The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-09-13
| NANY an individual to-
day owes his wretched-
ness and practical fail

IYYMNKN ness and practical fail
lNA ure in life to quarreling,
fault-fnding, and the pickering
habit-jrritation, friction. Discord
of any description is a great enemy
of strength, health and happiness,
while absolute harmony of charac-
acter and environment is friendly
to all worthy achievement.
In thousands of homes we see
gnarled, crippled, starved, stingy
lives, which have never developed
into their greatest possibilities,
lives which have never blossomed
out or come to fruitage because of
being in vicious atmosphere. An
atmosphere full of discord, criti-
cism, scolding and constant repres-
sion. No one can do good work
when feeling a sense of suffocation
or strangulation. How many boys
have been driven away from home
or into bad company by nagging?
Young men who have rushed away
from home into unfortunate sur.
roundlngs because they were so
nagged or criticised at home that
any other place on earth seemed
preferable. 1t was always Don't
do this" or why Don't you do
that?" until the high-spirited boy
got so tired of ''don'ts' that he
preferred the street corner, or any
place but home.
Young people resent being lee
tured or corrected all the time.
Nor do they thrive under constant
repression. All healthy. young
men crave encouragement and
praise. They will do anything that
is in their power for their faith
er, mother, or employer who will
give them wise words of apprecia-
tion and encouragement, or who
urges them to do their best by
other means than fault finding.
Parents who indulge in the nag
ging habit often excuse themselves
by saying that is their love for the
boy that prompts their eternal
criticisms, and that their don is"
are really for the loved ones best
interests.
Love which displays itself in
such fashion is apt to be forgotten
by the loved one. Nagging may
be loving" in disguise, but in a
disguise so unlovely that most peo-
pie will resent love in that fashion.
There is not a bit of love in the
nagging habit, however much the
nagger may talk about affection. 1t
is full of unrest and friction and
selfshness.
A fault-fnding. criticising habit
is fatal to all excellence. Nothing
will strangle growth quicker than
a tendency to hunt for flaws, to re-
joice in the unlovely, like a hog
which always has his nose in the
mud and rarely looks up. The d.
rection in which we look indicates
our life aim, and people who are
always looking for something to
criticise: for the crooked and the
ugly; who are always suspicious:
who invariably look at the worst
side of others, are but giving the
world a picture of themselves.
This disposition to see the worst
instead of the best grows on one
very rapidly, until it ultimately
strangles all that is beautiful and
crushes out all that is good. Most
people are honest and true, and
mean to do what is right. But
there are men who get so into the
habit of finding fault with every
thing and growing at everybody
that it becomes second nature with
them as it does with sailor; and
he is not a good sailor unless be
can find fault with everything even
the weather. If some men happen
to see something out of place, or if
something is not done just as they