WOMAN’S TEMPER

Shannon News, 27 March 1928, Page 4

WOMAN’S TEMPER

Temper surely is a cardinal virtue, the outward and visible sign of inward and invisible energy the very vim and ginger of existence, a counter of success, though its moods arc as, wayward as the sea, writes Viscountess Falkland in the Daily Ex-! press. Temper, might be named the! energy of the mind, for it is often a foe to sloth, and how many people? famous in history possessed it from? Cleopatra onward? A magistrate remarked the other; day that the best mothers controlled, their children, and their household by a sharp temper, a very useful adjunct these days, and schoolboys are certainly kept up to the mark by a touch of “pep” from their seniors. The woman with a sharp temper certainly rules her household by virtue of it. Rather than incur reproof, it is easier io mend the pattern of their ways, to keep to the straight and narrow road of rectitude for there is no fury like a woman’s tongue, It is a lash for the slothful it inspires the energy for dull wits, and wins success for others. , How different is the woman who has no temper'; she is invariably a bore, whose stupidity is as a twice - told tale, her even temperament is a fault. Who was ever inspired by perpetual sunshine? It is the shocks and jars of existence that quicken one’s vitality and .temper the full force of the winds of adversity. The monotomy of a sunny personality is like a sickly sentimentality, cloying the taste.

One prefers the tang that gives zest i , t life, , the quickening of imagination, and intensity of feeling the spur to action, and though philosophers benevolently regard temper as a vice that destroys- virtue, they forget that people of humbler intelligence ow< much of their personality to it. Temper is an essence which, taken in small doses, will accomplish much But an overdose is fatal. It destroy? incentive. It sometimes develops more quickly in the old and young, and lies dormant in middle life. It can bcaroused to a pitch of enthusiasm by a word, and sink into oblivion by a ges ture.