The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1894-02-03
WHAT is = oeNrLEMAN7
Manners, ConVersatIonAI Charms, . Noble
Heart and sound Judgment.

Manners, ConversatIonAI Charms, q Noble
Heart and sound Judgment.
It is an easy question to ask, but a
difficult one to answer. What is
honorp What Is value? What is
poetry? Though most people can
feel. few can define any OF those
things; and the short answer to the
first question is simply this:- "a
gentleman is a gentleman.
Let me try to define him by few
negatives as well IS positives First
ly, of his costume He must not be
dirty. negligent or slovenly in his
person. He must neither be meanly
nor magnificently dressed.
He must not wear gaudy and in
congruous colors. or affront the eye
OF onlookers with jewelry or finery.
He must not affect eccentricity or
singularity, or dress himself in such
G. manner as to cause the vulgar to
stare or the judicious to grieve as he
passes by.
He must dress ms Polonius-not at
all fool. though every actor who
plays the part endeavors to make him
so-advised his son Laertes to dress
in golden words of true wisdom.
But dress. though 1t be the first
and most obvious. is the least charac-
teristic of the gentleman. In his
manners he must not think himself
the principal person in the world.
the kingdom or the company, but
without parade of humility. which
is in itself an offense, he must think
himself the least-or, at all events,
he must act as if he thought So
He must not fail in deferential po-
hteness, either to man or woman.
He must not take the first place as
x 1t were his inaliensble right He
must not, at table or elsewhere,
commit acts which, though they
may be harmless in themselves. are
contrary to the prevalent notions Of
his time and country.
A hundred years ago man might
get drunk after dinner without losing
his social position, but to any one as
piring in our day to that high and
illustrious rank. the slightest ten
dency to drunkenness at table or
any where else is fatal to his pre-
tension.
To be loud in talk is almost
as great derogation from
the ideal of the character as to be
cloud" in costume-I know that the
word is a slang word, but it ex-
presses q meaning not to be reached
even by q periphraSis. and may, for
that reason, be looked upon leniently.
To hear one mans voice overriding
every others and ono mans opinion
thundered into the ears of too timid,
too indolent or TOO cuOrteous TO do
battle with a Stentor. is fatal to
Stentor' 's%claims to be considered q
gentleman
And quite as essential as manners
to the perfection of the character is
conversation. A man in the dress
and with the manners of gentleman
must not talk vulgarly, indecently.
obscenely, irreverently, or even ig-
norantly--if the ignorance be very
gross-without forfeiture of the rank
to which his dress and his manners
would seem to entitle him.
But granting all these three essen
tials-the would-be gentleman would
not be gentleman if his heart be
wrong. Dress is an ornament-man-
ners a grace Conversation a charm;
but these three may be possessed in
all possible perfection by a scour-
dreL. But these three com bined
with noble heart and sound judg-
ment-the one balancing the other
combin to form a true gentleman