The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1882-02-03
Public POliteness.


was coming up town, and entered the
stage in which five elegantly dressed and
tine-looking women were sitting on each
side of it. They might be the lady pa
tronesses OF some society. There was
room for another person on each side,
but not one Of those women moved to
make room for me, and rode mile or
more, while these ten women-I do not
say ladies-declined to give me seat, as
they could have done any moment with
out rising or crowding. The most OF
them were probably mothers. But as
the instinct of good manners-that is,
of politeness, which is simply the law
of kindness.-Was not i'll the breast of
one of the ten, what is to be expected of
their childrenP They cannot teach what
they do not know, and, as they know
nothing Of politeness, their children will
be Doors.
Going to tho omnibus again for a sam
pie of manners, ] opened the door to
step in, the other day, when boy took
advantage Of my holding it open,
| jumped In and took the only vacant seat,
tickled that he got the start of me and
got the seat. This was young America
all over. The great Athenian philoso-
pher said that democracy has the found
alton in the principle that one man is as
good as another, if not little better.
| And many wise men have insisted that
popular government tends to destroy
reverence for superiors and Difference to
others. which are essential clements Of
refined manners. "In honor preferring
one another" is the inspired religion Of
politaness.
1t is not one of the. highest virtues. Ii
may be where there is no virtue. And
do not say the politest nations are the
strongest, nor that it is impossible to get
money, and power, and all that, with
the manners OF pig. The very trait Of
character which the gentleman who
pays the rint exhibits when he
puts his foot into the trough to keep
others away while he eats, is the trait Of
many who succeed in getting much
money. But there is better way. And
it is the way that has few walking in it,
in this day Of ours.
A Punishment Worse Than Death.
An execution to which more than pass
ing interest attaches will take place III
Windsor, Vermont. The condemned
person is Emeline NJ. Mealker, Of Water
bury. who was convicted Of the murder
Of an orphan girl thirteen years old,
Alice Meaker by name. April %, 1880.
The wretched woman protested her IN
nocence on the occasion to set aside the
verdict. as she has always done, but was
sentenced to be hanged in the prison at
Windsor on the last Friday of May,
1888. The crime, for which son oi
Mrs. Meaker, Almon Meaker, is already
under sentence Of death, was one Of the
most horrible in even tine criminal his
tory of Vermont. The child was half
sister to E. 0. Meaker, husband Q
Emeline, and was an inmate OF theil
household, where she was severly abuset
and maltreated, being treated, indeed
as a slave by Mrs. Meaker and Almon
Almon was half-witted, plant tool Il
, the hands OF his mother. Mr.. Meaker
! believed 10 be innocent of all compllcltl
s. in either the abuse or the murder OF tn
child The child was taken from be-
, and dressed. a sack was tied over he
: head. and she was taken in wagon to
lonely spot in the woods, where a dos
of strychnine was given her, and she wa
left to die in swamp. The crime wa
conelusiyely fixed upon the two wretche
prisoners. and nothing can now say
+, them from the terrible consequences
: The time allowed the condemned TO PR
marc for death is so long that the exeeI
i tion will undoubtedly be welcomed as
! termination Of the feeling Of terror thi
t will possess them.
5 A New YORK Tribune corresponds
e believes that cotton-seed oil may yet
8 place lard for cooking purposes, and
( thinks pure vegetable oilshouid bel
ferred 20 the ''product Of the swine"
t SMALL herrings arc packed as sardin
i IN factories on The coast Of Maine, b
y they appear in the market as fren'
! brands.