The west shore., January 01, 1880, Page 13, Image 13

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January, 1880.
THE WEST SHORE.
TWO KINDS OF SELF-SACRIFICE.
"Whit ! tapper not ready yet !" laid Mr.
Smith, aa he entered the dining-room about half
an hour earlier than itartsl
Such a romark ai that Mn, Smith did not
notice, because she would not; but by the ex
pression that passed over her face we saw that
it hurt. But womanlike, no other sign of pain
was shown. She awoke that morning with a
headache, and, to use her own expression, had
felt so miserablo all the day that she oould
hardly drag one foot after tho other, but had
done her usual week's washing, and the usual
Monday's picking up of papers and hooka that
were scattered all over the house the day be
fore. "Seems to me I never find my meals ready,"
said the man, not noticing the tired look on the
face of his wife. "All you have to do is just to
soe to things here in the house, while I have
been tramping all over town in this hot sun.
Itseomiot though I should starve to death ; I
wish you would hurry up supper. Everything
hat gone wrong to-day. Newton has gone back
on his word, and I warrant I shall lose f 1,000
by him."
After a short pause he oontinued: "Newton
will not sell that land by the home farm, and I
shall have to sell some of the cows."
For about a quarter of an hour Mr. Smith
Soured this kind of "wine and oil" on the weary
eart of his wife, until his burden was some
what removed. After a few minutes' ailenoe,
he said, in a quick, harsh tone: "Do take that
baby, he is enough to kilt a natiou with that
everlasting cry; I should think he'd get siok of
it."
"His teeth trouble him. Can't you take him
a few minutes?" And with a sigh the mother
laceu the youngest of seven children in her
usbaud's arms, who took tho babv in a far dif.
ferent manner from what he did the first, or
seoond, of their ohildren.
"Come, now, hush your orying," said the
thoughtless father. "What is tho use of whin
ing? It does no earthly good." The one-year-old
little man coated his pitiful crying, and the
one forty yeart old commenced his oheorful
strain.
"That ttook I bought at Vernon I have been
disappointed in, anil shall loae on it Never
should have bought it if you had not persuaded
me to do it. That is all a man over make by
listening to a woman."
He was silent a minute, and hit boy, ahont
16, raised his head and gave his father anything
but a look of revercnoe, pushed his book back
from him, and stopped toward his mother, tak
ing a pitcher from nor hand, saying, "I can go
down after the oream, mother."
We blotted the hoy for those gentle words, al
though we taw the mother wipe a tear from hor
eyea with the corner of her apron.
Mr. Smith was only acting perfectly natural;
he did not notioe the "sohool-marm, (the was
one of tho family), but the "school-marm" no
ticed him, and never will forget the feeling of
contempt she had for the selfish oreature. She
distinctly remembert the tint time the ever
heard a man blame a woman. Men in her oyes
were then godt; but, as on that oocation, they
have fallen, one by one, from their high plaoe in
her estimation, until now she haa only one or
two enthroned. The others are mortals, and
quite faulty ones, when hungry or tired, and
she often wishes to reoommend to them the same
remedy for crossness which they apply to their
hungry ohildren; but her amiability always pre
vents her from speaking her thoughts.
When quite young she visited with her pa
rents an intimate friend of the family, who had
met with a great loss of property. The gentle
man after giving an account of the transaction,
said: "If it had not been for my wife I should
not have met with the loss: she nrged me to
invest my money there."
"Why, Edward, I thought you talked abont
it before yon were married," said her father.
"Well, so I did; but I did not put my monev
into the concern nntil the next year; my wife
thought it would be just the right thing. '
"I used to think that everything which you
withed to do mutt be jutt the right thing," said
his wife, sharply.
When wo were going home father said to
metfcer- "OnA rtiv Vi ntf ..f ...... 1. . 1...
momcr. uou pity mo wiio ui a uimi suit iya
the blame on her shoulders instead of ahiolding
her; it is so oontemptible for the strong to
oppress the woak,
We sometimes wonder if we havo been un
fortunate in our acquaintances; but it really
seems to us that the spirit of aelf-aaoriftoe is
oftenest shown by the "weaker vessel," as St.
Paul hat been pleased to style us. The men
who take more than half the burdens of life
ii pen them, we find, like angels' visits, "few and
far between."
Women, in their happy days, are ready to
carry all the load; but sometimes the blue days
como, when every grain of trouble will grow
quickly to a tree large enough for the fowls of
the air to build their nests in its branches when
a harsh look, even, makes them feel as though
no one in all the world cared for them, and they
sigh for what might have been so different
when evon Hod's face seems hidden from them,
and the journey of life is a toilsome way, tan
glud, rough, and through a wilderness; tho cry
of tho baby jars every nerve of the body; a dis
obedient act from a child makoa the mother feel
totally unqualified to govern hor family of rest
less feot; the breaking of one dish by a servant
causes a dread of the poor-house; in fact, she is
to morbidly sensitive that without ono addi
tional trouble, life haa a very gloomy look; and
if, on such a day, one extra burden is placed on
her shoulders she feels as if the only thing she
could do was to lie down and die,
But to die is not always convenient, and the
wife taket up her burden of life again, with the
thought, "If my hutband only knew what a
sword-thrust an unkind word gives a woman,
he never again would apeak harshly to me; if he
only knew how warm It makes my heart, how
trilling the oarea of life seem when by word or
look he says that I am doing the best I can
that I am not the cause of all the misfortunes
that come that he loves and trusts me con
stantly the kind words and the aota of self,
sacrifice would come exceedingly often from
him, and our home would be a 'heaven and a para
dise below.' "
We sometimes wonder if the women are occa
sionally to blame for the lack of saorifloe mani
fested by their husbands. In our happiness to
deny self for those we love, we oominenoe oar
married life by laying aelf on the altar of our
love.
We run for the slippers, the glass of water,
tho book or paper; we offer the Lest chair, the
cosiest place by tho fire; we adjust the lamp
shade for his eyes; we deny ourselves the pleas
ure of cutting the leaves of the last magasines
because he likes the llrst reading of them; we
roast because he likes warm rooms in the winter,
and we freeze because he wants the windows
open the remainder of the year; he likes a fast
horse, and we silently cling to the carriage, hold
our breath, expect to have nor brains dashed
out, and smile as he atks, "Isn't this jolly?"
After a few years he forgets to thauk us, and
tho time ootnea with most men when they take
these things ss their right. If we ask for horses
that we can enjoy riding after, he opens hit
eyes and informs ut that he "hates a slow
coach." If the wind gives us the neuralgia,
and wo ask to have the window closed, he hi
" surprised that we can't endure a breath of
air." If we dare to sit in the most comfortable
chair when he ia in the room we cannot enjoy it
because it is his chsir.
Even thongh we like to sacrifice our own
wishes for the comfort of those we love, when
we real in what it will help them to become, It
ia our doty to sometimes deny our "likes,"
that our husbands may have the opportunity of
knowing by experienoe this more bleated war
of self-sacrifice. If we've found that self.
denial ia the greatest of all virtues It is oar
duty to give oar husbands a chance to practice
this saintly trait once in a great while. It it
ia more blessed to give a pleasara than to re
ceive one, would it not be for the highest good
of the husband it onoa in a year or two wt
ahould take the lesser blotting?
Isn't it, wt ask with fear and trembling, our
duty to teach our husbands the art of self.sao-
ritioer Mrt.V.V. trifclsr.
THE DEVASTATING PIK.
The origin of the pie ia iuvolved in eomt oh.
sourity. Its inventor is unknown to fame, but
UAtmuuh at ho did not get out a patent on it,
there are not wanting cynical sufferers from itt
baneful effecta to assert that it was originated
by the devil. Ho never takes oat a patent on
any of his devices. Others are Inclined to be
lieve that the pie it the result of evolution
that differentiation oauted it We have Men,
indeed, with the naked eye, in the species nailed
mince pio, certain minute particles which re
aemblo molecules, and if thsy do not constitute
a protoplasm, we have never seen one. Hut the
origin of the pie is a subject about which one
can have 110 well grouuded opinion.
The value of the pie is not much more easily
determined. There is a certain claas of Christ
ians who maintain that a dyspepsia it a disci
plinary meant of grace. That it it a raging pur
gatory, no one who has encompassed a real
corroding indigestion will be prepared to deny.
Hut the pie problom ia bract with difficulties,
and about, the question of the religious use of
dyspepsia, there may well be two opinions.
We inoline to the belief thst if there is anything
in thll world that has power to topple a man
over into spiritual ruin, dyspepsia is that thing.
It is a dry delirium tremens, solid horror, to to
speak.
The ability of the pie to create dyspepsia no
one will dispute. Here at latt we can find ag
f;reemont The pie which haa descended to ut
rnm I'uritian anotttry of great gattrio force,
was adopted by them as a penance -to make
the situation as urn ifm table as possible; but
we, like the Irishman who boiled the peat that
he was ordered by his confessor to wear in his
bouts, have epiaurisod the iiie just as we havt
n lined the Puritan Sabbath, and havt made a
pleasure nut of an iuatrument of discipline.
The pie is an alluring tpectaele. Whan well
baked, it it hard to resist Its odor Is enough
to knock over the good retolutioot of the most
aonlirmed dyspeptic. He sett, he smells, ht
falls. Wt arc convinced that at the bottom of
most church and family qaarrela there will be
found pit; that tht pit it tht natural adjunct
of ultra Calviniam; that the Sunday pie causes
more blue Monday than Sunday over-work or
nervous expenditure! that the aky would he
brighter, ti ft more alluring, and death leas ter
rible, were the digestion-devastating pie evicted
from the daily bill of fare; but neverthelat, wt
hsartily sympathise with the lady who declared
that tht hated wholesome food, and with all itt
terrible results hers, waiter, a piece of hot
mines pie, if you please.- Tht Allmntr.
Onk of the returned warriors from Zululand
was at Korka't Drift and wae witness of tht
following incident: A clergyman in clerical
attire was hard at work handing out cartridges
to the men, and he did it with a will. A private
near was taking ahnta at tht tint and cursing
the while in the moat ingenious manner. "Don"
swear, man!" thou ted the clergyman. "Don't
swear at them! Shoot them ! "
Tim were oat driving. Held Theodore:
"What tree, Angelina, bean the meet precious
fruit' Angelina! "Oh! Dory, I can't Ml. un
less it's a cherry tree. " Theodore looked un
utterable sweetness st he gated Into Angelina1!
eyea, and said "Tht axle-tree, darling?'
On a certain American railroad a young man
put hit head oat of tht oar-window to kiss bit
girl good-byt, when tht train weak ahead to
rapidly thai he kissed an aged African female
at the next station. This la toppotid to bo the
fattest time ever mailt on railway train.
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