Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-17

LID you ever LulHh "AOA 1890
| I ing so contagious as our moods!
- They are more catching than the ElN'
The time will come when we Will be lntell1-
gent enough to pay as mucn aCtenC!oA " nAeN-
tai hygiene we now do ID pnyslcal NY
giene Then, when we perceive that we are
suffering from a grumpy, groucny lee!lne'
accompanied by dark brown pesslM1otlo
taste and other symptoms of soul Sickness,
we shall be humane enough to quarantlne
ourselves in our own rooms, ana ndns ouC
sign on our door to warn other people away
until the attack is over, and INC uah5cl o'
infection is past.
Perhaps we shall even go so lar as 10
have isolation hospitals where the glooms
will be forcibly immured, as are smallpox
and leprosy cases, and thus the general pun
lie will be protected against those wno go
about scattering broadcast the germs or Woe
Undoubtedly this will be hard on the melan-
choIy themselves, but it would make the world
a. healthier and happier place for the oalance
of to live IN.
For none of us are immune to the moods
of those about us. Our poor, flabDy, gelltudl-
mons minds offer perfect culture medium for
a n1icrobe of an idea or emotion that drifts
orr vay and before we know 1t, we nave
caught lust the attitude towards life or the
person with whom we are associated.
All of us have experienced this thousand
times We start out in the morning feellng
we'll. and cheerful and convinced that this is
meet two or three people who tell us all the
terrible details of insidious diseases, that
bring a man to the brink of his grave With
out his even knowing that he is sick, and I'M
consciously we begin to explore our own sys-
TENS for symptoms of fatal maladles. we
have been infected with imaginary sickness
| lust as surely as we could have been AFFECT
ed with tuberculosis bacill1.
Then another friend comes along affiliated
with the nervous, irritable cantankerousness.
and we catch that. Before we can say scat,
| we are fractions, and cross, and ill-naturad
also.
Then comes the pessimist who passes on
to YOU great gobs of gloom-the country is
going to the dogs; all business is bankrupt;
all labor is Bolsheviki; all capitalists are
thieves; all men and women are liars. Every
thing in the world is rotten, and when he
| leaves you, you are sick with the despair
that you have caught from him.
Or the reverse of this happens to you.
You start out your day feeling half Sick
worried, depressed. You are thrown with
people who radiate health and happiness, and
good cheer, and they buck you up, and put
new life and courage into you, and you tlnd
yourself telling funny stories instead OF going
to the doctor, or shedding tears OF self-plty
in your handkerchief
For cheerfulness, thank God, is as conta-
gious as melancholy.
Chief among these carriers" Gas doctors
call those who have an abnormal facility Tor
| harborng germs) are women, and this makes
it of vital Importance that every woman who
is at the head of household should be very
careful that she disseminates beneficent hac-
| I'LL instead of the deadly kind that Stays all
the piece and Joy Of home.
For it is the wife and mother whose moods
are most catching. Did you ever see nice,
Jolly, easy-going woman who laughed instead
of scolded over the little inevitable domestic
mishaps, who didn't have pleasant, genial.
amiabe and affectionate husband and chill
dren? I have never known that kind OF
woman to have a husband who gloomed
around the house, or knocked everything
that everybody did, or whose children were
afraid of him.
Nor have I ever known the children Of
such family to be always fighting with each
other, and complaining that they couldn't have
the things that richer children had, and the
reason is that they are all infected by their
mothers sane outlook on life, and her good
cheer and philosophy
And when you find a woman who is the
reverse of this, who is peevish and discomfort
ed, and irritable, and high-tempered, you will
invariably find a family that exists in state
of civil war. The husband is gloomy and
grouchy and brutal to his wife and children.
The children quarrel among themselves, and
defy their parents and leave home the first
chance they get.
That woman has soul sickness, and her
whole family have caught it from her, and
| there is no health in them. woman has to
| be very ignorant in these days who does not
steriliZe her baby's milk, and who does not try
| to protect her children against infectious
diseases. What pity that more mothers do
not realize that the microbes of temper and
discomfort, and envy are just as contagious as
| the measles and are far more dangerous to
the young.
And what double pity that women don't
realize that If they want to keep their fami-
lies placid and calm and reasonable they have
only got to be calm and placid and reasonable
themselves, for that kind of mood is just
as catching as the disgruntled mood.
In former years it used to be considered
a mark Of refinement and elegance for a
woman to be a semi-invalid. All the heroines
of old-fashioned novels spent their lives
clining on couches and fainting. Now we have
plying contempt for invalid ladies'; a wom-
an is ashamed of being sickly. And If she
has contagious disease she has decency
enough not to want to give it to others. .
Without doubt, the same change Is taking
place in our attitude towards melancholy. Peo-
pie used to parade their Sorrows and cher
ish them, and talk about them. Now they
keep them to themselves, and affect cheer
fulness they often do not feel, for we are
getting humane enough not to desire to pass
on our spiritual diseases any more than our
physical ones
For soul sickness is contagious. It is
malady that the prudent avoid both giving
and taking
Copyright, 1921, by The Wheeler
Syndicate, Inc.)
-A
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