The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-08

1 woman and a puffy man, as a nickel | is for ginger cake. So it is both silly and humilating to indulge in | one.
 The breakfast table argument that l leaves a man sore and irritated with | his wife. sends many husband to q pretty stenographer to be comforted and flattered back into mplacency. The breakfast table argument that leaves a woman with bitter sense of injustice ranking in her mind, makes many woman revenge her self for what she considers her hus- bands brutality by indulging in some outrageous piece of extravaganza.
 To argue is like playing with dy- namte. It Is sure to go off in an eX- plosion that wreaks things, and so it is past comprehension why otherwise sensible pleople should indulge in such a dangerous pastime. And any way. arguing is mean, ungenerous sport that is an indication of an over bearing and tyrannical disposition.
 For, when all is said, why should We try to force our opinions, our point of view, our religion and our politics on others? Surely, they have just as much right to their own fifths and beliefs as we have to ours. Unhappily. there are people who are born with dsputatious disposi- tions, and to whom an argument is pie and ice cream, but even they can be circumvented, for it takes two to hold a debate, and if you let them make their assertions uncontradicted, they fall flat and lifeless. There is no pep in arguing when nobody is interested enough in your statements to contradict them.
 Just try refusing to argue any question whatever, and you will be perfectly amazed at the quiet and harmony that will settle like bene- diction down over the house. and you will marvel even more at how much friction it saves your own nerves and temper.
 The second rule for making a peaceful home is to give the soft an- swer that turns away wrath. This is pretty hard to do because the natural human instinct is to fight back when we are attacked. But it doesn't pay especially with women. for in the domestic Scrimmage, the wife and mother nearly always gets the worst of it.
 Suppose woman is unlucky enough to be married to man who is charter member of the Knockers union. When he criticises something she has done, she can start some 
 ing him what she thinks of q hus- band who never speaks of anything his wife does except to find fault with it. But what can he say, if she says that she is sorry that she didn't please him and that she will try to do better next time?
 There are mighty few people who are cowardly enough to attack genuine paeifist, and you simply can't put any punch in scolding person who admits his or her short comings and is anxious to atone for them. Just oppose anger with gen tleness; meet impatience with patience. and unreason with reason, and they fizzle out like a spent fire cracker. And always the one who can control his or her temper domi- mates the situation.
 The third rule for making a peace full home is not to meddle. The chief cource of discord in family life is the lack of personal liberty. Because people are bound to each other by the ties of blood or marriag age,| |they consider that they have a perfect right to supervise even the most minute detail of the lives of those about them.
 There are plenty of families in which no one can rise up or sit down, or eat a meal or get letter, or buy an article of clothing In peace. They live, to perpetual accompaniment of Why don't you go to bed? Why don't you get up? Whom is your letter from? Why did you get a blue dress instead of a red one? Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that
 Nothing is more maddening. Noth- ing sets peoples nerves so or edge From nothing are' we so anxious to .get away. And 1t Is this perpetual nagging, this never-ending inter- ferng with the tastes and habits of those with whom we live that wrecks the peace of homes, that reconciles husbands and wives to the loss of their mates, and that makes children