The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-05-04
Punctuality.

"Always be ready at least five min
utes before specified time" was the
excellent advice given to pupil by
Uather stern though first-rate tutor; and
This advice taken and conscientiously
acted upon through life saved the
young man much trouble, Ii people
would act generally upon the old
fashioned maxim, great deal of worry,
hustle and annoyance might be avoided.
Five minutes before the hour would en-
able Mr.. b. to catch the early train in
time; whereas a minute too late leaves
him on the platform lamenting. Five
minutes before their usual hour for ris-
ing on a Sunday morning would prevent
Mr.. and Mrs. B. and whole string OF
little BIS coming into church either in
the middle of the first prayer or when
the service has begun.
That was an awkward predicament in
which poor Mr.. p. found himself
namely, five minutes too late for his
marriage-minutes which seemed to the
marriage party, and especially to the
bride, like hours of torture. Strange
that such mischance did not cure him
of unpunctual habits; yet it proved un-
availing; for that gentleman and his
wife kept the company invited to meet
them at their first dinner-party waiting
for fully half an hour; and still, though
old married people, continue in all
things the same evil usage-causing
thereby an amount of annoyance to
their friends never to be sufficiently re-
GREETED; and making their enemies
''chortle" Indignantly.
An officer, invited by an eccentric
maiden aunt to wait. upon her at GER
tain hour, forfeited a valuable gold
watch because he arrived five minutes
late; the stern old dame brooking nc
delay, and bestowing the gift on anoth-
er relative instead.
We pity the condition of the strug-
Cling young doctor who, being sent for
in great haste by certain millionaire,
delayed five minutes, and found, on ar
irving at the house of the patient, that
another M. ID. had entered before him:
thus suicidally damaging his own pros
poets at the beginning of his career
Five minutes before the hour, and
you have matters in your own hands;
two minutes after it, and you are left
out in the cold; as the lady felt who
drove in cab to the last train, and ar
irving two minutes late, had the pleas
ure of ten-mile drive in dull winter
night, with twenty shillings to pay at
the end of her journey instead of two
There are some people who are sys-
tematically late for everything, irritat-
ing their households in remarkable
degree, and always finding themselves
in furry and hustle. The newspapers
are full of accidents, heedlessness being
the cause, and as often as not, unpunc-
tuality merely in minutes. There is no
virtue so necessary in the Young as
Habits grow upon people.
and it is as easy to cultivate habits Of
regularity and exactness with regard to
time as it is to cultivate cleanliness OF
honesty. A young lady staying at q
friends house in the country was
to find that the eldest daughter
OF the house never came down in time
for breakfast, but always half an hour
late. Her establishment was increased
when she discovered that the too indul-
gent mother, instead of demonstrating
with her daughter on this unpleasant
habit, actually rose, from her easy-chair
as the girl came dawdling down and
offered it to her!
Upon being asked the reason OF this
curious leniency, the mother said that
it was mo use finding fault with Maria;
Of course she would grow out of it!''
At the age of thirty, Maria still
comes down late for breakfast, and the
mother-now sixty-fve-
still rises when her daughter enters, and
offers her the chair! In our opinion,
Stiffness could not go further, and we
EEL sorry for both mother and daughter
the last slave to habit; the first
lave to her own offspring.
Reverence has long ceased to be q
eature OF the age; but we would coun-
ell parents to cultivate by every means
a their power habits of punctuality in
n heir children from very early years.
Aambers' Journal