The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1910-04-21

again that they must not Open a note IN
the middle of an operation; consequently
the lady in charge of a hospital has ar
duous work in perpetual supervision OF
everything, even to the. smallest details.
Lady Florence Cecil in Woman's Mag
aZine.
Idle Gossip Not
Always an Innocent PaStime.
1t seems to call for much wisdom to
know just when to speak and when to
keep silence.
We all know, moreover, that silence
which sometimes will carry more con-
demnation than words; and to keep silent
perhaps when some ones reputation is
being attacked is to add bur vote also
against it.
1t seems almost a pity to think how
many women there are who never seem
to realize that idle talk against another
is doing that other a positive wrong.
Many very good women see no harm
in a little conversation with a friend
about a third party in which much is
said that had better been left unsaid.
Characters have been ruined i'll this
way since the idle words are repeated,
more being added to them until at last
the fb or ~inaccuracy has grown to a lie
of startling proportions.
All women love to talk. When the
weather, the fashions, the "help" and
the children have been exhausted next
on the list comes what 'she" said or did
or where "she' was seen or with whom.
Sometimes among these thoughtless
takers there sits one who wishes she was
not there; who longs to get away or to
avoid listening; but after a while she be-
comes interested; and before she knows
it has joined in; sit is only harmless gos-
sip" With this thought she seeks to 81
lence that little voice which says that all
of this is unkind and unnecessary; but
the habit of harmless, gossip" grows I'M
til she, too, is like all the rest and enjoys
nothing more han a chat about mutual
acquaintance.
In a town of my acquaintance lived q
woman no longer young. Hated and
feared with equal strength by all who
knew her, she sat in her home like some
loathsome insect and no name was ever
mentioned in her presence that escaped
her evil and bitter SANDER.
With it all she was witty and sharp,
and all who listened had to laugh; but
/, they knew, too, at the same time that
when their back was turned, they too
came in for a tanning.
This woman once had been young and
kind and generous; but because she had
not much else to do she had little by little
become a gossip, then a yenOmous gossip,
until now at last she is known through
out the length and breadth of her home
town as an evil-minded and ~evil-Spoken
woman, whose words are poisonous and
| bitter.
Oh, the hea.taches she has given! The
tears she has caused to be shed, the
quarrels she has caused, the homes she
has made unhappy, the regulations which
she has darkened! 1t is a heavy weight,
indeed, which she must carry when the
final summing up is made.
But still she goes on getting worse as
she gets older; she has not one left to
love her any more, but in her lonely home
is waited on by a servant Who stays be-
cause the wages are good and the duties
light, and from its windows the woman
peers out, watching, watching always fol
food for her hateful thought.
Do we any of us wish to become as
she is? Not many have any such am
bition, that is sure. Then let us beware
gossip is employed to pass the hours
away.-Louise Sathewaite in Exchange
-O+.O-
Power of the Imagination.
ct don't know when I've been so pul
out by a little thing" said MI. Billtops
'as l was by the discovery that my Their
mometer was four degrees wrong; il
gave me a real hard little jolt for one
thing, and then it made me realize thai
for two years had been making my.
self uncomfortable over nothing.
"Out of doors | can stand the cold
as well as anybody, but indoors | like
to be warm: II is about what suits me
in the house.
1.-TWO years ago | bought a new Their
mometer which l hung up in my room
and l haven't been warm there in win
ter since.
"Other parts of the house seemed all
right; in the parlor and in the dining
room they got it up. to II apparently
never seemed to get above 6S. l didn't
SILVER. but I never could get really
warm. and one day I said to Mrs. Bill
tops:
".Eliza beth. why can't we get the
heat up in my room? Why should my
room be the only cold room in the
house?
"Mrs. Billtops comes in and stands
around a minute and then she y
"'Why Ezra, it's just as warm here
as it is anywhere else
"sNOnsensev L says to her. Look al
that thermometer! It's 68 here, and it's
~ at this minute in the parlor.5
"But Mrs. Billtops insisted that it was
as warm in my room as it was any
where else, and she said that probably
the trouble was with my thermometer,
that my thermometer didn't mark cor
rectly, and I said it did, and I'd show
her conclusively that the thermometer
was all right, II prove to her that my
room was cold. I'd put my thermometer
right alongside the one in the parlor,
and she'd see it go up in no time to Y.
$50 we put it out there, but it didn't
bulge, that is upward, but it did go
down one degree. Standing side by side
with the parlor thermometer making ~
mine went down to 81; they were five
degrees apart.