Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-31
LET MERRY TONE
PERVADE VOICE
Always Speak Softly and
Cheerily; Makes Whole
World Better
BY Mrs. Wilson Woodrow


AS l was turning over a telephone
bill few days ago, 1 caught sight
of bit of handwriting on the back
or it, and very naturally supposed
that 1t was intended as a piece of
specific information for me alone. So
l examined it more closely. This was
the message:
Give your telephone caller a
handshake or a smile by your cour-
teous manner of speaking"
l read this aloud to my brother,
and supplemented it with an ad-
dendum of my own:
Always go to the telephone in
your prettiest house frock. Glad
den the operators vision with
cheery note of color and becom-
ing lace cap"
You ought to be ashamed of your
SELF he said rebukingly. 1t is the
way my family has always received
my merry turns of speech.
Il am, l admitted. I'm these
days when the soulless corporations
are all trying to prove that they
have souls. it does not become me to
criticize. If my memory serves me,
luxury as a soul by the narrowest
kind of a squeak. When the subject
came up in one of the councils of
the early fathers of the church it
was by bare majority of one that
we got a soul apiece"
But this by way of depression. To
so back to the plea on the telephone
bill. Here was a definite attempt
on the part of a great organization
to introduce a spirit of kindliness
into the daily and hourly intercourse
of human beings.
And the more l thought of it the
bigger it grew. 1t seemed to- me
that the person who originated the
idea of giving that reminder to hun
dreds of thousands of persons every
month had had an inspiration.
And the interesting and valuable
part of it is that the idea and its
expression would not have taken
form in this way unless there had
been the feeling back of tin the
air, so to speak, underlined, perhaps
but more or less universal.
If you stop to think of it there
are certain times when this uni
versal impulse loses its vague, re-
ceding quality and becomes definite
and positive. Christmas Eve, for in
stance, and New Years Day. There
is then a sort of eXhiliaration in
the air, general good will. If one
is dead tired or irritable, one sup
presses the fact and presently it van
ishes in the general glow of kindly
feeling. The season demands SO in
sistently smiling face and "A Merry
Christmas" or "A Happy New Year"
that you instinctively adopt the one
and voice the other.
l once knew an unenlightened
egotist of a woman who was beset.
with the fear of being imposed
upon. She proudly affirmed that she
meant to get the full value of her
money or time or whatever she gave
out. She counted that day lost when
she hadn't verbally beaten someone's
brains out or hadn't reported some
one to the authorities or hadn't writ
ten a letter to some organization
pointing out the delinquencies of it's
employees. 1t was nerve-racking to
go anywhere with her, for she in
variably took the conductors num-
ber in street car or had a dispute
engaged in an alteration with the
ushers or with the people who sat
near her in a theater.
Her hand was against every man,
and as a consequence every mans
hand was against her. l have never
encountered anyone so ruthlessly de-
termined on reforming her fellow
beings.
The only time she was ever found
in an amiable mood was when she
was entertaining guests; then she be-
came quite human and agreeable.
Finally an old friend summoned
courage to say to her: IF you would
always be hostess instead of roam
ing about like a roaring lion how
nice you would be-"
Then suddenly realizing that she
had stumbled on a good thing un-
awares, the friend sat up.
There! That's an ideal" she ex-
ella aimed "PlaY hostess To the world