The Beatrice Daily Express

SIDE TALKS
(By Ruth Cameron.)
Do You Think This a Heresy?
I have a heresy to propound today.
At least I know many people will consider it a heresy. See what you think.
At a hotel where I once stayed was a very crusty, crotchety old man.
He was most impatient, spoke out his mind about everything, and in general showed that he had never learned to put any check upon his natural irritability and self-will.
This man's wife, on the other hand, was an exceptionally sweet gentle woman. A companion who had lived with her for years, said "I never heard Mrs. S. speak a cross word."

Was It Lucky or Unlucky.
People often said "Lucky for Mr. S. he had such a sweet, patient wife. Most women wouldn't put up with him."
Now my heresy is this: I don't feel sure that it was lucky for Mr. S. that he had such a sweet patient wife.
On the contrary, I think he might have been a less disagreeable man if he had had a wife who did speak a cross word now and then to him.
Of course I may be wrong, but I can't help feeling that one of the main reasons why he has never learned to put a check on his irritability is because she has put up with it so sweetly; and that if there had been a penalty of resentment or rebuke from her, he might have been more careful.
Why does a child learn respect for the rights of others in school? Because if he doesn't learn it to a certain extent, he is pretty sure to be made uncomfortable by the other children.

What Made the Kaiser What He Was?
Did you by any chance see in one of our recent magazines a most interesting set of pictures of the kaiser from his youth just the fatal day when he decided to conquer the world? The first pictures are not so unamiable, but the haughtiness the look of self-conceit and self-will grows in each picture, until in the last he looks like the spirit of pride and selfishness come to life. What caused the change?
Simply the atmosphere in which he lived. He never met opposition, never heard the truth about himself, and the result was that all his worst qualities strengthened and developed.
Suppose he had had a totally different atmosphere, would he not have been a totally different man?
Suppose the old man at the hotel had been vigorously opposed in his youth when he vented his irritability on his wife, might he not have learned that this kind of self-indulgence did not bring him happiness and have learned to curb it?

"Firmly" is Better Than Crossly
Perhaps in suggesting that it would have been a good thing if his wife spoke "crossly" to him now and then, I used the wrong word.
"Firmly," I think, would be better.
Most of us do get cross when we are fighting against crossness, but of course that isn't necessary or helpful.
Nor does fretful nagging do any good.
But I do think it does sometimes help to offer a firm and vigorous resentment for your sake, for the offender's sake, and for the sake of abstract justice, to the habit of unjustifiable (please do not confuse with that caused by ill health or worry) indulgence in irritability.