A WOMAN'S TEMPER

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 65, 17 March 1928, Page 20

A WOMAN'S TEMPER

THE' TANG THAT GIVES 'ZEST TO 1 „,- ... LIFE. Teniper surely is a cardiual 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, are as wayward as the sea.- Temper might be named the energy of the mind, for it is often a foe to sloth, and how many, people'famous in history possess it from' Cleopatra onwards? 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/arid 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, writes Viscountess Falkland in the "Baily Express." Bather than incur reproof, it is easier to mend the pattern of their ways, to keep to tho straight and narrow Toad 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, often at a cost of great mental exhaustion to the owner of the temper. ■ ,••■ ■■ :: '■ 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 perpotual sunshine? 'It is the shocks and jars of existence ith'at quicken one's vitality and temper'the. full force of the winds of adversity. Tho monotony of a sunny personality is like a sickly sentimentality, cloying to the taste. One prefers the tang that gives zest to life, the quickening of imagination, an intensity of feeling, the spur to action, arid though philosophers benevolently regard temper as a, vice that destroys-virtue, they foTget that people of humbler intelligence owe much of their personality to it. : ... Statesmen, politicians, and women ■ -who play important roles in life owe their positions to their temper cr personality; it distinguishes them from numbers, and sometimes it conceals diplomacy. _ . Temper is an essence which, taken m Binall doses, will accomplish much, but an overdose is fatal. It destfoys ineen-; tive. It sometimes develops more quickly in the old -and young, and lies dormant in middle life.. It can be aroused to a pitch of enthusiasm by a. word, and sink'into oblivion by a gesture. Few poets have sung its praise and perhaps fewer women, but it is a forco that can hold a family together^ in a ■way that nothing else can. By dint of repetition, it becomes an effective argument in its. favour. One wonders, whether Socrates owes much of his greatness to his irritating Xantippe,. who had more than her fair share of temper; but if this wero so, she has provided ws with a philosophy for all time.