The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-10-06

It never occurred to him to thank me
by a word or sign. or TO show that / had
given him any pleasure
All this belongs 10 the school OF manner
which one sees illustrated every day In the
street car. A gentleman rises and gives his
seat to a woman. He does IL because she
is a woman. He abates somewhat from
his right" In nineteen cases out OF twenty
she takes IT without a word or sign. / do
not say of thanks. but Of recognition II a
dog left the seat she would probably say
more.
This comes. 1 think, though 1 am not
sure. from bad training. not from no train
ing For. naturally, a person wholly I'M
trained would recognize the courtesy OF
the man. But l think that I'm the poorer
boarding schools Of America girls are
taught definitely that they must not recog-
1ize even the presence of a man unless he
has been introduced to them, by letter or
personally. unless. indeed. he be the other
side Of the counter or be some one from
whom service may be demanded. as from a
doctor. a dentist, a conductor or a sexton
In other cases. / think, the girl Is taught
that it is immodest to recognize the exist
ence Of a man.
Last Sunday I went TO church. to the
49,
in which / preach. We were not many, for
it was summer. perhaps a hundred As 1
left, a little late, six women who had come
out before me were waiting on the side
walk They all looked at me-not to say
stared at meas / passed, as was their
right. On my part, 1 had never been pre-
scented TO one OF them. Still, we had been
singing the same hymns and praying TO the
same God, we had been in one house OF
worship; and. probably from some inherited
instinct. as my ancestors in the Crusades
would have done, / touched my hat as i
passed them. But not one of the six moved
an eyelid TO show hat she saw me-that
there was a man passing her who had thus
presumed on the common descent from Eve.
Had they been wax women. or 1 a cater
pillar. they could not have appeared more
unconscious. This, and the omission in the
car. come. / think, from the boarding
school rule-which is ~wrong-that a woman
must not seem to know that there are any
men in the world, who a. not been pre-
scented to her.
IT lack of manners Is increasing in
America And how shall the children, now
wholly ignorant, be taught?
The stereotype answer is to relegate such
questions to the public day schools. Order
49, ~AAO (aA00 Us ~ ~ AA%@f $500
cooking. and the driving of nails" L am
doubtful about this. Good manners are
not matters of intellect. or of physical
training. They belong to conscience and
the affections. They are matters Of the
heart rather than Of the head
/ should rather, then, appeal to the direc-
tors OF Sunday schools Good manners be-
long to the codes of virtues. They are not
accomplishments. they are duties. He
commits high treason against virtue who
makes II disagreeable. / see with great
pleasure that the Salvation Army under
stands this. In their capital book of in.
structions. prepared for their recruits, there
are very good suggestions as to good
manners And when you meet those re.
cruits. you are sure that you meet gentle
men or ladies.
Yet there are streets within half q
mile Of where l write which I cannot pass
through without being sure OF insult from
the hulking boys who hang about on the
sidewalks. All of these boys go to the
public schools The truant> officer would
have them IL they failed. Ninety-fve in q
hundred go to Sunday schools. Could q
portion OF time there be better occupied
than in asking them why they revile
strangers or throw stones at them? Might
" oN a &c UlddC " e tfidl
such conduct infiicts a stain on the form
OF religion in which they are educated?
Thousands of public school teachers will
read these words. and thousands of them
will say they are illnatured. May 1 ask
one or two of them TO ask their scholars
whether IL is thought mean-spirited to say,
I thank you" 1t would be a good thing,
in some vacant space of ten minutes, If
the older boys and girls could be made to
say what they think of the decline of man.
uers.
But. far better than such an appeal as
this. would be talks in the intimacy and
tenderness OF Sunday school classes. Have
I not hundreds of readers who will look
at this article on Sunday morning, who
ere willing to tell their pupils in Sunday
school what are some of the questions in
VOWED in 1t, and who are willing to guide
them to right conclusions as they consider
those questions? EDWARD E. HALE.