The Science Of Saying "no."

We are told that tHo nomic actors of Italy sometimos aimise the4r patrons by exploiting the syüable "oh." Out of a word that is only a single vowel j sound they can créate surprising effects by a trick of articulation, varying the key, volume, accent, lengtb, emphasis, and accompaüying manner ! and facial expression lürough the whole gamut of different meanings. When they are done tJielr auditors have heard them prenounce oh in twenty different ways. The feat of the conieálans lias a serious suggestion in it. There are several ways of saying "No," thcugh it can oever have but one meaning. The mother of the late Mr. Allen Thorndike Rice, kng the well-known editor of the Ncrth American Review, found occasion for a series of vocal lessona on that word, in hls early liïe, for which he was always grateful. When a schoolbuy he had a weakness for makicg sudden friendships, and naturally, same of his hasty intimacies vere un'.lkely to l;e of any moral advantage to him. His talented mother did not trust everything to his general knowledge of right and wrong, but sought by an original and pleasant meüiod to strengthen him where he was weakest. She practiced him with a list of different questfons that required no for an pnswer, until she had taught him to iuücct the syllable aocordlng to the seutiraent. All the range of negatives carne Jato the curious drill, from the r.o of simple dissent to the no of indlgnant rejection, and he learned all the proper accents - of playful -reproof, of cautious mistrust, of heroie defiance - in short, he learned the science of refusal thoroughly. And he never forgot it. To decline a "shady" invitation was always easier for him because he Rnew exactly how to say the resisting word. rlis teiuptsrs understood him at once. 3oth principie and politeness are essential to reflned ma,nhood and womanhood. The will and the skí'.l to say no gently but lirialy aro among the )est accomplishments of human character.