man. But then
no man should disgrace his manhood
by futile tears at physical suffering;
and this example only really proves
mans contempt of pain, acquired or
natural. Neither this nor the I'm
natural unfamiliarity of the old war
ilOlo Win lOcio plONCd lilC uliNOl III
ness of crying in men. Sterne argues
that tears are no proof of cowardice,
nor can they be- and the man who
cannot run up the whole gamut of
human feeling. be touched with ten
der grief, and laugh, and joy, is sure
ly an imperfect being.
There are honorable griefs at which
it certainly would not be unmanly to
weep. Shakespeare, with a contempt
" excuse Exeter, when, in touchingly
describing the deaths of York and Suf-
folk upon St. Crispin's Day, "all his
mother came into his eyes q
l blame you not;
For hearing this, l must perforce
compound
With mistful eyes, or they will issue
too.
There can be nothing effeminate in
the tears of dauntless men, such as
Dryden mentions, who
Would fain have held
From weeping, but his eyes rebelld.
Tears are natural. Juvenal says:
Mature proclaims that she has given
mankind hearts by giving us tears;
it is the greatest boon she has be-
slowed upon us" Since tears are Civ
en- to assuage our grief, it is surely
unnatural that man must not be al
lowed to heal his woe in the very way
nature, in her loving kindness, pre-
scribes. This means nothing in sup
port of that emotionalsm which is
simple folly and unmanly weakness
that fatal facility of tears which is
womanish.
1t is to be feared that women have
taken from the dignity of weeping.
Like children. they cry for nothing.
Women cry whenever they desire to do
so, either to conquer in their weak
ness or to indulge in a luxury of woe.
Beauty in tears will soften any heart
and open any pocket; the poets have
always raved about the tear in
BeautY's eye:
SO bright a tear in Beautys eye.
Love half regrets to kiss it dry;
And Shakespeare. who is specially
severe on women's tears, believing
each drop she falls would prove a
crocodile" is sympathetic over lowell
ness in tears, which are pearls "and
ransom all ill-deeds." Admittedly. in
woman's eye, the unanswerable tear
is an engine of magic power, leading
| even a woman, Nine de Stael ia
| question whether women are not
wrong to work on men by their tears. -
| Then, there are women. like Mrs. Gum
| nudge, who" rather love to nurse a mis-.
cry than enjoy a tranquil situation
puir bodies everlastingly in black, and
with a delight in attending funerals
| Tears were never meant to be used in
this way; it is a woeful waste. The
value of tears in women has to bt
well weighed, but it is just to differ.
entiate between the too-easily crying
woman, the tears yelling from a sen.
sitiVe heart for tritling cause, and the
| tears which are heart drops, which
serve to show the presence Of and not
to relieve. deep grief. like the bereaveC
wife of Gilderoy, who seeks the "dreary
mound" of her loved one to-
Weep and linger on the ground
And sigh her heart away;
or the pathetic picture called up BY
Mrs. L. B. Browning of those who
Crepe tear blinded in a desert place
And touch but tombs.
This is no mere picture of a tearfu
woman, deXtrous in her tears.
1t may be that men suppress nat
ural emotion because while tears are
in many instances, the gracious relic
from the killing intensity of heavy
grief. tears are not necessarily the
proof of deepest feeling. There is oc,
casionally a grief too deep for tears,
n grief, as Shakespear esays--
Which burns
Worse than tears drown.
The story of Niobe is one exampl,
of the overwhelming effect of unbear,
able sorrow-losing her sons anC
daughters by the Sun God. she "petri
fed with grief" Dryden thought thai
i'm like cases we must lose the healing
blessing of tears and marble grow
| like Niabe: only tears for strok,
foreseen afford relief" Another exam
pie from Montaigne, determined tha
the Grecian mythology shall not alon,
monopolize the sad stories, may bt
| given. He tells of a valorous knight
struck down at Buda, and of a Ger,
man Count, who, enamored of so mucf
bravery, went to pay a knightly defer
ence to the body-and found ii to bt
that of his own son. The story 4.
| impressive in its simple narrative
without uttering a word or taking
away his eyes. he stood fixedly con
templating the body, till the vehe
mence of sorrow overcoming his spirit
| he sank stone dead TO the ground.
This speaks eloquently of grief which
whispered the o'er-fraught heart and
babe II break" one must weep oil
| one must die.
This axiom is so we'll recognized tina
II should alone Justify the true habi
Of nature. How often do we hear tn,
fearless grief, the form racked by dry
choking sobs. and the lament Of friends
that no tears flow 10 ease the sorrow,
stricken soul? IL is true that one must
weep or one must die. Griefs teal
the heart To breaking point, and
Like Niobe we marble grow
And petrify with grief.