The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1886-09-11
Politeness and Its Value.

Politeness and Its Value.
In this bustling and practical age we
are too apt to be careless as to graces IF
manner and convers alton. We look back
occasionally on the day of Pericles, when
the Athenians talked in Understanding
phrases and saluted each other with the
Difference which subjects now only give
to Kings, or on the days of the regime,
+ when the courtiers of Louis were con-
spicuous for conventional polteness and
| grace that scarcely served to conceal the
hatred, the venom, the meanneSs and
vulgarty that lay beneath And, there
fore, assOciatng politeness either with q
state of society where there is but little
freedom of thought, speech or action,
and where the social fabric is built up of
classes who are divided by laws of cas,e,
or else with sleepy Oriental countries
where men lead the life of lotos eaters
and rust away in idleness, the study of
manners engaged but little of our
thoughts. We tacitly admit, of course,
that the exercise of such an attribute is
all right; but our great weakness is to
look to results instead of To details, and
we are too apt to forget that those results
are brought about by the very means
which we make light of. 1t must be ad-
mitted however, that We admire polite
ness in others. AS people, beneath the
rough exterior which we so often assume
we have a sympathetic and a kindly ma
ture; we are alive to tale of distress
and are ready to respond to the cry OF
suffering; but we are too careless of the
| little courtesies which add such charm
| to either social or business intercourse.
| Politeness may be sly led one of the deli
| cate humanties; it sweetens existence;
and, besides being high social virGue,
| it is-and this is something worthy of at
tention in such a practical age-really
useful in many ways and proves itself to
be safe and renumeratiye business in
vestment.
1t is hardly possible to estimate the
| amount of unconscious egotism to be
found in every man and woman. 1t crops
| up in the most unexpected quarters, and
exercises large influence on the COM
mon affairs of life. Civility, therefore,
| affects US more than native modesty
| would probably care to acknowledge.
| We look for it in others, no matter what
may be the particular relation which
they sustain to us and we to them, and
we feel disappointed and are ruilled by
its absence. The larger the city and the
more crowded the community the less do
we find commercial politeness; it seems
to dwindle away in an inverse ratio to
the square of business. Men will tell
you, if they ever stop to discuss the mat.
ter, that they have no time TO bestow on
hollow phrases and supertluous conven.
| tionalities and that there is no place in
the counting room, the store, the ware
| house or the factory for the meaningless
manners and stereotyped genuhections
| of the court or the drawing room. This
| may be true, but there is "ample room
and verge enough for the happy mt
dunn of which Horace signs without
| transforming ourselves into Doors or Tur-
| veydrops We smile when witnessing
'Pinafore" at the absurd suggestion of
| Sir Joseph Porter that the Captain of
that ship shall say IF you please" 60
his men when giving them any command.
| And yet, after all, there is a sound principe
underlying this piece of burlesque. The
| In g Ii
who for the time being are under him will
| certainly have his reward. Every reader
| of Dickens can remem Der the deSpairing
| CRY of Joe, the street waif in Bleak
| House." "he wOr real good to me, he
wor" This portion of the scum of
great seething city. with scarcely glim-
mering instinct or an idea as to right or
wrong, was touched by kindness aud by
gentleness He could not understand it;
he did not comprehend it's significance
or meaning; but it was something differ
ent from what he had ever met with or
known, and SO in his blind and ignorant
| groupings he came upon the truth as to
| That best portion of a good mans life,
His little, nameleSS aforementioned acts
| OF kindness and of love.
| Men will argue sometimes that they
have no time to be polite, forgetting that
| it takes the Same amount of time to be
uncvll and disagreeable. There are
more things needed to insure success in
business than money, experience and in-
| tegrity. The amenities which some de.
| spIse so much are also potent factors; and
| even if you can point out man who is
rude and churlish, and yet successful in
| life, that is no argument against the
| truth of the theory-it simply shows
that he has succeeded in spite of the
want of politeness. If, therefore, civility
be such large and potential ingredient
of success, il is strange that it should be
used so sparingly. 1t costs nothing; it
| require no room for storage, and cap. in
fact, be carried in vest pocket or put
| in glove-0ox, and the more of it that
| is given the more remains. When people
can be made to understand that the use
of it may bring dollars and cents, then
may also begin to consider it in its moral
aspect and make life brighter by show
ing it in its finer ways and more subtle
| forms