Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21
HAVE A GOOD TEMPER
welded HAPPINESS.
Man Easily Forgiven if He is
.f Always Unfailingly
Sweet.
Written for The Gveping Star by Harriet P. Spot

Written for The Gveping Star by Harriet 2. Spot
ford.
Ii it were necessary to give an opinion
as to what is the first and chief constituent
of happy marriage one might hesitate
for moment over the thought of many
almost Indispensable virtues, and daily
over that of absolute trustfulness on both
sides, but one, If thinking and weighing
deliberately, would decide presently that
the real requisite for happiness in marriage
is good nature. Not that a tempest once
in a great while may mot be worth while
to clear the air and to show how good the
other Is, but in the long, round year the
sunshine and fair weather is the best.
What Will you not pardon to a sunny
faced rogue? A man may commit count
less peccadilloes, thousand offenses
against good taste, even be guilty of sins,
but an unfailing sweetness Of disposition
will win forgiveness for them all. A wo-
man may be extravaganza, a poor house
keeper. even slatternly, or provoker of
scandal, but there is no disruption in the
household of which she is mistress as long
as with smile she acknowledges her fault
though her sin is ever before us. pair
of dimples has saved many little scamp
from whipping; they are just as useful
when the scamp is older and the dimples
are slipping into wrinkles. For the dimpe
Is not only evidence of the smile itself,
but 1t stimulates the smiles of others.
Who can rebuke too sharply or too fire.
quently when reproach is always received
without retort, without affront? Who is
not made to feel upon the spot that good
nature is better than any tmpeccability?
She Does Exist.
We have, most of US, seen exquisite house
keepers who all but follow the intruder
about with a broom, who are ready to dust
the chair you rise from, require overshoes
10 Ia JaFt
take a book from one room and lay it down,
carry it back before your eyes; who make
more circumstance of broken china than of
broken bones. And most of us prefer for
companion the home-body, who makes no
fuss about anything, but who is tender and
caressinS and gay and conSoling and sym
pathetic and always sweet-tempered, al
though there be fluff on her floors, and
hicks on her dishes, and no meal ready at
its appointed hour.
And most of lis, again. rather than with
the petulant and fault finding man. or
with the stern and sour and solemn incar-
nation of all the virtues, or with the lofty
and superior soul, without whose wisdom
and learning the world could not revolve,
would choose companiOnShip with the off
hand, happy-go-lucky fellow, who, if the
dinner is late, says: Meier mind; It will
be all the better when it does come or if
we ourselves are late for church or theater
or outing, says: "Well, We will enjoy it
all the more when we get there" or if the
servants are rebellous, condones it by de-
claring: I'VE can't expect perfection for
the price we pay" And this man may have
his better faults, he may not be at home
as much as you would like, he may be too
careful about the spending Of his money.
he may have various habits unpleasant to
you; but you love him quite aside from
them; you regard them as exterior affairs
for which he is hardly responsible; you find
some one else to be blamed for them, he
himself is the sunny. creature who bright
ems gloom wherever he goes, and of whose
love you feel assured, whether in truth it
is yours or not And, after all. the assur-
ance of love produces happiness.
A Never-Faiing Charm.
In fact, good nature is a charm that
never dies. Beauty fades, accomplishments
fail, but good nature survives till all else
falls to dust. 1t blends the opposing and
contradictory elements like fortunate SOL
vent. 1t acts precisely as sunshine does
and where you find it happiness fiourishes
and life is enriched. In any individual it
declares the existence of a calm and strong
nervous temperament, and nothing lends
itself more to peace and prosperity in a
household than that 1t is a blessed thing,
then, that such trait can be established;
that repression here and expression there
ana determination everywhere will make il
grow and thrive and become a habit 1t is
the outer embodiment of love: and the man
who is seldom without 1t is the one to
whom the town turns, on whom the beg
gars smile, after whom the children run.
whose presence soothes trouble, and whose
wife is sure that even if she wears her old
bonnet she Is lovely in his eyes
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