Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-12-09

kept smooth by care. It is one of the
features which show very plainly the dis
position of the owner, and the feature
which, more than all others, first dis
plays the marks of age and iii temper"
New Orleans Picayune
Our Neighbours Children.
Many a weary mother knows the
wearymg cry: What shall | do. mann
spouse has been guilty Of various made
quacies and follies. And no wonder; for
it is doubtful if the wisdom of Solomon
himself could long stand the strain If,
at this empt;ed moment. she chances to
catch sight of thu two little Smith girls
playing happily in their shaded yard,
what more natural than that she should
yond the real relief she feels, There
lookl Mary and Helen are playing so
nicely. Run and see what they are do
ing OF course she never dreams that
her own precious boy-how sweet he
looks OUT there, with the little girls, and
how pleasantly quiet the house is!-could
ever be an unwelcome visitor. She bril-
dies at the Elere suggestion that Mrs
Smith, behind the blinds, may sigh in
dlSmay as she sees the round. boyiSh fig
ure galloplng puppywise into the midst
OF her chldren's maiden peace.
For 1t Is not true, as we are beginning
to discover. that children can entertain
each other at no expense of nervous
force. Some children there are whose
hours of play must be as carefully guard
ed as their diet; and there are few who
can. with safety. play with all the chill
dren who happen in upon them. Hours
OF quiet, hours of entire solitude. as well
as hours of what might be called family
solitude. are essential to the right growth
of the individual and of lasting family
affections. When our own boy breaks
IN upon the Smith children. how do we
know what careful adjustment we may
be disturbing?
The matter is delicate one, and well
adjusted only when friendly sympathy
for Mrs. Smith comes to the aid of good
breeding. Of course we notice whether
the little girls come to return our sons
visit. and if they do not, we do not send
him again until they do. This is hard,
but we know it to be at the very founda-
ton of social decency. But even better
than this-not taking its place at all. but
adding certainty to its right feeling-is
frank speech. for thereby we discover
just what Mrs. Smith means. and she
discovers that we mean to deal Justly by
her. and we are better friends than ever
before.
We are ourselves, every now and then,
in Mrs. Smiths position. Other children
just at his nap-time-that difficult hour
at which he rebels increasingly, arguing
that the little Smiths don't nap, nor the
little Joneses, but which the doctor
thinks ought to be insisted upon. with
so active child. The advent of per-
fectly unobjectionable playmates at such
a time is a real perplexity; for if the
hardly maintained habit is broken in
upon once it is almost impossible 20 es-
tablish it again. But if we send the
youngsters home again. what will the
mother think of us? Bobbe. too, weeps
aloud at the idea-they will be mad at
him, he maintains.
To have the nap at the regular hour is
4 help, and to spread the news OF that
word of the reading hour, or the hour
when our own children play by them
selves in the home enclosure The friends
that we care to keep will respect these
rules of ours, if we respect them our
selves, and as for the others-come. is
it really worth While upsetting ones
carefully thOught-out scheme Of life for
these others?
Let us send the inopportune child
home, then-as gently as possible, with
a pat on the head, a friendly word, and
an apple-but send him right along 1t
is well if we are able to talk it over
with his mother, and agree to send each
seasons; but if we can't do this best
thing, it must be the next best After
all. there is less fear Of lasting unpleaS-
antness if one meets the situation firmly
in the beginning than if one weakly al
lows it to become intolerable. For then
one is only too likely to lose patience and
temper together, and to burst forth with
a violence quite disproportioned to the
Immediate exciting cause, and therefore
IneXplicable to the conveniently forgetful
offender.-Harpers Bazaar.
Tributes to Wives
Few great men have paid more enthu-
siastic tributes to their wives than Tom
Hood, and probably few wives have bet
ter deserved such homage. 'You will
think he wrote to her in one of his let
boy lover, and l plead guilty. For never
was wooer so young of heart and so
stepped in love as /. but it is a love sane
tilted ana strengthened by long years of
experience. May God ever bless my
darling-the sweetest most helpful angel
who ever stopped to bless a man. Has
there ever, We wonder. lived a wife to
ute was paid than those verses of which
the burden is, Il love thee, | love thee
It's all that / can say
Il want thee much" Nathaniel Haw-
thorne wrote to his wife many years after
his long patience had won for him the
flower that was lent from heaven to
show the possibilities Of the human SOUL
Thou art the only person in the world
that ever was necessary to me. And now
l am only myseII when thou art within
my reach. Thou srt an unspeakably be-
loved woman" Sophia Hawthorne was
little better than chronic invalid, and it
may be that this physical weakness woke
all the deep chivalry and tenderness of
the man. And he reaped ricn reward
for an almost unrivaled devotion in the
atmosphere of love and happiness and
Inspiration with which his delicate wife
always surrounded him.
.Ihe welded life of Wadsworth with
ms cousin. 'the phantom of delight was
poem more eXquisitely beautiful than
any ms pen ever wrote. Mrs. Words
worth was never fair to look upon, but
she had that priceless and rarer beauty
OF soul which made her life "a center of
sweetness TO All around her. "All that
she has been to me-" the poet once said
III his latter days "none but God and
myself can ever know and it would be
difficult to find a more touching and
beautiful picture in the gallery of great
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