The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-06-10
Tho yaIue of POliteness.


4 district school teacher in little
country neighborhood often tells US OF
t,or str,ogles with her scholars on the
snb;ect 0f rood manners. 1t is sub
;ant which. previous to her appearance
tha wooden school house, had
hn, In sc.nt attention paid it, and she
fnSs if difficult indeed to bring the
vonnr people to any serious view of
ibc matter. One morning, more than
usually reused by their Outrages on
nropriety, she set aside the ordinary
curriculum of the school, and calling
upon every child in the house to listen,
proceeded to deliver a long and earnest
discourse on the much-ahused topic.
Having finished she looked around on
her audience, and saw lifted hand.
"Well, Frank. what is it ?"
"Miss Leigh, what is the use of be-
ing p'lite anyway"
A very business-like question this,
and susceptible of a very business-like
answer; of several such, indeed. We
must not try to exhaust them all, but
will look at one or two.
The longer I live, the more convinced
/ become of the actual dollar-and-cents
value of politeness. A gentleman,
speaking of the merits of two of the
great ocean steamship lines, said that
one of these seemed to consider it
condescension to carry a man across,
while the other apparently felt itself
honored by his illustrious presence on
its decks. 1t does not take much
shrewdness to say which of the two,
other things being equal, was more
likely to profit by his gentlemans pa
tronage, which profit as our calculat-
ing Frank will observe, would be ali
net. And you remember the counsel
given by Uncle Nenner to Miss HepZl-
bob Pyncheon on the day when she set
up ''cent shop" in the House of the
Seven Gables. We are told that while
Hepzibah was doing her utmost to di-
gest the hard little pellets of his already
uttered wisdom, he gave vent to his
final, and what he declared to be his
all-important advice, as follows;
"Put on bright face for your Gus
TONERS, and smile pleasantly as you
hand them what they ask for. A stale
article, if you dip it in a good, warm,
sunny smile, will 60 off better than a
fresh one that you've scowled upon"
Probably there is too much worldly
wisdom in the one point of the "stale
article" to be altogether endorsed.
We do not recommend politeness as
substitute in any degree for honesty.
But, be your honesty as sterling and
we'll established as it may, dip it into
Uncle Venner's alchemy, and see how
it will speed, whether it will not bring
more coppers to the till. The polite
butcher, the polite baker, or the polite
candle.stick maker, drives better
trade than his surlY fellow-craftsman.
Politeness is money in the pocket.
. But I hope that the girls and boys
who are reading this are not so mer-
cenary that they esteem no value
but one which expresses itself in hard
cash. l hope that you have regard
for that yet harder cash which cannot
be corrupted, nor cankered, nor stolen,
when once it has been put to your ac-
count in the bank of Heaven. Polite
ness is not only money, but it is riches
in Christ Jesus. / know a young
preacher who breaches uncommonly
well, but when hear his people speak
of him, I doubt whether his good
sermons do any more towards bringing
them near the kingdom of God than
the radiant graciouSnesS with which he
goes in and out among them. Old and
young have phrase which they repeat
after each other from end to end of the
parish with ever-increasing approba-
ton "He is so friendlyw He dips
his religion in a good, warm, sunny
smile, and it fills his church building,
and lengthens his church roll.
Yesterday, a woman, truly good,
one of the Lords own, was reporting
an interview which she had held with
a family, for whose best welfare she
felt sincere concern. After she left.
one of her bearers said: "Mother, can
you imagine Miss Larson's ministra-
tions to the poor being acceptable in
the least?"
Her mother hesitated, 10th to
agree.
"She has such hard, unsympathe-
tic manner toward them," the girl
went on; "why, the account she gave
of her talk to that boy was enough to
turn him against her for all time. The
idea of scolding people right and left
on your first acquaintance, as preli-
minary to giving them tract! Do
you see how it can do them any
good?"
And her mother was obliged to con-
fess that she did not.
You young people mean to let your
light shine; to be true, to be brave. to
be unselfish and kind, that your Father
may be glorifled. Mean to be polite,
too. 1t is very remunerative virtue.