" Everybody wants to help that kind of a
fellow. If he is a strong man, his community glories in his strength
and increases it by their admiration and support. If he is not a
strong man, everybody wishes that he were, and tries in a thousand
ways, which a general kindly disposition toward him suggests, to
supply his deficiencies.
And this is no jug-handled rule either. The same thing is true of the
wife. When her acquaintances declare of any woman, "She is lovely in
her home," they have placed upon her brow the crown of their ultimate
tribute and regard. It depends upon both, of course, whether these
domestic beatitudes will exist in the new home.
Undoubtedly, however, it depends upon the young man more than the
young woman. He is a _man_--and that is everything. And being a man,
he should have a large and kindly forbearance, a sort of soothing
strength and calming serenity. And to all this the rule of smile and
cheeriness is helpful, if not essential.
When I was a boy in the logging-camps, I read in some stray newspaper
an article about the influence which the pleasant countenance
exercises over groups of men. The idea was that men work willingly
under the control of a strong man who is strong enough to carry in his
daily look the suggestion of a smile.
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