The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-04-17
THE TROUBLES OF THE GOOD.

one Indeed, it may be questioned
whether a good one isn't worse than
bad one. for, while reputation for be-
ing wicked may lead the foolish to re-
gard YOU as interesting, the reputation
for being good foredooms you to be a
martyr.
If YOU desire to live in peace and
comfort and avoid wrinkles and nerves
YOU must never establish reputation
for excellence in any particular line
If Won do. YOU are it's bond slave for
life. You cannot run away from 1t or
leave it behind. Go where you Will II
will follow you. and you can no more
rid yourself of it than the hero OF An
stey's story could rid himself OF the
Tinted Venus that made his life a Dur-
den. You MAY think you have losl II
or lived it down. but just as you SET
ready to enjoy yourself, somebody pops
UP who remembers your reputation Ioi
superior piety and goodness ana you
have to doff the cap and bells ana as
sumo once more the prickly halo OF Ihe
saint.
In one Of his poems SAKE tells the sad
story Of a man who had the misfortune
to have a reputation as Wit. Wherever
he went he was expected 10 dazzle eN-
cry company. When he was invited out
to dine he had to pay for his dinner
with bon mots. If he was ever serious
people felt defrauded, and if he was
dull and melancholy they regarded him
as nothing short Of a rank fraud. His
friends demanded that he keep them in
a state of hilarious merriment, and the
price he paid for his reputation as a
wit was to be kept forever on the rack
trying to invent new jokes.
In "A similar, if very minor way,
every one of us who has reputation
for anything has to pay for it. The
beauty must take much more care of
her appearance than the homely wom-
an. She must dress with more elabo-
rateness and taste than the woman who
has no reputation for good looks to
maintain. People expect il of her. and
they are quick to notice the least fall
ing off in beauty and the first sign OF
approaching age in her, whereas the
plain woman can go through all the
gradations from youth to middle life
without anybody being the wiser. 1t is
one of the ineffable consultations for
never having been beauty that no one
can ever tell you how you have faded.
One does not have to look far about
them in life to perceive that there is no
other such folly as acquiring a reputa-
line. 1t establishes a precedent that
you have TO live up to, and in conse-
quence you become a shining mark for
criticism. Take the woman, for in
stance, who acquires a reputation as q
notable housekeeper. Hasn't she just
let herself in for a life sentence of hard
labor? Other women may have pick
ed up dinner; other housekeepers may
draw a blind down hastily to hide
where the house maid neglected TO
sweep in the corner; other cooks cake
may be sad now and then, and their
bread heavy, and we think nothing of
it. We don't expect perfection of them
but no such blessed privilege is hers
If everything in her home isn't spick
and span and done to the minute we
stay: I'VE don't know what people can
see in Mary Jones housekeeping to be
forever talking about. OF all the heavy,
indigesuble stuff we ever ate that an
gels food of hers, etc, etc." and poor
Mary Jones knows that we are going to
say it if there is a single peg in her
housekeeping open to US to hammer,
and she works herself to death trying
to live up to the blue-ribbon- prize
standard that she has inaugurated.
1t is very sad to think that we have
to guard against our most amiable
impulses or else we will be prosecuted
into the grave. but it is a fact never
theless. A familiar example of this is
afforded by the attitude we are forced
for self preservation to take towards
children. There isn't anyone, with a
heart as big as a nickel, who doesn't
love little children, but if you are once
rash enough TO let this be known, your
life will be made a martyrdom. Every
time your neighbor gets busy making a
new dress, or wants to go off and spend
the afternoon playing bridge, she bum
dies her nursery in on you. 20 course
] wouldn't do this with anybody else"
she says. but / know how fond of
children you are, and that it would be
a regular treat to you to have the little
dears." Fond! Treat! Bah! When
you had planned a nice restful after
noon with a novel, and you feel like a
female Herod. But you can't say a
word. It's your fatal reputation for
being fond of children coming home to
Ioost.
OF course, every one likes to enter
tain their friends, but once get a repu-
tation for hospitality and you had as
we'll hang out sign of free enter
tainment for man and beast. People
you never heard of write and tell you
they are coming to see you; people
you have met at summer resorts and
on railroad trains descend upon you;
distant relatives who had forgotten you
until they saw an opportunity to dodge
a hotel bill look you up when they
come to your town. Goodness gra-
cious, how often have we slept on the
dining room floor while Cousin Sally
and the twins occupied our bed, and
fed on scraps after six unexpected
guests had dropped in TO dinner"
You see" say these unlimited dead
beats, Il am perfectly unceremonious
with you because / know how hos
pitable you are" And there you are,
for none of us have the nerve to stand
up and deny the good reputation that
is sure to land us in the poor house.
There is no other such drawback to
charity as the awful danger of getting
a reputation for being generous. Once
give to a poor family and you have
established their claim upon you for
life. Henceforth you are merely
dairy farm that they feel privileged to
milk at pleasure. You can't give what
you can afford to give, and then stop.
You can't listen to a tale of woe and
weep with a narrator, and then enjoy
yourself. If you once start sympa-
thizing there is no limit, and nobody
can see your finish. You become the
repository of the woes Of the COM
munity, and your pensioner not only
feels that 1t your duty to support her,