Social Moods

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 387, 8 October 1903, Page 7

Social Moods

HOW WILL YOU BE REMEMBERED ? sort of memories are you J\M7%£ JL s^or^ri S U P f° r those nearest to &Jfi&ais you—husband, wife, children, or business associates P They may outlive jou, and how will they remember you P Are you doing by them exactly as you would like to be done by? That is not a new idea, but it is quite as well worth your consideration as if it were. You may be a busy woman, weighed down with matters of household or business importance, and you will think my question a trivial one, perhaps. Jf you are cold, .irritable, indifferent, nagging, selfish, stingy or thoughtless in i your home or your office or shop, you are bunging out the worst—not the best—qualities in others. You are spoiling beautiful days, woe&s, and months for others, and that is more*, criminal than spoiling their property j the time despoiler, the happiness slayer, is the most cruel vandal.on earth.

Besides wronging others, you are ruin* ing yourself in the recollection of those who outlive you. Since childhood I have tried to speak of a certain departed relative's virtues and good qualities*, which I know she possessed; yet, when I think of her, her perpetual irritability, her unamiable expression, and her sharp - words always present themselves to my unwilling memory, which shrinks even as the physical part of me of old in her presence. She hatj left an ineffaceable recollection of disagreeable temper upon n»y" mind just as another who has passed on has left a memory as sweet and fragrant as a rose. It seems to me it U worth while to think of the impressions we are making on those about us, and not rest to dwell content upon our mere virtues and good deeds. If you era devoting your whole time and strength to making money for your wife and children, or if you, as their mother, axe sacrificing pleasure and youth to give them advantages, do not imagine you are doing all that is required of you. To be agreeable, to be patient, to be companionable—those are the qualities which help to make life worth Jiving for those near us. It is a tragedy to dp'oil one day for another human being by a lack of these qualities, even though we bestow a fortune upon that being when we pass on. ,' It is a tragedy to be remembered as an uncomfortable and unamiable person, even of large 1 virtues. Sitia all very well to Bay we remember onlys the good deeds of people, but sa.% truth [remains that wo remember peeple ' as they were! , t '■;>-, '•'■ '■.>>;' -£\: But nothing on earth is of more im« / ,;>. p;rtai cj than doing right by those wa associate with daily. Nothing fcere, or hereafter, can atone for our neglect to bring out the beet is IhottittCiixeßfcuß, , -. , ■"■■'-. .■■■/• : , ■ " ' ; : ■ ■'■-■.