River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-06-25
COURTESY IN CHURCH.
Il Politeness Instructive and Unborn. or a
Mere Convention?

Mere Convention?
As the sweet, sacred music fioated
/ above the heads of the congregation
| and welled and reverberated among the
fiuted pillars that upheld the groined
roof of the cathedral, a great light
seemed to fall upon the soul of the re-
/ porter, who was comfortably seated in
a well-appointed pew lie looked about
him and observed that many women
were standing here and there. For a
moment he forgot that he was in a
church. A faint suggestion of the car
surface or elevated-fiashed across
his mind, and, acting as though he
were in one, he arose and offered his
seat TO the nearest lady. With sur
1 prised smile she thanked him, where
upon it occurred to him that he had
4 done very unusual thing. AS mat
ter of fact his thought was true.
! As he stood in the aisle he saw about
him many ladies standing and many
men seated. For the first time he
realized that he had often seen the same
| thing before, and il had never occurred
TO him that there sas anything out of
the way about tin church. He. who
I
car when he had a seat to offer her. had
/ frequently done SO in church and
! thought nothing about the matter.
The reporter, as he stood unconscious
| lY listening to the swelling peals of the
organ, preached little sermon to him
self. What, thought he. is this thing
we dub politeness? Does it come from
the heart, or is it merely initiative and
conventional? Are we polite because
we are taught TO be SO, or is IL an in
/ stinct of civilized man to be gentle and
/ courteous and unselfsh? Every day he
saw men raise their hats to women in
| the streets or offer them their seats in
/ the cars. Was it due TO respectful
reverence for the sex to which mothers,
wives and sisters belong, or was it
merely superficial "a conventional
habit taught in childhood? As
/ he looked around the church
and saw women standing while
men sat throughout the service, he
was forced to conclude that courtesy is
not inherent; that men are polite be-
cause initiative, and that selfishness is
| paramount in the heart of man even
before the altar of God.
The men he saw seated around him he
knew would not let women stand in a
ear, then why in church? Probably
because il was the custom and no one
condemned it. There are, 1t is true
many New Workers who keep their
seats in cars while women stand They
argue that as distances are great in this
! city and business day is very irksome,
/ that they, the tired bread-winners are
| justified in resting, while a woman
who is ont but few hours for pleasure,
| shopping or recreation, should take her
| chance with the rest and she is not
! obliged to be there. The logic. if un-
| gallant. is irrefragable. But il can not
| apply to the church. The business
| there of men and women is presumably
| to worship God. The body is not tired
with the turmoil Of business, and the
/ heart should be softened while gentle
/ emotions stir the breast. If there are not
/ seatsIenough for all it would seem to be
/ but natural that men should give way
! TO the weaker sex; to the women who
are wives, mothers and sisters. That
/ they do not do SO indicates that polite
ness is not instructive; that it is a mere
convention. To be polite men must be
! taught and be made to act unselfishly;
| they must be shown wherein they are
| selfish. They are like sheep and in the
/ absence of leader, or leaders, do moth
| ing but huddle together, not knowing
/ what to do.
AS the reporter looked down upon the
sweet mOtherly face of the woman who
! had accepted his seat, vision of the
multtudes of women he had in his life
! time allowed to stand in church arose
| before him. Their faces were not re-
| proachful, but his heart smote him. He
| thought of his own mother and sisters
/ and of his lost Lenore, and the fact that
so simple an act of courtesy had never
occurred to him before brought before
him, with a vividness that was startling
and unpleasant, the fact that he was a
man. As the last words of the benedic-
ton fell upon his ear he realized that
/ The only sermon he had heard that day
was the one he had preached to himself
/ N. Y. Press.