New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-01

In America there are at present certain especial
Influences under which the average man or woman
Is learning those elementary rules Of manners which
furnish the foundation for conventional good
breeding. One of these Is the public school, where
from every pupil are eXactcd. for five six hour,
day, the minor habits of outward prOprcty, such
as cleanliness, selfcOntrOl. Order rctcence mutual
courtesy courtesy Whatever else the public school system
far greater extent than one finds them taught I'm tho
English schools where the old rough andtumble
method still prevails All recognize this of
influence but another schooling less obvious. takes
he average American after maturity, and exercises
a mighty influence This is the training of the lodge
room Looking in tho directory Of the minor city
where reside, l find list of nearly hundrcd
lodges, chapters or circles OF secret societies. mostly
benevolent in their object, but all involving certain
monal so elaborate that thew call IL technically
work. Probably the majority of adult men in the
city belong to some organization / know men who
attend one nearly every day in the week; and
IL dlhicult not to regard much OF
this sort of thing waste Of time, and not to smile
sometimes at the uniforms and the highSounding
titles. But 1t must not be forgotten that IL IS all one
great school Of manners 1t is training all its pupils
manded in all these organizations but there Is very
distinct appreciation of the form In which things arc
to be done and much Of The habual pOliiencss with
which Americans of all classes treat one snoter in
travelling and in business, Genes, doubtless from the
friction ana the examples Of the lodse-Ioom Prob
ably the trade unions and all affiliated labor organ
izations work In the same direction, though with less
fofmality Of ritual
Indeed ali political activity itself tends In a way
similar to this with us for tho essence Of political fo
IS order in debate and procedure and this has devcl
opod Itself In this country to an extent elsewhere
unknown. When public meeting Is once organized,
there is here visible almost excessive Difference 10
the rules Of CEhing's Manual which merely
embodied good manners and nothing IS rarer or more
unpopular in America than a spectacle extremely
common In England. that Of a party meeting inter
rupfcd and captured by the opposite party. The
writer has taken part In nnumerabc political gather
ings, during exciting canvaSscs, in half dozen differ
cn states Of tho Union. and never saw even an at
tempt at such thing Not that II Is unheard Of. but
It is utterly dlsapproved that II would surely react
against tho party attempting H. through the sense Of
propriey now engrafted public opinion An Amor
lean audience is also far more patient with its oHn
speakers. and rarely supprcsses them by calling
"Timc time" IN tho that Is common I'm tho
mother country while, tho other hand, we adopted
the principle of cloture or tho previous question
long before the mOthercOUniry had come to IL. Tho
American who visits the House OF Commons Is not I'M
pressed with better legislative manners than he sees
at homo, but with the contrary.