The Secret of a Happy Home (1896)

own conceit, to the effect that "what that fellow does not know is torn out." So I, quoting my juniors, begin my talk w

ression that belong to the people of this new and free country! Some of these wretched mortals had babies with them,-babies whose fretful wails seemed but to voice the mother's expression of countenance.

trottery, o

he baby, mo

ell, or c

, trottery, t

he corner lamp-posts, glove fingers were smoothed, the folds of dress-skirts shaken out, hats straightened,-until I would fai

teth still-n

weeping assertion when I state that not one tolerably healthy man in five hundred knows what it is to have nerves such as are the birthright of his mother, sister, and wife. And yet how well the physici

asters of this nerve-playing as Vieuxtemps or Thalberg in their lines of performance. Married life is the school in which the most accomplished artists in this department are found. A delicate woman is the best instrument; she has such a m

, looking at the sun going down, says: 'I will count fifty before it disappears,' and as he goes on and it becomes doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets str

ld a woman do? I fear that her description wou

e a way of sayi

tter with her. She is on

nervous prostration. It is a slowly advancing malady which is scarcely recognized as serious by one's friends u

ritance, but must use every means at our command to subjugate the evil instead of being subjugated by it. Too many women, especially among the lower classes, think it "pretty" to be nervous. The country practitioner will tell you of the precious hours he loses every week in hearkening to t

ignorant mother of a jaundiced,

s she eat

she won't eat nothin' but ginger-nuts and bananas. So

indige

r nerves get the upper hand of her, and she turns pale and shivers

't you think that is cau

d it so bad myself. The nerves of her stomach al

were useless. Indigestion was unromantic (in the mother's

jump on a chair at sight of a mouse, scream when she meets a cow in a country road, or cover her face and shudder at mention of a snake.

inably bad-tempered or moody that he cannot keep people from finding it out. If you are nervous, there is some reason for it. Perhaps you did not sleep well last night; perhaps you are suffering from dyspepsia; but in any case will-power will do much towards lessening the trouble. If you are ill, it may cause a struggle greater than your nearest and dearest can imagine to repress the startled ejaculation at the slamming of a door, or the angry exclamation when your bed is jarred. But you will be better, not worse, phys

ows during day or night what it is to be without what you consider "the fussiness that sets you wild." If this mother, or aunt, or sister, does control herself, remember that she is stronger than you,