- sults the precedents, and measures its own
local favorites by the cosmopolitan and eternal standards.—Brander Matthews.
(2577)
PROVOCATION, SILENCE UNDER
I have read somewhere the following arrangement
for avoiding quarrels: "You see,
sir," said an old man, speaking of a couple
who lived in perfect harmony in his neighborhood,
"they'd agreed between themselves
that whenever he came home a little contrary
and out of temper, he wore his hat
on the back of his head, and then she never
said a word; and if she came in a little
cross and crooked, she threw her shawl over
her left shoulder, and then he never said a
word." As it takes two to make a quarrel,
either the husband or the wife might often
prevent one by stepping out of the room at
the nick of time; by endeavoring to divert
attention and conversation from the burning
question; by breathing an instantaneous
prayer to God for calmness before making
any reply; in a word, by learning to put in
practise on certain occasions the science of
silence. Robert Burton tells of a woman
who, hearing one of her "gossips" complain
of her husband's impatience, told her an
excellent remedy for it. She gave her a
glass of water which, when he brawled, she
should hold still in her mouth. She did so
two or three times with great success, and,
at length, seeing her neighbor, she thanked
her for it, and asked to know the ingredients.
She told her that it was "fair water"
and nothing more; for it was not the water,
but her silence which performed the cure.
(Text.)—J. E. Hardy, The Quiver.
(2578)
Pruning—See Ignorance, The Cost of; Soul Surgery. PRUNING TO DESTROY Said Luther: "Sin is like the beard, the oftener it is cut off, the more shaving seems to be necessary!" Perennial weeds continue to live and bear seeds from year to year. Some weeds of this class, as the quack-grass, sow-thistle, and the wild morning-glory, multiply from buds on underground parts as well as by seeds. They are the hardest of all to destroy. As the leaves manufacture the food that nourishes roots, by preventing the leaves from growing, the roots will starve—the surest way to kill perennial weeds, tho often hard to carry out. (Text.)
(2579)
Psychical Activity—See Multiple Consciousness. Psychology in Penology—See Children, Saving. Psychology of Suggestion—See Negative Teaching. PUBLIC SPEAKING A greenhorn, who had never seen a great banquet, came to the city, and, looking through the door, said to his friends who were showing him the sights: "Who are those gentlemen who are eating so heartily?" The answer was: "They are the men who pay for the dinner." "And who are those gentlemen up there on the elevation looking so pale and frightened and eating nothing?" "Oh," said his friend, "those are the fellows who make the speeches."—T. De Witt Talmage.
(2580)
PUBLICITY A woman took a pair of gloves to Wanamaker's not long ago, inisting that she bought them there, notwithstanding that the head of the department told her the house never carried that make of gloves. She insisted, however, and the gloves were taken and she was given the money for them. The manager says that he knew the woman was telling an untruth, but that he did not want to quarrel with her, and he regarded the transaction as a very good advertisement for the house, because she would probably many times tell her friends how she beat Wanamaker's, and that this publicity would be worth more than the gloves.—Success Magazine.
(2581)
Pulpit Raving—See Heads, Losing.
PUNCTILIOUSNESS
Concerning whistling on Sunday in Scotland,
two men, who had done a house-*breaking
job on Saturday night, went on
Sunday morning into a wood to divide the
plunder. One of them began to whistle over
the sharing out when his companion said,
with horror: "Hoot, mon, I would no
have come out wi' ye if I had known you
would whustle on the Sawbath." (Text.)
(2582)
When Justice Lovell, a Welsh judge, was traveling over the sands at Beaumaris, while going his circuit about 1730, he was over-*taken at night by the tide, and the coach
