Habit in Men and Women.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 325, 15 December 1888, Page 6

Habit in Men and Women.

Force of habit 15 1 esponsible foi some ufcrange performances. I know a man who ue'.er knocks his finyui« a^aiufrl anything, or skins his knuckle.-, but. he straightway puts hi^ hand to hi* mouth and deliberately kisses thu wounded place The ' kis& it and make 11 well remedy of the nursery wa*> so impre^ed upon his boj ish mind thav now, although he im-3 boj =• of his own, he cannot shake ofl the trick. Talking ot ki«*>ino. 1 know a man who became so habituated to kissing hi*, wite in the hall directly be came home from business in the evening, that one niirhb when his pretty sister-in-law opened the door he kissed, her, much to her purpri.se. Habit will become a master to a man A writer with whom 1 am well acquai ted cannot write a line of Ins daily conn !>ution to a certain new-paver until his w ten is smiling assurance and keeping time oil the de=k in front of him. Into this h bin of lehanoe upon his watch he was beti;; cd. b\ another habit he has of putting oil w >rle till the last possible mumenr. Jt 1 ••sfc became a mattei of necessity for him to write again-t time : thus he fame to m k# an intimate acquaintance with hu> wat -h, until to-day, no matter whether ho oe pressed for time or not, ho cannot write a, line without the watch at the top of v .0 pajre Tie sass the watch does far nn c than merely tell him the tune of day ; 1? suggests thoughts, lecall- memories, anl acts as a sort ot mechanical mentor to him. At times it is a dan^ei oib thing to submit; to the dominance of a habit. I accoui'b for the eccentricities, smiabie and otherwise, ot many men on tho theory that they are the victims of acquired habits. They have allowed a slight tendency in a certain direction to break horn a walk to a trot, fiom a trot, to a canter, from a canter to agallop, until in someone respect people are justified in calling them cianks. I know a man who i« legarded by the majority oi his fellows as a misanthrope. His companions are excusable for mistaking a habit ci oak for a peimnnent and inheienc part of his disposition. Openly and at all times he grumbles. At tho weather, his employers, his wife, his whisky, his clothes, his dinner, his own political party, his political opponents, he swears with equal fervour. When he was young I guess he fell to "rumbling: a& a pastime, and the habit grew upon him. Re does not mean to condemn his family, his friends, his circumstances in general and the nation a'u large to a fiery fate, as his words would make it appear he did. T know that he is an excellent friend, a good husband, a pood citizen in more respects than mo 4 of us can boast, and pre-eminently T know him to be & lover of his fellow men, a lo\er whose , affection doesn't curl up and die ab the mouth of his purse. How would you account for this seeming anomaly ? I sayhe is n victim of habit. The fairer and far better sex 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 transforma- ! tion. There is more lcgularity and » greater love for system and order, sometimes developed under the name of • redding up,' in women than there is in man. And it is a narrow partition that dhides the systematic from the habitual. What would the average nursery look lik« 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 of tho baby's cradle upside down ! The baby chewing the_ tire irons ! The paregoric next door neighbour to a big bottle labelled poison ! — and 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 its balance, shake off Iba atmosphere and career about space like a toy balloon in a tempest, if women, tho nearest of His creatures to the Creator, were not in tho majority in all lands.

We are now making 1 guns which: tiostr upwards of £20,000 each, and General Aldersdn has stated before the Army Estimates Committee that the co&t of firing a single shot from one of these guns would he over £200. The last heavy cold winds from south and south west have been very trying to the crops in Tauranga district, and "have retarded growth, and dried up the land. Rain would be very beneficial to the crops Miss Fanny Robina, who was here recently with the Brousrh-Boucicault Company, has been engaged to sustain the burlesque role of Faust at the London Gaiety. • , , - The vicar of Camberwell has remitted £1,000 to Fathor Darien, spiritual atten dant of the lepers at Honolulu. j The average- barber does not hesitate to I scrape an acquaintance.