The Washington herald., 1913-07-25
CROSSNESS Is BORN
OF OVERFATIGUE
Use Vacation Time to Brush Away
the Cobwebs Of u.
ritability.
by FRANCES shAFFER.


Do you know that it does not pay to
grow SO tired, physically and mentally.
that it is easier to be cross and irritable
than ones own best self? Yet that is
what happens to post folk when the
tension grows too sharp, and 1t it not
fair to oneself or ones associates.
Awhile ago / saw a mother hurrying
along the street. Two very much be-
frilled little girls just preceded her, and
in a carriage calmly sat a young heir,
ulous nagGing.
She was impatient and sharp Of
tongue if they ran ahead. and If they
fell behind a bit, their feet We're always
in her way-so she said. They We're in
spotIess white, the whole family group,
and If the little maids stopped. there
was the complaining voice, lest a speck
of dirt mar the purity of the picture.
Everything went wrong, and not until
the last CLEAN of white and the last
rumble OF the baby carriage died away
did the complaining, tired voice stop a
minute.
And cannot You guess the source OF
more than half the trouble?
The mother had not learned upon
what to place the greatest emphasis,
and had spent weary hours upon those
fussy little frocks. Her spirit was all
worn out and the tired overflow of pro-
test reached her and the little folk
alike.
Mothers just Human.
And old it pay? Because mothers,
like the rest of the world, are just hU
man, after ALL and can do SO much and
no more. Maybe the kiddies like lot
OF toggery- but, far better than the
showiest togeery ever created, they like
their mothers at peace with them, and
with spirits unfrayed by overwork.
That mother has gone by a score of
times since then, and when her little
brood was all shorn OF its finery. free
to scamper about at will. somehow the
querulp"s spirit was folded away with
the fussy clothes and everybody had
good free time.
1t is said. perhaps truthfully. too, that
the best time OF all to approach a man
with an unusual request is right after
a good meal. when he had enjoyed a
dinner that satisfied and left him sleek
and content a pussy cat. Probably
You have thought. with me, that that
was a sorry enough comment upon the
manner of man. caring more for his
precious appetite than for anything else
under the sun.
But We have learned that IL is just
a trick OF nature TO protest when in need
of refreshment. when brain-weary, and
very tired of the push and rush that
constitute life in the world of business
And the hour at mealtime rests, gives
new vigor, and sends men-and women.
too-away from the table, quite made
over
Indeed. there is excuse for the man
who emerses from the dining-room fresh.
fit. and ready, even for the request that
an hour ago might have been pigeon
holed with a sickening no"
Get Too Tired to Be Polite.
You know. when the Riddles get very
tired. sleepy. and all used up. they
change-some of them-into regular little
cross-patches. and nothing makes them
over but an hour or two of .balmy
sleep" And they are hurried of. willing
ly or unwillingly as may be, for the rest
that will transform them into dociie little
lambs.
But we. grown older, with no one to
push and say you must" linger in the
land of steady application until We are
too tired to be polite. too cross to be
congenial to anybody but our misguided
selves. For. generally the work could be
set aside, If only We thought it could.
1t is vacation time, playtime-for us all.
one hopes-and deary me, don't let's go
with our trunks packed full OF clothes
and our poor tired selves worn out with
the process of getting ready" For the
folk most in need of rest ought not TO
spend so very much time in prepara
lion. Theirs not the part of sitting on
a nicely shaded piazza with the rocking
chair brigade" but of getting out in
the thick of the woods. or on the trail
of something free and wholesome. a
stretch Of water or an eNpanse of noun
tains-and they do not need a lot OF
fussy frocks and picture hats for that.
1t would be SO easy. comfy" and al
together delightful if We could just pack
our grip with a few old toys. cast aside |
the tiresome trappings of conventional
life-and away to the woods,
For it is exemption from the usual, |
freedom from restriction, and life I'M
DER the open heavens that most of us
need to brush away the cobwebs of ir |
ritability, and maybe crossness, If We
are not very patient and true.