New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-21
BY Ellen Th0rmeycr0ft Fowler
Author of Concerning Isabel carnaby. Etc


not take the trouble to speak
q common form of silence and an objectionable
one For you have right to go into society
unless you prepared to give as well as take
your share in the game of conversation. You may
eat your own dinner at home alone in as profound
a silence as you please; that IS to say, as long as
YOU have no husband or wife relation or friend
to share it with YOU but you may not sit at another
table and eat of anothers fare without paying tor
the same in the silver coinage OF agreeable speech
and YOU may not invite another to sit at your own
board without extending to him the hospitality OF
the tongue as we'll the hospitality of the table
For the sake of them that sit at meat with you
YOU are bound to be as agreeable and entertaining
as in you lies; and if you find 1t too great an effort
to be either then you ought not to into society
at all Your room will be far more acceptable
than your company.
Fourth there is the Silence OF Temper most
abominable silence Temper is always d sin. in
whatever form may display itself; and sin which
interferes perhaps more than any other with the
happiness of social and domestic life. There are
no set of people who win so little love and dIfiuSe
SO much misery people with bad temPers, and
a bad temper is the less Objectionable maybe
it is more SO-if 1t Is understood rather than eX-
pressed There are persons who can lose their
tempers and hold their tongues at the same time.
and they count it to themselves Tor righteousness;
but they count wrongly. There IS an offended
silence which is than any angry word-that
sort of lurid and 0rninous stiffness which comes
before a thunderstorm, and to which ram and
thunder and lightning relief.
Then fifth there IS the Silence of Indifference;
that silence which we keep when we do not care for
the people with whom thrown,
what they think of us And is it a sin to be in
different to COmpaniOns-tO derive no enjoy
ment from their society and to make effort in
order that they should find enjoyment in ours The
answer is not far to seek: This is the command
ment which we had from the beginning, that
love another
Sixth. there is the Silence of Impenitence; the
silence of those who will not say "PEccd11,' even
though in their heart of hearts they know that they
have sinned; who refuse to say the word that will
break down the wall of partition between them
selves and another, or that will restore anOther'S
sef-respeCt at the cost OF their True, that
word is by means easy to say; it is pleasant
thing to confess oneself in the wrong and to ask
for pardon; but it is 4 word that must be spoken
all the same, if a would be at peace with his
Maker and with his fellOw-rncn To keep back
such a word is to be guilty indeed of the sin of
silence.
And lastly there is the Silence of Cowardce; a
silence which all the world will agree in condemung
as contemplate, the silence OF those who viii allow
another be falsely accused, when they themselves,
and they only, blame, who viii leave a stigma
attached to other whenit is the right appendix
to their own. This is the silence which holds its
tongue when it ought to be loudly protesting.
and which sku1ks OF sight when it ought to
be i'll the thick of the fray; 1t lacks the courage to
take up the cudgels when that which it holds
sacred is attacked and when those whom it counts
dear abused. 1t is the silence which fails alike
to the help of the Lord and OF its fellow
men and SO brings down upon itself the curse OF