Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-03-31
"If You Can't Smile:

In the anteroom of a certain hos
pital was once seen a notice posted
in conspicuous place for the bene-
fit of visitors, and it read something
like this: Don't speak discourag-
ing word here; keep your sad looks
for other places, and if you cant
smile, don't go in" What excellent
advice for hospital visitors, and why
should it not be applied to other
than those who visit such places?
1t is a part of a nurses duty to ap-
pear bright and cheerful before her
patients, and doctors usually cult
vate the same spirit, for they have
learned the great value of cheerful
ness in the sick room, and we know
how, in the home or on the street,
the bright smile and CHEEKY words
of friend or neighbor have often
helped us, When next we go to call
upon neighbor who is sick or in
trouble let us remember this-"If
you can't smile, don't go in"-and
| am sure We shall be kept from say
ing any discouraging thing, for with
the corners of the mouth turned
up it is almost impossible to be
gloomy or pessimistic. There is
more difference to the patient than
you may imagine between greetings.
You are feeling better today, aren't
you?" and You are not looking so
well as you did a few days ago."
Unless there is zeal Improvement
and you can speak of it with truth,
it is much better to avoid personal
remarks and take the patients mind
from himself by bright, animated
talk of things outside.
| have sometimes thought that if
we had more ready smiles, more
hearty laughs and everyday cheerful
ness in our homes there might be
less need of hospital visitors. Give
the little ones the bright smiles,
fathers and mothers, though you
may not always feel like it; they
turn to you as flowers to the sun,
and we are falling sadly as parents
if we allow them to grow up in a
gloomy, fault-findlng atmosphere.
A naughty child, when expecting
punishment of some kind, is often
completely conquered by seeing a
sweet, forgiving smile on his moth
er's face, when a scolding or a whip
ping would have only hardened him.
Suppose a Photographic record
could, without our knowledge, be
made of the exact words and tones
We used during Just one day to those
in the home then in the stiffness of
the night we could hear that record
produced!
The old people need the sunny
smile and the CHEEKY greeting; they
have gotten where they feel it, may
be in the way, not of much use, and
| lllG luluI llOI IlC VI lOl
them that it used to have, but lit
tie attention paid them by some one
younger, little thoughtful kindness
and the. hopeful thought instilled
into them that the best is yet to be,
and that they are still needed in the
world, then the dark dependency
vanishes and life seems once more
worth living.
About the children once more. Let
us always try to send them off to
school with CHEEKY 'good-bye;" the
teacher will find them better pupils
because of this, and they and we will
have a happier day for it. Let us
help to- store their minds with only
pleasant memories of their home life,
so far as possible, and in after years
these recollections may often be to
them a source of the greatest pleas
ure and comfort.
Some people are born with the
happy and hopeful temperament, and
fortunate are they who possess such,
but they who are naturally despond-
ent may cultivate the opposite spirit
by a cheerful habit of thought we
surely may be what we will in this
respect. / believe that it is the
sunny, happy-hearted people who are
loved the best, who most influence
us for good. The short and simple
obituary, "She was always pleasant" "
seems to be a beautiful one and she
who merited it lived life which we
might well emulata.-Mrs. c. S. H.,
Rural New Yorker.