Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1881-10-27
MANNERS.
The Claims of Men of Different Nation.
alities Upon Society. @
Boston Transcript.


The American claim instinctiyely and I'M
plicitly q natural and Unborn right to the
companionship and, to a certain extent, the
sympathy of whOmsOever he meets. The
Englishman claims. us instinctively and i'm
plicitly right to be left alone whenever
and wherever he pleases The one is very
aggressive, the other ever ON the defensive
When the two meet on neutral ground it is
not unnatural that they should tread on
each Others toes little, metaphorically
speaking. Go up to an Englishman in the
street and bluntly ask him the way to such
unprovoked onslaught upon his privacy
with the very coolest of aStonished StareS
But if You preface your question with an II
beg your pardon" acknowledging thereby
that you are asking a gratuitous favor, he
will answer you very civilly indeed, and
even 90 out of his to show you yours. In
the dense crowd coming out of one of the
concerts at Birmingham festival well
dressed American looked into the face of an
equally well dressed Englishman, total
stranger to him, and said .jokingly: "Pretty
tight squeeze isn't it?" The Englshman
replied with whitening coolness: q I'm sure
l can't see why you should address me in
this disgusting familiar manner" 4 con-
versation abruptly launched into an Eng
lish railway carriage will probably be cut
short at the outset by what strikes us Ameri-
cans as very gratuitOusly rude curtness. But
if the conversation be introduced by that
untailing sesame, Il beg your pardon" it
will flow On very pleasantly and as likely as
not end in an invitation to pass a week or
so at country house. Americans are often
shocked at the apparently insOlent bearing
of German shop keepers, especially of Ger
man bankers. 1t rarely occurs to them that
they themselves have opened hOstilities, as it
were, by breaking the very first rules Of
German good breeding by keeping their hats
on. In Germany, a man just as scrupuously
.a'-as off his hat, and keeps it off, in Il shop
or counting room as in a lady's parlor
An American of our acquaintance hap
pened to be one of a party OF six who went
to the top of certain tower in Germany,
the view from which is famous. The party
were shown the way by daughter of the
guardian Of the tower, comely young girl
of seventeen or thereabout. Our friend had
treated her with common politeness, but q
who was one OF the party, was
so demonstrative and overwhelmingly atten-
tive and gallant that the American began to
feel as if he had been somewhat rude in COM
parison with such pyrOtechnic display of
Well, when the party had gone
to the top of the tower they only found one
chair there, upon which the Frenchman i'm
mediately seated himself. This authentic
anecdote is quite characteristic If we
Americans stand pre-eminent for good solid,
efficient politeness, certainly we are not de-
plorably deficient in manner. We have
neither the digniied repose OF the English
nor the grace OF continental Europeans. Pos
sibly we are shy, and try to hide our shyness
under an assumed grutfness of bearing Ger
tainly it seems nine times out of ten, as if
an American, even while performing a very
polite act, thought himself degraded by any !
outward show Of courtesy He may willing |
y and cheerfully offer his seat to a lady, /
and be perfectly content to stand himself,
but his manner of making the offer is almost
He will growl out, take my
seat" in a voice that seems to imply, "and
be id to YOU" Or else he will make the
offer with a .jovial familiarity of manner
which would be quite in keeping between
two old pot companions in a tap-room. We
may be rich in solid gold, but we are poor
indeed in the small change of politeness.
Fine words butter no parsnip,' say we
this is a mistake; fine words land manners)
butter all sorts of parsnips; indeed, as
Thackeray says, there are many people
whose parsnips are buttered in no other way.