The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-11-05

this evening. How sGlookingly we
Americans sit at dinner.-ahe men, |
mean. American women who have
been well brought up sit exquisitely
You never see them with their shout
ders against the back of the chair. On
the contrary, they incline forward
from the waist. with the chair a little
away from the table. and one hand
now and then gracefully resting beside
the plate. But horribly we men sit at
table! We lie in our seats like so many
sacks OF potatoes. with our heads sus-
pended over the food. Then we chew.
chew. like cows. There is a delicious
sentence in Howelrs "Silas Laphan"
about bookkeeper at lunch WHO fed
a sandwich into his mouth in am i'm
personal sort of way as II he were
pouring salt into a mess of pottage.
We eat savagely. and we eye our fell
low creatures at table furtively. Do
you remember David Copperfield in his
mothers garden, botd1ing furtive goose
berries and trying to look unconcern-
ed? Well, that Is the great American
public at restaurants, for YOU and at
table d1hotes, too. Now. L don't agree
with Ouida, who protests against eat
ing in public. because Il is gross and
vulgar to eat. American women eat in
public, and they are not gross and
vulgar about 1t. Once in a rare while.
you VIII see a man at table, eating
with dignity, never soiling his mus
tache or 'swiping'-there is really no
other word for it-his napkin about as
IL 1t were a horsewhip. 1 suppose we
Americans think II beneath our dignity
TO take lessons in the art of sitting
down In a dining room chair. We
should take our dianers in front of
huge mirrors. Then we would shock
ourselves as nlnch as we shock others.
Friday.-Refinement Is self abnega-
ton, according to Renan. and he saws
he got the idea from mis- sister. What
world Of meaning there is in the
aphorism. Alton. who dropped in to
see me, has put me in mind OF it.
There is no self abnega ton about AL
ton. He is rich. and his dress and his
manner show It, / do not mean that
the man is strident and egotistical.
Alton is gentleman. but / will try
TO explain the subtle nature of his
lack of refinement. He dresses exquis-
itely. No one at the club can afford
TO be quite 80 elegant as he. Are we
all seated about the open CRATE fire,
discussing the manly things they dis
cuss at clubs? In comes Alton. He Is
dressed TO perfection. You can see at
a glance that his clothes are four times
as Ostly as those of the rest of us
Then, too, his rig will appear before
the club house. now and then. His
horses and his harness. his tigers liv-
cry and the rest are so vastly superior
TO anything we can afford that the
contrast affiicts US cruelty. In ever so
many other ways the man robs us of
our ease OF mind. His politeness is so
very polite that our plain cordiality ap-
pears plebeian and familiar by con-
trast. No matter how thorough our
comaraderie. Alton freezes II when he
comes in. / do not mean that he Is a
snob. Far from that. he is courteous
even to poor. deplorable Jawkins. who
looks. oh! 50 cheap. when Alton Is
nigth. IL seems 10 me that there is a
lack OF refinement In the fiamboyant
difference OF the man. His manners
seem to say: You may be polite IL
you want ITO, but 1 defy you to be as
polite as i am" Were a man to take
advantage OF his brute strength TO be
a bully we should despise him. IL a
man takes a mean advantage OF his
superior gentility and elegance. Is he
not a bully OF another kind7
Saturday, DON'T understand under