Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1906-01-19
THE TYRANNY OF HABIT.

last ma that IL cannot be broken.'l
1T is just a bad habit Of mine" is so
common and, to the speaker, apparently
so satisfying a reason for doing awkward
or annoying things, that It becomes a
source Of interested speculation upon the
part of the nearer. How does repetition
excuse a disagreeable act7 why does 1t
hold this speaker blameless because It is
a frequent offence?
Yet every day some one looks at us with
a friendly smile and a perfectly undis-
turbed countenance and utters with
tranquil voice this formula as an alto
gether valid excuse for being unpunctual,
or for leaving your pet volume open face
downwards on an exposed place, or put
ting a grimy shoe on a dainty railing or
leaving a parcel in a car, or for falling
to deliver letter: 1T is a bad habit OF
mine"
There seems to be a lack OF compunc-
ton, even an entire absence OF regret:
men and women, and especially very
young people, seem rather to count their
knowledge Of these frequent lapses OF
good breeding, and the abrasion they cause
to the rules of other lives, as
marks of individual distinction. They
have quite the air OF having annoyed one
as matter Of course: how could they do
otherwise2
Am l keeping you all waiting? / am
great nuisance about being late / be-
lieve was never in time for anything in
my life" The courteous old host fretted
beyond expression, glanced at the beauti-
full girl who addressed him with a curious
look Of repressed wrath: Make your
excuses to the horses, My dear Miss Clare,
they will have to reach the station on
time and make up for our lack of pune
tuality"
You are very kind not to scold; can't
help vexing my poor father when l am
late.'
What the judge thought we never knew,
but doubtless he shifted the blame OF his
hurry and worry on the shoulders OF his
confrere. who should have made his child
punctual in earlier days. He always found
II hard to blame a pretty girl for her mis-
doings. But the rest of us were not be-
guiled into amiabillty by her unruffled
sweetness, nor made more admiring by
her disregard of the Importance of an
eminent mans duties. The loss of that
train meant injury to matters of the first
importance and the disturbance Of q
great lawsuit.
But misfortune and lack of the early
discipline that so many loving parents so
cruelty withhold, often leave us, when the
practical duty and business of life come
upon us, in the clutch OF a cable we have
been weaving about ourselves from child
hood on, and too often we find the bondage
so real and so firmly established, that we
struggle but little to free ourselves, and
are in the plight Of the horses who are
hoppled by a tormenting fetter, while
their limbs are strong and eager for
action.
One very frequent and very hurtful
habit, common to many quickwitted folks
is the making fun OF strangers whom
they meet 1t has become to them a
natural result of any encounter with
new personality. The quick response to
his touch OF humor has fiattered the critic,
and no one is spared. The general as
pect OF the new acquaintance is ignored
and 1t is only the salient point open to
ridicule. that attracts the maker of Jokes
The common estimation of a group of
expectant people will frequently be af-
fected by the first fiippant speech Of the
man whose business in life is to create a
cause for laughter.
He looks like sheep Wait a minute,
and let us see II he baas." said sharp
eyed youth. and Immediately drew on his
visiting card a caricature of what looked
like malformed jaw. II seemed very
innocent silly bit Of such talk about moth
ing. as makes light laugh and is for
gotten. The stranger passed the scruti-
! MIXING young eyes and registered his
name on the guest-book OF the hotel, and
was forgotten.
Late in the evening the critic came face
to face with the new arrival, who handed
him the card on which his singular face
had been so thoughtlessly exaggerated
He had picked it up on the veranda.
My name is SO and So" he said with
| courtesy; the popularity you have Garlic
atured is the result of a bayonet wound
/ thought l would tell you, because you
don't look like fellow who would wilfully
hurt man who has to go through the
world looking as l do"
He was a soldier known all over the
country for his splendid valor, and there
was no way to express what the young
funn1nEnT fol a. hal-
little. II tell you. General, that as long
as i live / will never again do thing like
this! 1t IS a bad habit of mine since /
was a lad at school, to see and draw per-
sonal peculiarities. You have cured what
thought incurable."
When we come to the summing up of
what disagreeable, trying, and often ex-
cessively annoying things come under the
| categorical head of bad habits without
| touching those serious and destructive
ones which the world soothingly enters on
the same list, though they have reached
the truer epithet OF vices, we are surpris-
| ed. When men are filling themselves with
alcohol or gluttony, or throwing away
| their substance at the gambling table,
| II is conventional to say that I'VE regret
| their evil habits" These we will leave
| TO their own sad places in life's history,
and keep to the more hopeful cases which
| can either be avoided or amended. Those
minor thralls we make stronger about
ourselves or permit our children to weave
| to the injury of their own happiness and
| to the detriment of society at large.
In this present distracting heat certain
! of these come to the fore with exasperat-
| ing prominence. Allowed from infancy
| TO complain of the temperature, which
| can neither be mitigated nor avoided
there are in almost every household GER
tain persons who are like heat promoters
They watch the mercury in the tube as a
| Spectator keeps his eye on the fateful
tape" of the stock market; they keep
you continually aware that IL is rising
AS soon as it falls and comfort is in sight,
their interest ends; you never hear that
the register is rapidly lowering its figures.
They go about half-dressed and wholly
miserable and when you suggest en-
ployment or diversion, will sometimes go
back for generation or two and tell you
that even their grandmothers had "a habit
of doing thus and so, in weather like this Z"
| That is an incorrigible habit, indeed, that
has ancestral dignity to back 1t!
Yet this uncomfortable usage Of COM
plant is seldom checked in early child
hood, and little effort is made TO convince
fretful child that he cannot alter the
inevitable. 1t seems petty thing to en-
large upon as an evidence OF character,
yet 1t is foundation stone In the build
ing up of a strong, unselfish nature to
absolutely prohibit complaint, and require
that children shall check their first