Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-08-06
EVERYDAY Department.
PEN PICTURES OF RUDENESS COM
MON IN PUBLIC PLACES.

The Herald, while wishing to avoid any
seeming censorship, has taken the trouble to
note carefully the department of people as
one meets them in everyday life-not In their
homes, but ont and about-and asks its read
ers to judge whether or not the pen pictures
! it presents are not fairly drawn.
The business man ought, perhaps, to be
considered first. He takes leave of his fam
| lily, kisses them good-by, may be, and boards
street car at the nearest crossing He finds
! seat, buys his morning Herald and settles
back comfortably for his ride to town. The
car begins rapidly TO fill until many are stand
! ing in the aisle The writer does not propose
to argue whether or not gentleman should
rise and offer his seat to lady in such case
| The pros and cons of this question have been
! too often discussed, and it would be impossible
| to give ruling acceptable TO all Perhaps this
| test might be a fair one: Why, if gentleman
almost invariably offers his seat to a lady
l. with whom he may chance to be acquainted,
| should he not be equally polite to any lady,
! even though she be stranger2 In the ma
| jority OF cases the sitters continue TO sit Not
/ infrequently they even neglect to ''move up"
until urged to do SO by the conductor. The
business man is very tenacious of his rights
he has paid five cents for his ride, including
a seat, and he means to have both, just as he
would insist on value received in a mercan-
tile transaction. He reaches his Office, bids
has clerks good morning with Scrupulous po-
liteness and never forgets his good manners
until he puts on his hat to go to lunch. Should
one of the ladies whom he allowed to hang
by strap all the way down town chance to
call at has office on any matter of business,
his politeness would be simply excruciating
Truly, it would seem as if good manners were
like garlnent-to be worn or laid aside at
viii.
THE HUNGRY MAN AND HIS KNIFE.
A visit to any popular restaurant at mid
day viii repay an observing person. Men,
who at home would perhaps insist on the
most scrupulous behavior at the table, seem
to have forgotten all etiquette. They pour \
their coffee out into their saucers and blow
and bubble it as nonchakantly as the veriest
street Arab. They plant both elbows on the
table while this interesting programme is
being performed and, meantime, leave their
spoon sticking up in their cup SO as to render
1t easy to be upset by being caught in the
coat sleeve, as the arms move about in their
pilgrimages to the sugar bowl or caster The
fork would seem of little use Judging from
the expertness with which the food is taken
from the point of the knife And not always
from the point. Who has not felt a cold chill
sometimes, while witnessing the interesting
spectacle of hungry man trying to swallow
his knife? And then, what scene the table
presents when the onslaught is over. Plate
covered with remnants, table strewn with
crumbs, bones, radish tops and potato par
ings knife and fork thrown to the right and
left in the most slipshod fashion, and chair
pushed back three or four feet, and there left, !
10 be stumbled over by those who pass.
In the lunch room for ladies, too, you en-
counter much the same thing. You find the |
person who rattles her spoon when she stirs |
her tea, clicks her knife and fork necessarily |
as she cuts her food sticks her own spoon into |
the sugar bowl, or her own knife into the |
butter-in fact who does all the i'll bred |
things that men do, without any apparent |
idea that they are not perfectly proper.
People who ride in steam trains seem to be !!
possessed Of an idea that they are entitled to |
two seats, and that it is quite impertinent Of |
any one to think Of asking them to move
along. To be sure, they only pay one fare, |
but then they want to be comfortable. They |
spread out their garments and bundles, and |
pretend to be very much absorbed in their
books or newspapers when the car begins to
fill and people are searching anxiously for a /
place Some even go so far as to close their |.
eyes and pretend TO be asleep until the train
is in motion, and in this way avoid sharing
the seat with a fellow passenger. In the cars
steam and street-selfishness is everywhere
apparent. The poorly dressed person with
an armful of bundles has sometimes to walk
through a whole train before any one Will
move and make q place, but, a young and
ia
finding a seat There have been cases, too,
where lady has, with great alacrity, gath
cred up her packages aud magazines TO make
a place for particularly good looking gen
tleman, while plainly dressed workingman
may have been standing YEARLY at her elbow
for five minutes The other evening lady
on Boston and Albany local train covered
two entire seats with her bundles, and vaxed
very indignant when reminded that she was ,
monopolizing places that belonged to three
other persons.
IN RANGE OF THE GLASS.
At the theatres there seems to be a sort of
license in the matter of staring at ones
neighbors hardly compatible with good
breeding. Persons occupying stage boxes
expect TO be stared at, aud not infrequently
purchase them so as to display themselves or =
their gowns and bonnetS to the best advant- z
age. But because one chances TO Be within
range of hundred pairs of lorguettes it does
not always follow that one desires to be .
stared out of coUntenance. This use of opera
glasses is an unpleasant feature of American
theatre going The same i'll hammered star
ing by both sexes is to be noticed not infre-
quently In the street cars, and it is no uncom- |
mon thing for persons to suspend conversation
that they may listen to that Of other people
Many a lady, too, has been ruthlesSly criti-
cised and literally picked to pieces by female
gossipS seated within hearing distance Nor
are the lnpudent gossips always In petit
coats. Men. who should be above such things,
too often anuSe themselves by exchanging
remarks and criticisms, to which their en-
barraSSed victims are forced TO listen or leave
their seats Women are, however, the most
cruel and unfeelIng, especially toward other
women.
A gentleman now pursuing his studies In !
one OF the best known theological senlinaries
remarked one day to the writer: Last sum
mer being short of funds wherewith 20 con-
tinue my college course, accepted a situa-
ZION as conductor of q Boston street car, and |
l regard my experienced those three months
as the most valuable of my life. Ny eyes
were opened, ami / saw men and women as
had never seen them before The lessons l
learned II this, 10 Inc, new but most prolific
field OF observation, from day to day will ,
furnish material for an untold number Of
sermons Much as l regret 10 admit it, was
compelled TO recognize this fact, that men