Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-03-24
miscellaneous.
Courtesy Al Home.

Good breeding. like charity, should be
gin at home. The days are past when
children used to rise the moment their pa
rents entered the room where they were.
and stand until they had received permits
sion to sit. But the mistake is now made
usually in the other direction of allowing
to small boys and girls too much license to
disturb the peace of the household. !
think the best way TO train children in
courtesy would be to observe toward them
scrupulous politeness- | would 90 80
far as to say that we should make it
as much point to listen to children with
out inferrupting them and to answer them
sincerely and respectfully az if they were
grown up. And indeed. many Of their
wise. quaint savings are far better worth
listening to than the stercotyped common
places Of most morning callers. OF course,
to allow uninterrupted chatter would be
to surrender the repose of the household,
but it is very easy, if children are them
selves scrupulously respected, to teach
them in turn scrupulously to respect the
convenience of others, and to know when
to talk and when to be silent.
II child is brought up in the constant
exercise of courtesy towards brothers and
parents and uncles and aunts. it will have
little left to learn a. 10 grows older.
know a bright and bcwitching little girl who
was well instructed in table etiquette, but
who forgot her lessons sometimes a. even
older people do now and then. The ar
rangement was made with her that for
every solecism of this sort she was to pay
4 fine of five cents, while for every similar
birh hn cDnlA discover in
her elders she was to exact fine Of 10
cents, their experience Of life being longer
than hers You may be sure that Mistress
Bright Eyes watched the proceedings of
that table very carefully. No slightest
disregard Of the most conventional Ell
quette escaped her quick vision. and she
was an 'inilexible creditor and faithful
debtor. II was the prettlest sight to see
her. when conscious of some failure en- her
own part, 90 untesitatingly to her money
box and pay cheerfully her little tribute to
the outraged proprietors.
The best brought up family of children
ever knew were educated on the prin-
ciple of always commenting them when it
was possible To do so. and letting silence
be the rcproof Of any wrong-doing which
was not really serious. | have heard the
children of this household. when their
mother had failed to say any word of com
mendation after some social occasion. ask
as anxiously "a possible. What was it,
mamma? know something was wrong.
Didn't we treat the other children we'll or
were we too noisy ~ In that house re-
proof was never bestowed unsought-onlv
commentator. of whatever it was possible
to commend, was gratuitous
think this system would be as good for
those grown-up children. the husbands
and wives las for those still in the nursery
once asked the late IIepworth Dixon
with whom happened TO be talking on
this subject. what he thought was the rea-
son why some women held their husbands
hearts securely and forever, while others
were but the brief tenants of few months
or years. What" asked, lis the quality
in a woman which her husband loves long
estP"
THAT she should be a pillow answer
ed Mr.. Dixon. and then meeting the in
quiry in my eyes, he went on. "Yes, that
Is what man needs in his wite-some.s
thing to rest his heart on. He has excite
ment and opposition enough in the world.
He wants to feel that there is one place
where he is sure of sympathy. place
that will give him ease as pillow gives it
to tired head. DO you think a man will
be tempted To turn from the woman whose
eyes are his tlattcring mrror-who heals
where others wound?"
And surely he was right. We are CRATE
full for even too flatterng faith in US. and
if there is any good in us at all, we try to
deserve this faith. But tenderness in the
copjugal heart is much more common than
grace in the coniugal manner Since.
however, next to that supreme good of be-
ing satisfied in ones own conscience is
that second great good of being satisfied
in ones own home. surely no details of
manner that tend To such a result are too
slight to be observed. believe in max
ing rs pretty a toilet to greetthe returning
husband as one put on toawait the expect
ed sweetheart; and. when the husband
comes. he makes a mistake very fatal to
his own interests if he fails to notice what
he would have praised in other days 1t is
= trite saying that life is made up OF tribes !;
but surely the sum of all these domestic
trifles amounts to the difference between
happiness and unhappness Mrs. Louise
Chandler Mohhon. an orr Continent