Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-08-11
RULES FOR TRAVEL.


wonder if anybody will object to my
beginning and declare that this is not to
be practical paper, if insist at the start
that the very best rule on the road of life
is always certain old-fashioned one which
bids you do unto others as we would that
others should do unto us. The longer
live the more fully | become convinced
that the apostle knew all about his subject
when he wrote: "Be pitiful; be court
eous." And every days observation shows
me that courtesy pays the best dividends
At home and abroad the Golden Rule wins
its way over all opposition, makes grufi
people genial, sorrowful people happy,
cross people kind. 1t sometimes seems al
most to make bad people good, and if it
cannot do that, it certainly helps them to
conquer their badness. Nothing is more
remarkable than the effect of a uniform
courtesy of voice and manner on fractions
child or an irritable servant. In the house
hold it produces harmony, and on the road
it is beyond price.
We are all revealed more or less, as
think you see, by what we do and say when
we are off guard. What we do and what
we say depend for their sincerity and true
we are when we are tired or tried, per-
picked or harrassed; when we are among
strange faces-as in travelling, or when
we are in our own families. Some short
sighted and foolish persons fancy that they
may put their good manners on and off, as
! they do their dress suits and their party
gowns-as they would don mask behind
which to hide their real selves. In the
long run this cannot be done. What we
are shows in moment of surprise or dis
appointment, and the ass who is stepping
about in the lions skin moves the crowd
to mirth or contempt
The best rule on the road is courtesy,
and courtesy springs from unselfishness. a
test of gentle breeding is found in the be-
havior of young people in public places.
At a concert, where always there are those
who have come because they love melody
and desire to hear the performers, or in a
drawing-room, where some one is seated at
the piano or singing, only the rude and
selfish will persist in carrying on CONVEX
sation
What shall | say of the persons who
| push and crowd to secure the best places in
conveyance, Of the boys and young men
who sit in cars and ferry boats while ladies
are standing, of the pretty girl who keeps
her seat while an elderly lady or gentle
I man or mother carrying her baby has
none, of the " fresh-air fiend who opens a
window in cold weather while shivering
neighbor is in the dread of pneumonia, or
of the opposite, and equally Objectionable
| type of traveller, who breads ventilation as
if it were pestilence? In every instance
unselfish courtesy would prevent the least
jar and make discomfort less evident if it
could not altogether prevent it.
| will suppose that Eleanor, who is al
ways sweet and unselfsh, and popular
among her acquainstances because of her
politeness, is about, all by herself, to 90 on
little journey. Brother Ned, who has
usually attended her to the station,
checked her trunk and established her
cozily with newspaper and box of bon
bons, is engaged and cannot escort her, so
she must depend upon herself She feels
rather nervous when she thinks about get
/ ting the trunk checked, and at the last
moment regrets that she has taken any
thing more than hand-luggage. But really
nothing is easier than to see to ones own
trunk. After buying ticket to whatever
point you wish, you have only to go to the
baggage-room, which is adjacent to the
tIcket-otfice, show your ticket to the bag
gage-master, and identify your trunk,
which should always be plainly marked at
both ends with your name and home ad-
dress-not the address of the place to
which you are going.
Take care of your check by putting it
safely into a compartment of your bag or
pocket-book 1t is your receipt from the
railroad company for your property, and
must be returned to the company when
they have fulfilled their part of the con-
tract.
A girl is sometimes embarrassed, when
escorted on short trip by some gentleman
of her acquaintance as to the proper thing
to do about her expenses. Shall she offer
him the money to purchase her ticket
Shall she ignore his presence, and stepping
to the office, purchase ticket herself? ?
Shall she let him buy it and give him its
price when she reaches her journeys end
Shall she suffer him to bear her expenses,
saying, "Thank you," in a general way
and accepting the gift of her fare ? From
sheer diffidence many girls have done this
last, thereby putting themselves in false
position, for it may be laid down as an I'M
questioned rule on the road that gentle
women are never to place themselves un-
der financial obligations to men who are
not members OF their own families-fathers,
brothers or husbands.
| The proper thing to do in the case is for
the young lady, on reaching the station or
on leaving her own home, to hand her
! poeket-book to her escort that he may take
from it the amount required for fare, re-
turning the change, and placing within it
her tickets. No gentleman should refuse
to accept the lady's purse thus offered, or
insist upon himself defraying her expenses.
A rule upon the road, dear to all true
men and women, is honest independence
and dislike of accepting money as a gift.
Money earned is ones due. Money be-
| slowed, except for value received, is almost
invariably mistake, and tactless charity.
Rupert came to me one day lately to in
quire whether, happening to go down in
the same car with Melissa, he ought not to
pay her fare?
''Is it not polite" he said, ''for a gentle
man to pay the fare of ladies whom he
knows intimately, when they chance to
meet in public conveyance ?"
| said: my dear boy, | am very glad
you have asked me about this, for 1 want
to inform you that it is very annoying and
exasperating to ladies to have their friends
do this very thing We prefer to drop our
own nickels into the box or the conduc-
tors hand, and that you drop yours for us
is the more vexatious because it is too
small thing to allow OF much protest"
| Il cannot make fuss over five cents" said
Amy the other day, "but if | knew that
Reggie was to be on the 9 o'clock car
would take the $50 rather than to be his
companion, for l like to pay my own
way" The matter is, of course, wholly
different when a lady is a gentIeman's
guest, so to speak, at an entertainment to
which he has invited her. To the rule,
be courteous, | add that other, be hon.
estly independent.
A third rule for the road is this, be easy
in your mind.
Do not needlessly worry over the danger
of accident, over the delays which are not
your business, and which you do not un-
derstand Being neither engineer nor
brakeman nor conductor vo,, hara :.