The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-15
EVENING CEAT
Other Peoples Grievances.
sY RUTH CAMERON

OtQcF EeODIe grievances.
There are some people in this
world to whom righteous indignation
seems to be source of much pleasure.
They feel tin behalf of other people,
who have been mistreated by their
friends or relatives, and who usually
do not seem to feel it for themselves.
And they air this indignation at
every opportunity, and appear to feel
they are adding to their own stock of
! virtue in thus championing the OPP
pressed.
Do you recognize the class 1 mean
A neighbor of mine is a charter
member of this class. She can find
grievances for anyone; some of them
/ 1 feel sure would astonish the uncon-
scious sufferers. An interview with
her seldom passes without one of these
| vicarious complaints.
Yesterday she dropped in to tell me
about a wedding she had attended,
and this was the part of her tale
which she told with the most vim i:
my dear, what do you think the
brides only brother gave her? Moth
ing but two silver spoons, and they are
not poor people at all. 1t must have
almost spoiled the wedding for her.
felt dreadfu1ly when her mother show
ed them to me, for they had always
talked so much about Harry and how
kind ne was
Now 1 don't know the bride init
mately, but do know her we'll enough
to realize that she is a placid, cheerful
her wedding spoiled because her
brother only gave her two silver
spoons. I don't think she'd be half
so indignant about it as my kind
neighbor is, if he gave her nothing at
all.
Again, we have mutual friend
whose only daughter is teaching in a
distant city. Usually she comes home
to spend Christmas with her mother
but this year for some reason best
known to themselves, she failed to.
That vicarious grievance lasted my
neighbor all the holiday season. She
went about saying, Wasn't it too bad
that Emma didn't make the effort to
come home Christmas? I feel so sor-
ry for poor Mrs. Richards. 1 am
afraid Emma isn't as thoughtful of her
mother as she used to be-
Another neighbor of ours who en-
tertains her relatives a great deal, sell
dom goes away from home. "Consid-
ering all the company Mrs. c. has, I
don't think she gets entertained very
much Eliminates the grievance bear
err. 81 should think that those cousins
of hers who come here every spring
and fall would have her visit them
occasionally"
AS it happens, Mrs. c. has very good
reasons of her own, for preferring to
extend hospitality rather than accept
it, and repeatedly refuses urgent in
vitations from those particular
cousins.
Sometimes these grievance inventors
cause real trouble, for it not unnatOl
urally happens that their complaints
occasionally reach the ears of those
complained against, and are falsely
credited to the people to whom the
grievance really belonged.
And then, again, they sometimes be-
come SO bold as to try to persuade
the unconscious sufferers themselves,
that they are being mistreated, which,
is everyone can see, is a fertile source
of trouble
On the whole, unless you are able to
alleviate or smooth them out, other
peoples grievances are a good thing
to let alone, especially when they are
not troubling the owners.