The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1894-02-03
WHAT is A GENTLEMAN
Manners. Conversational Charms, Noble
Heart and sound Judgment.

Manners, Conversational Charms, u Noble
Heart and sound judgment.
1t is an easy question to ask. but q
difficult one to answer. What Is
honor? What Is valued 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 gentleman"
Let me try to define him by few
negatives as we'll as positives First
ly. OF his costume. He must not DO
dirty, negligent or slovenly in his
person. He must neither be meanly
nor magnidcently 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
q manner as to cause the vulgar to
stare or the judicious to grieve as he
passes by.
He must dress as Polonius-not at
all q 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 it 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 tho world.
the kingdom or the company, but
without parade of humility, which
is in itself an offensc, he must think
himself the least-or, at all events,
he must act as il he thought So
He must not fail in deferential po-
likeness, either to man or woman.
He must not take the first place as
IL it were his inalienable right He
must not, at table or elsewhere,
commit acts which, though thoy
NAV be harmless in themselves, are
contrary to tho 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 DO 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 slang word. but 1t eX-
presses meaning not to be reached
even by periphrasis, and may, for
| that reason, be looked upon leniently.
To hear one mans voice overriding
every others and one mans opinion
! thundercd into the ears OF too timid,
too indolcnt or too courteous TO do
battle with Stentor. il fatal to
Stentor's claims to DO considered o
| 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 a gentleman
must not talk vulgarly, indecently,
obscenely, irreverently. or oven ig-
norantly- If tho ignorance be very
gross-w without forfeiture OF the rank
to which his dress and his manners
would seem to entitle him.
But granting all these three -isen-
tials-the would be gentleman would
not be q gentleman II his heart be
wrong. Dress is an ornament--man-
ners a conversation a charm;
but these three may be possessed In
all possible perfection by a scour-
drel. But these three combined
with noble heart and sound judg-
ment-the one balancing the other
combine to form true gentleman.