The Washington herald., 1918-06-28
Fair or Cloudy Weather
BY DOROTHY DIX
THE WORLDS HIGHEST PAID WOMAN WRITER.

Did you ever stop to think about
the effect that your personality has
upon other people?
As you go through the world do
you diffuse an atmosphere of gloom
or sunshine? -
Are you a human wet blanket or
an incFnate cheer7
Do you leave people with whom
you come in contact buoyed UP with
optimism. or do you turn their
thoughts towards rough on rats
and good stout ropes, and other al
Turing means Of suicide?
Believe me. it Is a subject worth
considering.
Each one of us goes about sur
rounded by an aura that Is made up
of our thoughts, tempers and tenn
peraments-the thing: that are the
emanation of our souls--and this
aura casts its reflection. bright or
gray on all with whom We asso-
cblte. Quite apart from anything
that we do or fail to do, we make
happiness or misery for others just
by our own mental complexion.
There are people. good. worthy,
kindly people, who wouldn't hurt
a fly intentionally. who go through
life numbering Joy and pleasure.
You know the people mean. They
have solemn long faces, their mouths
droop at the corners. They never
laugh, their nearest approach to
mirth being a cynical sort of smile.
They wear dull dark clothes, and
il they are women they put on black
wheh some member of their family
dies and never take 1t OF, because
they take a pride in Never getting
over" a bereavment.
When they come to see you they tell
you the sad. sad story of their lives
II they are women they have always
had drunken ana unfaithful husbands
and ungrateful children. II they are
men they have been robbed by theiI
best friends. or put upon by their en-
ployers. They always have some IN
durable disease and tell you theiI
symptoms in detail.
They are sure that the country is
going to the dogs; that all public mcn
are grafters and thieves; that philan-
thropists give hospitals and libraries
just to get their names in the papers:
that newspapers are vtnal; and that
every human being in the world ex'
cept themselves. is sordid, selfish
mean and grasping.
When these people go to see a sick
man or woman they relate stories OF
their Aunt Mary and Cousin THOMAS
who perished of some similar disease
When they meet a mother whose son
Is i'm the army, or whose daughter
has gone to the city to work, they
dwell on "reminiscences of bloody first
line trenches, and the dangers of q
great city. When you tell them OF
any little success you have. they say
they are so glad for you, but you
mustn't forget that one swallow
doesn't make a summer, and that bril-
liant beginnings often make dismal
endings
Now these people don't mean to
make you miserable. or to rob you oi
hope and selfconfidence. or to inspire
anxiety and fear in your heart bui
they do 1t all the same. They blot
out your happiness just as completely
as a black cloud blots out the sun.
SHINE OF a summers day.
They leave you feeling that this Is a
rotten old world with everything in it
gone to decay. You feel that nothing
is worth while. and every effort is
bound to end in failure. Somehow
your faith is shaken in everything that
is good and sweet. II you are sick
you feel like turning your face to tho
wall and giving up the ghost. If you
are a man it drives you to drink. and
IL you are a woman it reduces you to
tears.
Then there are people who are con-
stitutlonal carriers of discomfort and
dissatisfaction as some unfortunate in
dividuals are constitutional carriers OF
typhoid, and one is as contagious as
the other. Also about as deadly.
You have been at pleasure resort.
haven't you, where you were having a
perfectly bully time. You thought the
scenery was delightful, the hotel fine.
the people agreeable, the rickety old
boat. and the one-lunged tin lizzy a
barrel of fun. All the guests in the
hotel we're cumming together like n