Year: 1872

IF you wish to know who is the ruler OF
a family, not to say its tyrant, you need
not inquire what member of it possess the
most knowledge, or the best intellect, or
the warmest heart. Inquire simply who
has, the worst temper No one of the
household opposes the person who has an
unbridled temper. Even the little chill
dren learn almost by instinct to shun him,
and young and old are alike incompatible
in his presence.


The merest trifle serves an ill-tempered
person with an excuse for ranting mt of
sulks. Has an involuntary mistake been
made? So far as he is concerned you
might as well have committed crime. Is
breakfast too late? has servant blunder-
ed? child misunderstood a command?
The whole house is in turmoil, every
body is unhappy, and one by one they
retire and get out of sight and hearing of
this predominant temper. The little
ones, who soon discover when there is
anything wrong, sit in mute wonderment
as to what the trouble is all about. Under
such headship as this no bright memo
ries gild the backward time of youth.
Children will always remember the fathers
morose temper, his disagreeable ways,
and fits of passion and injustice, his rough
speech and rough acts. The fathers
good qualities and virtues are covered up
by the superabundance of his evil temper
Neither his generosity or kindness to the
poor, nor his loyalty to his kindred or
friends, nor his Independent spirit towards
his superiors, nor, indeed, any virtue
that he may possess, can take the sting
out of that one overshadowing fault-his
selfish temper. When under its influence,
he is, for the time being, maniac, or, at
least, the most unreasoning of mortals.
No one can estimate properly the amount
of sorrow and mischief which such in
dulgences bring into a household.


But if the tyranny of mans bad tenn
per is unbearable, that of woman is
more so. The one gives moments of re-
lief to the household when he is absent,
because few men stay at home all day;
but a woman is nearly always in the
house, and the minuti@ of its economy
are as the breath of life to feminine nos
trils. Neither are mans domestic func-
tions so universal; and thus his temper,
though it may be even worse than a wo-
mans, is still not so continual or wearing.
The house is the woman's natural king
dom, and if she elects to rule with net
ties instead of lilies, her choice is free
and her subjects are bound. A sullen
brooding over wrongs that never existed,
the finding of flaws where any one else
would see beauties, are signs of the
martyr" beating herself to pieces against
bars forged by her own ill-temper, and
giving herself as much pain as she infiicts
on others.


If bad temper and its habitual indul-
gence made the possessor happy, it might
then be endured by the victim with some
degree of patience; but to inflict and suf-
fer by the infliction is such a duplicating
of curses as is not at all pleasant to think
of much less to endure


If a man or woman cares only for
power and not at all for love, the thing
to cultivate is bad temper, because the
largest amount of subservance is paid
through fear and not affection. You have
only to establish a reputation for ungov-
ernable temper to have as many slaves as
there are housemates and dependents.
Never mind the silent tears that are shed
when you are not by, the groans that are
uttered in silent, the evil words that are
said in a whisper, and the still more evil
thoughts of retaliation that are cherished
by all with whom you have to do. You
must be satisfied with your account with
power, and leave love, like a whipped
school-boy, shivering and crying by the
roadside.


This is sad story of the terrible effects
of an evil temper, yet a true one. Your
friends allow your virtues-virtues most
ly of theoretic kind-but lament your
temper, and even in a mans last hours a
troubled kind of feeling will annoy his
watchers, feeling made up of pity, sor-
row and relief. Your tyranny of temper
has worn out love, and perhaps respect;
so that there are none who do not breathe
more freely when you are gone. Probably
there would be more patience in the suf-
ferers if it were not true that there is no
temper so bad that it cannot be restrained,
and even entirely controlled.-PhiladeL-
phid Record