The Washington herald., 1917-05-30
CULTIVATE TACT
By DOROTHY DIX,
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

Ii were running girls school,
shouid make the cultivation Of tact the
leading study In the curriculum.
It's all well and good for woman to
nave all the higher culture in books that
she can get. She will need It all In her
business, but a knowledge Of the differen-
tai calculus isn't in II In Importance
with the knowledge OF how to manage
the dinerent peculiarities of ones family.
ana an ability to read the stars is a poor
thlng when compared with an ability to
read the moods and lenses at sight Of the
people with whom one has to live.
should begin instructing girl babies
in the cradle-for you can't begin toe
early-in the gentle art of getting what
] they want by smiling for II instead of
howling for II. Then should teach them
now to walk around the angles in life
instead of humping into them, and when
they got into the Kindergarten class I
should impress upon their tender men,
ories the folly OF beating and bruising
themselves knocking up against a stone
wall that they can never hammer down..
when they might just as well climb grace
fully over It,
| should folio wthls UP with classes
on How to Do Things without Giving
Onence," and "One Hundred Different
ways OF Getting There Without TTeading
on Other Peoples Toes" and no girl
would go out OF my school with a blue
rioboned diploma until she had learned to
say no" without making you feel as II
she had thrown brick at you, and how
to talk without putting her foot in her
mouth. as an Irishman might observe.
A man who has no tact Is a poor blum
dering bull in the worlds china shop. but
woman without tact is a mistake of
creation. II OF us know and dread her,
Tor she Is the person referred to in the
Bible where II says, when I would do
good. evil is ever present with me"
She does harm where she means the
best She hurts where she wishes to
soothe. She makes enemies where she
desires friends. and with the best inten-
ton in the world she can do more harm
in a minute than malice can invent IN .
year.
She is foredoomed to blunder. Invite
her to come to see you and she picks
out the time to arrive, unannounced.
when the cook has left, and the children
are down with the measles, and YOUR
husband has a crouch. Ask her to din
ner and she manages to offend half the
guests and throw a wet blanket over
the gaiety Of the occasion.
She Is the kind of friend who. without
wishing to offend you, tells YOU that
you carry your age well. and that nobody
would know that you were 45 unless thew
had grown up with you as she did She
remarks how clever you were to put the
table over the worn spot in the carpet,
and In the same breath that she praises
your new diamond ring, says that she
always did think that small inexpensive
stones were In better taste than costly
ones.
II there is sore place in your heart
she touches II with unerring aim, and in
any company you may bet dollars TO
doughnuts that she Will haul in every
forbidden topic. and discuss prison reform
with the mother OF a black sheep, and
the iniquity OF divorce with a woman
just back from Reno She is always,
and everywhere, a social blunderbus that
is liable to go OF at any minute, and
that is Just as likely to annihilate friends
as foes.
Now you can't prevent the woman
without tact from being born. She is
one OF natures blunders, but the prov
ince OF civilization is to correct the blum
ders OF nature, and that is why every
girl should be given a thorough course