The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-09-29
NUMBER 80.
TRUE POLITENESS.

The Cleveland Leader has an observing
friend travelling through France who, among
other things remarks Politeness. with the
French, is matter of education as well as Of
nature. The French child Is taught the les
son from the beginning of its existence, and
it is made part of its life. 1t is the one
thing that is never forgotten, add lack of it
never forgiven. The shipwrecked French
man who could not get into boat, as he was
disappearing under the waves, raised his hat
and with such bow as he could make under
the circumstances, said: "Adieu, Mesdames;
adieu, Mesieurs," and went to the fishes. ]
doubt not that it really occurred, for 1 have
seen ladies splashed by a cab on a rainy day,
smile politely at the driver. A race that has
that degree of politeness can never be any
thing but polite. When such evaporation
as spIashed skirts and stockings will not ruff
fie them nothing will
The children are delightful in this particu-
lar. French children do not 90 about clam
Oring for the best places, and sulking if they
do not get them. They do not take favors
and attentions as a matter Of course and un-
acknowledged. The slightest tattention shown
them issacknowledged by the sweetest kind
of bOw-not the dancing masters bow, but
genuine one-and the invariable "Mercl,
Monsieur - or Madame or Mademoiseue, as
the case may be.
l was in a compartment with little French
boy of twelve, the precise age at which
American children, as a rule, deserve blame
for their rudeness and general disagreeable-
ness. He was dressed faultlessly, but his
clothes were not the chief charm. sat be-
tween him and the open window and he was
eating pears. Now an American boy at that
age would either have dropped the cores on
the floor, or tossed them out Of the window
without word to anybody. But this small
gentleman every time with Permit me.
Monsieur" said in the most pleasant way,
rose and came to The window and dropped
them out, and then, "Merci, Monsieur he
quietly took his seat. 1t was delight am
sorry to say that such small boys do not travel
on American railroads to any alarming ex.
tent. Would they were more frequent
And when in his seat, if an elderly person
or any one else came in he was the very first
to rise and offer his seat if it were in the
slightest degree mole comfortable than the
one vacant, and the good nature in which be
I insisted upon the new conner taking il was
/ really "too sweet for anything
[Such sight we never had the pleasure of
witnessing but we have frequently seen the
/ American ten, and even fifteen -year-old, re-
/ fuse to exchange seats with persons old
/ enough TO be their grandmother and fire.
quently claim a whole seat-Ed ClsorfeI1
/ Republican,
| The writer continues And this boy was
/ no exception. He was not a show boy out
/ posing before the great American Republic
or such of it as happened 20 be in France at
/ the time but he was a sample, a type Of the
regulation French child. have seen lust as
much pOliteness in the ragged waits of the
! Faubourg st. Antoine, where a child never
saw the blue sky more than in little patches
that could be seen over the tops of seven sto-
ried houses, as ever did in the Champs Ely
sees. On Sabbath, at St. Cloud, where the
ragged children of poverty are taken by their
mothers for air and light, il was delight to
fill the pockets with sweets to give them
They had no money to buy, and the little hu-
man rats looked lOngingly al thelriches of the
caEdy stands, and a sous worth made the
difference between perfect happiness and
half pleasure. You gave them the sous
worth, and what a glad smile came to the
lips, and accompanied with II was the delic-
ious half bow and half courtesy, and invari-
ably "Merci, Monsieur" One little tot, who
could not speak, filed her mouth with the
unheard- of delicacies she had received, and
too young to say "Merci,' put up her lips to
be kissed.