The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1894-05-01
WHAT Is 4 ozMrLEmA NJ
manners. Conversational CT. trms, . N0bi
Heart and Aoons Judxment.

Manners, Conversational Cls arms, . Noble
Heart and Aoond Judgment.
II Is an easy question to ask. but Z
difficult one to answer. What ID
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: IA
gentleman is . gentleman.
Let me try to define him by few
negatives as well as positives. First
ly, of his costume Fie must not be
dirty, negligent or Slovenly in his
person. He must neither be meanly
nor nnagni6cently dressed.
He must not wear gaudy and In
congruous colors. or sffront the eye
of onlookers with jewelry or finery.
He must not affect eccentricity or
sfngularity, or dress himself in such
a manner as to cause the vulgar to
stare or the judicious to grieve as he
passes by.
He must dress as Polonius-not q;
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 it be the first
and most obvious, is the least charac.
teristic of the gentleman. In hit
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
il it were his inalienable 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
Gency to drunkenness at table or
any where else is fatal to his pre-
tension
To be loud in talk is almost
1S SE0db 1EOm
the ideal of the character as to be
cloud" in costume-I know that the
word is slang word. but it 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 |
thundered into the ears of too timid, |
too indolent or too cuorteous to do |
battle with a Stento.. 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 a gentleman |
must not talk vulgarly, indecently. |
obscenely, irreverently, or even ig
norantly--if the ignorance be very !
forfeiture of the rank
10 which hi; 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 grace a charm;
but these three may be possessed in
all possible perfection by a scour-
dreL But these three com bined |
with a noble heart and a sound judg-
ment-the one balancing the other
combine to form true gentleman.