The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-07-23
THE HABIT OF TEASING

Do you foster the habit of teasing
in your family, If you do, begin to-
day to stamp it out. 1t is a fruitful
source of. unhappiness in the home
Good-natured testing, given and taken
in kindness, is very well in its place,
but there are times when even the
humorist must realize that a word of
encouragement and sympathetic inter
est Is much more needed. The prac-
tice of picking" at a member of the
family, known to be irritable, not in
frequently results in lifelong dislike
between brother and sister; yes, even
between parent and child The back
ward boy or girl is too often the butt
of the quick-witted; the physically ia
vored ''pokes fun" at the ugly duck
ling" and the wakward youth in the
transition stage is a mark for family
satire; or the eldest sister, who may
have dreams and aspirations beyond
the ken of her relatives, may be the
target of their senseless teasing. Even
little children guy one another, and,
having less control of their feelings
than older folks, they often pass from
funny moods to fits of rage. Not long
ago we saw a child, enraged by the
teas1nng of older boys, fall to the
ground and roll about in a frenzy of
anger, while his tormenters laughted
in glee. Later on this child will be
victimized by his schoolmates. who,
knowing his temper, will delight in
stirring it up. He should be taught
to control it, you say. Very well, but
few Of us mend our ways by being
subjected to annoyance and derision.
The fault of the home and school is
the fault constantly in evidence in of
flee and shop and factory Teasing,
translated into slang, becomes Jolly
ing" and now and again dreadful
tragedy is traced back to ill-natured
jests and gibes that the victim had not
the mental or physical endurance to
stand. A word of sensible advice, of
kindly sympathy and encouragement,
might have helped him to conquer the
dangerous mood. 1t may be said that
no Well-balanced person will be af-
fected by jest or joke, no matter how
brutal or ill-timed it may be, and yet
how many intelligently brilliant men
and women have shown their suscept-
Utility to the shafts of ridicule? The
act Of the cartoonist who made a hit
by portraying the defect in General
Buffers eyes caused keen suffering
to the famous jurist. Such hits" be-
tIay the savage In the Individual land
savagery is too often evident in the
words and acts of the irrepressible
tease or joker He makes life unbear-
able for the thin-sknned, and the ner-
vous, and has it in his power to annoy
even the normal Apparently he en-
ploys the movement when his victim
has the least power to resistance
No one knows just how heavy is the
burden that another may be bearing
i'll health, silently endured. mental de-
preston, home troubles, uncongenial
employment, Misunderstanding discour-
agements and disappointments-th
list is endless. Do not add to it the
heartless jest or the teasing act that
may draw unwelcome attention. Even
very good people err this way occa-
sionally, through lack of tact and per-
ception it may be, perhaps you re-
member the prayer of the child who
asked God to make all the bad people
good, and then added in her artless
way land make all the good people
all the good people nice. Sacred
Heart Review