The Columbus journal., 1894-01-31
WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN NJ?
Manners, Conversational Charms. q Noble
Heart and Sound Judgment.

COOvOf0ot1Ou1l CuSr ny u NODiO
Heart and Sound Judgment.
1t is an easy question to ask, but a
difficult one to answer What is
honor? What is value? What is
poetry? Though most people can
feel, few can define any of these
things; and the short answer to the
first question is simply this: "A
gentleman is q gentleman"
Let me try to define him by a few
negatives as we'll as pOsitives. First
ly, of his costume. He must not be
dirty, negligent or slovenly in his
person. He must neither be meanly
nor maguifcently 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 a fool, though every actor who
plays The part %endeavOrs to make him
so-advised his son Laertes 10 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 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-
likeness, either to man or woman
He must not take the first place as
i: it were his inalienable right. He
must not, at table OF elsewhere,
commit acts which, though they
NAV be harmless in themselves, r
contrary to the prevalent notions of
his time and country.
A hundred years ago a man might
get drunk after dinner without losing
his social position. but to any M 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 a derOgatiOn from
the ideal of the character as to be
loud" in costume know that the
word is a slang word. but it eX-
presses a meaning not to be reached
even by a periphrasis. and may, for
that reason, be looked upon %leniently.
TO hear one mans voice overriding
every others and one mans opinion
Numbered into the ears of too timid.
too indOlent or too courteous 10 do
battle with a StentOr. is fatal to
StentOr's claims to be considered u
gentleman.
And quite as essential as manners
to the perfection of the character is
conversation. 4 man in the dress
and with the manners of a 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 a gentleman if his heart be
wrong. Dress is an Ornament-man-
ers a grace-cOnversatiOn a charm;
but these three may be possessed in
all possible perfection by a scour-
drel. But these three combined
with a noble heart and a sound judg-
ment-the one balancing the other
combine to form a true gentleman.