Habit in Men and Women.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 329, 29 December 1888, Page 6

Habit in Men and Women.

Force of habit is responsible for some Btrange performances. I know a man who never knocks his fingers against anything, or 'skins his knuckles, but ho straightway pubs his hand to his' mouth and deliberately kisses the wounded place. The ' ki&-. it and make it well ' remedy of the nursery Vas so impressed upon' his boyish mind thafi now, although he has boys of hi-s own, he cannot &hake off the trick. Talking of kissing, I know a man who "became so habituated to kissing his wife in the hall directly lie came home ;r<>m busine?s in the evening, that one m j lib when his pretty &ister-in-la« opened tho door ho kissed her, much to her snrpiis< . Habirwill become a master to a man A writer with whom I am well acquai od cannot wribe a line of his daily conti n tion to a certain newspaper until bin \\ •< .> is Smiling assurance and keeping turn im tho dosk in front of him. Into thi> i • V of reliance upon his Match he was beti. d by another habit -he has of putting oil \ Ie till the la»t possible moment. 1L . -D became a matter of nece-sity kr hm -o write against time ; thus he came to m ,c an intimate acquaintance with his w.i. .i, until to-day, no matter whether he ,c "pressed for time or not, he cannot wiii" ,* line without the watch at the top'oi ) 1 patre. He' says the vvatcli does far n >. than merely tell him the time of day , , suggests thoughts, recalls memories ,1. i acts as a sort of mechanical mentor to lvi, . At? times it is a dangerous-- thing to subii. ij bo the dominance ot a habit. I accom. b for tho eccentricities, mniab c and oihci-j wise, of many men on the theory that they are the victims of acquired habits. 'ihey; have allowed a blicht tendency in a ceitntii direction to break from a walk roatiotj from a trot to a canter, from a cantei to a gallop, until in someone respecfc people arc justified in calling them crankb. I know a man who is regarded b\ the majority of his fellows as a mi&anMuope. His companions are excusable for mistaking a habit cloak for a permanent imd inherent part of his disposition. Openly and at all times he grumbles. At the weather, his employers, his wife, his whbkv, his clothes, his dinner, his own political party, his political opponents, he swcari vwtn equal fervour. VVhen he was young I giie.-s he fell to grumbling as a pastime, and the habit grew upon him. He does not mean to condemn his family, his friends, his, circumstances in general and the nation ab large to a fiery fate, as his word? would make it appear he did, I know that he is an excellent friend, a good husband, a good citizen in more respects than inofec of us can 'boast, and pre-eminently I know him to be a lover of his fellow men, a lover whose affection doesn't curl up and die at the mouth of his purse. How would you account for this seeming anomaly ? I nay he is a victim of habit. The fairer and far better se\ take to habits as to bonnets and bustles with enthusiasm. They never shed their habits, either, except in rare cases, where a ring with a man tied to it works a transformation. There is more regularity and a greater love for system and order, sometimes developed under the name of 4 redding up,' in women than there is in man. And it is a narrow partition that divides the systematic from the habitual^ What would the average nursery look like if a man had charge of it say for twentyfour hours ? I pity the luckless babe in a nursery ruled by a masculine monarch. Think 1 of the baby's cradle upside down! Tho baby chewing thb fire irons ! The paregoric next door neighbour to a big bottle labelled poison !— anJ think of the man tearing his hair in the foreground. In fact, sometimes when I've seen a woman educe order from rank disorder, I have been tempted to believe that the world would fly off its axis, lose it", balance, shake off its atmosphere and career about space like a toy balloon in a tempest, if women, the nearest of His~ creatures to the Creator, were not in the majority in all lands.