The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-09

1t is cut In animal form or cut In
some other shape, odd and attractive.
And it is placed exactly upon the
right spot. That is the way to wear
a patch.
Dorothy Dix on 'That Awful
| Silence:
Without a doubt a certain amount
of silence in family life would be a
peace, if it went all the way around
/ but it never does. Family silence is
the most one-sided thing on earth-it
! harps like a parrot on our faults, and
| is dumb as an oyster about our vir-
tues. We all. know households in
which it is considered criminal to
speak of anybody's good qualities, and
equally criminal to refrain from men
tioning their faults and weaknesses
Poor patient Mr.. Benedict might
come home with the chickens 364
| days in the year, ana nothing would
| be said of it, but let him tarry out
Maria would never let him hear the
last of it. Everybody gobbles down
! little Mrs. Housekeeper'S good dinners
in silence, month after monh, but let
there be occasionally a day when the
bread is heavy and the soup salty and
everybody raises a howl about it
Little Johnnie may come into the
room like a perfect gentleman a hun
dred times in succession without ex-
citing a single word of commendat ton
from anyone, but let him come in like
whirlwind a single time and we all
clap eur hands to our ears and cry,
| "Heavensi that child will never grow
up to be anything but a hoodlum-
Where did he learn such manners ?"
Now fair play is fair play. If we are
going to speak of peoples faults, for
PHYS sake let's also discourse about
their virtues. 1t is no more than JUS
tice.
1t is undeniable that there are
friendships that have been killed by
talk, but there are just as many that
have been killed by silence. Probably
there is no person who cannot look
back over his life and recall some
friend who was estranged and lost.
who might have been held by a word
if that word had been spoken in time.
They took offense at something, or we
were hurt by some trivial thing
some fancied slight, or an imagined
lack of cordially, or a garbled rumor
something that we misunderstood
or mistook- If either one had asked
have been explained away, but we
took refuge in the silence that is an
arctic wall that freezes up all ap-
proaches to reconciliation. If, like
little children, we should drop this in
sane theory that our. dignity demands
silence of us, and We should go to
everyone toward whom we harbor re-
sentiment. or who dislikes us, and
What have I done to offend you ?
Wherein am / at fault?" Or, What
made you do thus and so to me?'' be
sure that nine-tenths of the enmities
that erpbitter life would be explained
away, and we should sleep forgiven
and forgiving tonight.
1t also seems to me that there is
much to be said in favor of talk just
for talks sake, and personally 1 pre-
fer the woman who chatters as blithe-
ly and as meaninglessly as a canary
to the one who wraps herself in an
awful silence and under whose bane-
full influence cheerfulness dies.
know that there are those who hold
that all interest in your neighbor'S
affairs is vulgar; that any little chit
chat about what other people are do
ing is gossip, and that you ought not
to talk unless you have something
deep and profound to say Goodness
gracious! Who would want to live
with the roar of Niagara always in
their ears? 1t is the little babbling
brook of which we never tire, and to
my mind there is no more charming
woman than she who is an adept in
polite gossip. She knows how to
clothe the little affairs of everyday
life with interest. She sees the fun
and the pathos of things. and she
cannot go down town to buy a. spool
of thread without collecting a little