The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-08-19
For our Girls.
By j. H. Acton.-No. 3.

Good manners is a subject generally
considered exhausted in the nursery by
good mothers curtain lectures" to lit
tie boys and girls. If the subject is not
| exhausted good many mothers often are.
and the fact remains boys and girls still
grow up with very little of this valuable
commodity on hand We consider it a
proper one for. lecture to our girls.
Unpalatable, it may still be profitable,
and though an unpleasant reminder to
some of the indispensable birch of other
days by which the lesson was then in
stilled, we yet plead a hearing on the
ground of the birch's manifest failure.
Every girl who has visited city and
seen theatre or attended an opera, is
not for that reason finished She may
suppose she is, and returning to her
home may carry airs enough for a silk
balloon, and sway to and fro among COM
mon people as if the worlds love of good
breeding had found an abiding place
only with her, but the world will move
on all the same, and she will soon be
surprised to find herself like an aeron-
auts basket suspended in mid air under
a very damp cloud, and quite alone. If
she possesses a good stock of common
sense with the discovery she will come
down; if not, she will probably throw
overheard more ballast and continue
to ascend, supposing the mean while
this self-imposed prescription is virtue,
until at last will come the inevitable and
ruinous collapse in the region of thin
air. Be assured you can not make angels
of yourselves in this way; and to leave
the society in which you were born and
educated for higher one supposed to
exist somewhere in space with no better
mode of travelling to it than an imagina-
ry culture you do not possess, is a dan
gerous experiment.
Mannerisms is not good manners any
more than any other counterfeit is a
genuine article. Nor are good manners
like pair of silk hose or velvet bodice
to be drawn on at will for the occasion.
They are made of fast colors and no
securing of this life need to fade them.
Like Spauldings glue they are designed
to stick, and where possessed they make
up for many other deficiencies, and be-
long to the few things in this world in
which each has an exclusive ownership
that not be harrassed by fear of the
, borrower.
} Good manners are compound of good
brains, pure Imagination, and easy action
Weak minds can never fill the highest
places in this realm. 1t requires quick
judgment with faculty for nice distinc
tions, and a simplicity in movemen
which can not be possessed when tn.
inauguration. is impure. Impurity il
always suspicious, cowardly, and skulk
ing, and ever read to misintepret. 4
ready tongue is a great auxiliary, and b,
general consent women always posses
! it, but it is not Indispensable A tongu
ready only with slang and childish fool
cry will disgust and is better locked up
A brawler is intolerable; womans voic
is most important part of her manners
!, and no lady can afford to neglect its GU
e tivation. Articulation is an essentia
+ element, but as the merits of good lar
b guage demand a separate consideration
II nothing further need be given here.
y Social life is made up of parts whic
+. like those of a complicated piece of m;
chinery require adjustment to each othe
ol in order to harmony, and one duty {
1t good manners is to prevent clashin
D, Here you will find use for brains; brai1
h to comprehend the situation, and brair
lie to provide for it. Here you will also fin
Is use for pure imagination in order
k properly interpret the words and doini
of other members of the circle, and tn
by your own choice of words and actioI
ne others may be led by you into pure al
is virtuous thought. You will also be ab
r. by ease and grace of action to eau
I'd others to feel at ease. If the social C
i'll Gle is sometimes justly called stiff al
al for this reason unpleasant, it is only
rs cause of the absence of some element
elements of good manners, and the fat