Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1884 — Keep Your Lips. [ARTICLE]

Keep Your Lips.

In the desire to make a girl feel at home and pleased with her place, the young housekeeper is sometimes apt to take her too closely into her confidence, especially if she is a pleasant girl and useful in the house. But it is a very dangerous practice and almost always makes trouble. All may go well while she is with you, but in the chances and changes of life she may, and probably will, drift into some other kitchen, where all the news she has gathered in yours may be rehearsed without stint. She will not discriminate with regard to those things you have strictly enjoined her “not to tell. ” In fact, those will likely be the first points “fished out” of her by some meddlesome woman. There is a surprising enjoyment in being the first to “tell news,” and an inexperienced, undisciplined girl will rarely be found who can resist the temptation. You can treat a girl with perfect kindness and yet not give yourself into her power. Keep own counsel about your own affairs, Do not let her sympathy or great interest beguile yon into relating what you are not quite willing to have told over in other places. —Rural New Yorker.