Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-03-14

The QUESTIONABLE BoNNET.-The
grace of" good manners" includes both
! selfresrect and social respect; and it is .
duty as we'll as an accomplishment. Fun
making at fellow-b beings expense is q
violation of the golden rule, which many
even well-meaning and well-taught people
thoughtlessly commit, apparently forget
ing that it is really n part Of Christian
character TO be generously considerate of
others feelings.
One day, about fifty years ago, when
John Quincy Adams was president of the
United States, an excellent and cultivated
lady journeying in her carriage, stopped at
a hotel in Batavia, western New York.
She was plainly dressed, and one not
knowing her or unacquainted with her ac-
complishments and rare social grace,
might have judged her to be quite an
ordinary sort of person. In those times,
rs now, the kings of critics who estimate
people according to the clothes they have
on, were sufficiently numerous, and it APP
pears that several of them were stopping
that day at the same hotel.
1t was noon, and the guests were already
dining and having little time to make
an elegant toilet, even if she had been so
disposed, the lady placed her bonnet on the
parlor table and went out to dinner. When
she returned she found the parlor occupied
by merry wedding party, who had seized
upon her bonnet, and in all the abandon
OF froicsome mirth were making game Of
it, One young beau of the party poised it
on the point of his cane, and played mock
auctioneer What do l hear, ladies'
how much, how much for this rare and
beautiful calOtte a Ia prtnceSSe, only II
month from Paris, and positively the new
est mode, fifty francs; give me seventy
five, seventy-iive going and who takes it
ut seventy-fve; going, going, going''-
and of course the bidding on the part of
the rest was quite lively enough to carry
out the farce
The lady stood a minute, waiting, with
II good-natured smile. Presently she said
quietly to the young man, "I'll take the
bonnet off your hands if you cannot get
satisfactory offer for it." The auctioneer
thereupon tossed the article to her with
lofty stare and stiff bow, and coolly put
ting it on her head, the lady entered her
carraee and rode away. The young people
had had their fun, and thought no more
of it, though some of them, noticing cer-
tain superior dignity in the owner of the
questionable bonnet went SO far as to
wonder who " that woman" was.
Next day the same wedding party. on
their way to Niagara Falls, stopped mt
Black Rock to pay their respects to Gen.
Porter, United States secretary of war,
and were invited to dine with him Mt his
house. When Mrs. Porter, the lady of
the mansion, came forward to welcome
them they stood aghast, "That woman"
whose bonnet they had made game of was
the wife Of one of President Adams
cabinet ministers.
Fancy how Mrs Porter's splendid hospi-
tallty hcaped Goals of fire on their heads
and especially on the head of the young
man who played the auctioneer 1T the
Batavia hotel.
But their rudeness would have been none
the less inexcusable if they had shown it
to an inferior instead cf u superior, and
mortified another worse than they did
themseveS.-T B., in The Watchnan.