Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-26
The Truth of a Celebrated
Bon-Mot.
AVOID SHARP RETORTS
SWAPPING ANSWERS ONLY SHOW
SELFISH NATURE
Some Folks Have a Malicious Mania
and Are Happy Only in
Mischief.



Among the sayings Of a man 70 whom
most OF the bon-mots OF his generation
are now ascribed, who called Nahant cold
roast Boston, surmised that all good Bos-
tonians go after death 10 Paris pronounced
the east wind to be our national air. Is o
further one declaring that certain women
OF his acquaintance were east wind made
flesh The husband, whose wife shows htrs
the sharp edge OF her temper. thinks there
was an error in the statement that IL Ia
not any more the woman OF the wits &C.
quaintance than his own wife, who is east
wind made flesh. And there are very few
people who love the east wind. One wraps
ones self away from it: and the husband
who finds 1t blowing through his house IL
quite likely to look for comfort elsewhere.
There is nothing like a quick, hot tenn
per for destroying the happy spirit of any
home. All is at peace; the air of the home
life is like the soft. sunshiny weather OF
perfumed summer morning; and suddenly
a sharp Jingle. icy chill, and the frost
that fairly burns is upon one. Who is
there will blame the household that scat
tiers and the husband that iies?- 1t lie
quite possible that in the next house that
the husband chances to enter serenity
reigns and points the difference and ac-
cents the evaporation, and he returns to
of suppressed hostility ready for attack.
Could anything be more destructive 10
marital relations. reducing them more
quickly to an affair of banal and common
place contiguity?
That Hot Temper.
And as there is nothing like a quick and
hot temper for running the peace and
pleasure of a home there is no swifter
agency than the same ebulllent force in
the running OF beauty. What frowning
lines it digs between the eyes what ugly.
downward curves of the lips, to say MOTH
ing of the injury to complexion by the
bilious reaction or through the enlarge
ment of veins by the undue redness Of
rage, or of the settled expression left upon
the countenance for which We have no bet
ter word than malignity. That counte-
nance is certainly less inviting than the
face where smiles shed their sunshine.
There are husbands who can tame the
shrew; there are husbands who simply
drop her and have done with her. Heaven
pity those who endure heri
But on the other hand. the'wives are not
few who are at liberty to think very I'M
pleasant things Of the masculine temper.
They are of the women who say. There is
a difference in men. but husbands much
of a muchness." whatever that exactly
means. Their husbands are of the sort Il
may be, whose wit and sarcasm are ad-
mired abroad, modified by that frank air
which causes them to be known there as
good fellows" but within their own doors
all things are a target for their scorn.
They are the high and mighty sort whose
biting satire annihilates liberty, indivld-
uality, almost the separate soul itself or
If it fails to do so. lets the family draw a
free breath only when the master of il is
out of the house they are. Yet wherever
they go their inner history is known by the
cowed and subdued air. the timid start or
the appealing eyes that look as if they
were waiting for release. Or if the head
of the unhappy house is not of this nature
he may be of the surly sort that finds moth
Ing to its wind at home and frets and
fuses and frets again till nerves are worn
to rawlings and love is lost in the en-
deavor to please. in the continual failure
in Indignation. in ceasing to care whether
one pleases or not. There are some indi-
vidualS who are born with their nerves I'M
covered raw. and on edge. They ought to
be shut up in an asylum suited to their
CONDITION. Men or women, they should
never be allowed to marry; the race ought
not to be poisoned with their virus.
Selfish Beings.
But with the major part of our vixens
and our snarlers the Indulgence in temper
is a pure selfishness There is a highly
seasoned personal enjoyment to them in let
ting their temper have free course: they do
not deny themselves the pleasure: they
mount their hobby and ride It to death And
1t is like any other drunkenness-carried
far, it becomes uncomfortable and a ma
mia.
And is there husband or wife whose
fancy, whose love, whose tenderness even
whose good opinion. is not in danger Of
extinction under the workings of a ma
lcious mania? Love must perish in that
degree Of inrerstelar cold ACCOMMODATING
the east wind made flesh, be the flesh male
or female. Even death, which makes peo-
pie forgetful Of so many faults in the dead
never dulls the edge Of that unacknowl-
edged sense of freedom in the party who
happens to be left behind.