Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/98

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Side Talks with Girls

so that one may speak well of those for whom one does not care.

Of the sin of speech you girls all know. It is the unnecessary word of fault-finding. It is seeing and speaking of people's faults, rather than searching out and proclaiming their virtues. It is being willing to make people unhappy by nasty little speeches that may seem clever, but are really rude. It is saying what you ought not to say. It is allowing free license to your speech. In time as the result you will get so that you will even look for the disagreeable traits among your friends and those whom you love, and you will speak as quickly about them as about utter strangers. Irrespective of the wrong that you do, how long will you retain any friendships worth having? Men and women both are afraid of the young woman who makes unkind speeches, and so I beg of you watch carefully that the sin of speech does not overcome you, and rule that organ which should be divine, the tongue.

SINS OF MANNER

In your manner you can commit sin. Somebody has just been introduced to you, and instead of bowing pleasantly, you give a stiff, haughty nod that makes a shy woman feel uncomfortable and causes her to have anything but a pleasant opinion of you. In your home you come into the dining--