San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-04-12

ped, marked and booked Tor tnelr
private destination. There is
strong temptation to sneak inside
the wrapper and follow the straw
berry box to its final home in the
bosom Of the family for whose
strawberry shortcake and cream it
was purchased. 1t is well worth
while to submit to the temporary
inconvenience OF the wrapper to
see how the box is handled on its
arrival; how the spoiled children
of unrestrained appetite pilfer the
opened box at the first OPP
portunity; how the careful house
wife or cook tenderly fingers the
luscious fruit that it loose no whit
of its plump freshness ere it APP
pears on the table, with its silver
and snowy nappery. But it is
hardly fair to sneak into the kitch-
en- door in this manner and tell
tales.
1t may not be any less disrep-
utable to step into the dining
room and hiding under the ma
hogany take note Of the reception
OF the straw berry at its last APP
pearance on earth. How many
gentlemen and ladies, or at least
those who pass for such outside
the dining room, are revealed as
they sit at meat. How the man.
tie of their gentility drops from
their faces as they surrender grace
to greed, displaying in all their
manners the fatal lack of good
manners that was not elsewhere aE.
parent. No, where else is it as easy
to discover natural traits, defects
of character, the little foxes th3t
epoil the tender vines. The mA
or woman, grown or in embryo,
who passes the ordeal Of the table
without displaying tendency to
either greed, selfishness, impa.
thence or cosrseness, will pass
muster anywhere.
This is as true OF the children of
plenty as of the children Of want.
The native tendency is the one
that is revealed in all ung uarded
moments, and no moment is so
unguarded as that which comes
around the table upon which
coveted delicacies are placed. Man
is a savage animal, and at his
best estate is only 4aIty cTviiayd.
All animalA show their savage
sirIstincts while feeding, and man
is no exception. The education
of the man, the woman, the child,
to restrain all this native tendency
to savagery and grow considerable,
watchful of the interests and com.
forts of others, around the table,
is education in the very highest
sense. The child that Is educated il
such a home and upon whom The
influence of refined berry box man
ners has had its Office, is no. going
to grow up at heart selfish,
greedy, inconsiderate man or
woman.
So, under the plea that the end
iustifies the mears, we keep to
our hiding under the table and
listen to the talk around the fami-
ly board. 1t would spoil all did
they note a stranger present, for
there would be such restraint and
such endeavor to ape company
manners" as would prvent the
TIRE home habits being shown in
| all their native openness. But
from under the table we note the
lordly appropriation OF all that is
best upon the table, the lsrges.
berries included, by the man Of
the house, and we put him down
as greedy and selfish and without
consideration for his wife, whom
from the bottom Of our heart we
pity. There is no avoiding this
conclusion. II it is the wife who
is so masterful, appropriating the
best to herself and selfishly caring
only for herself, we see home In
which q fine grained man finds q
domestic hell, and cease to won.
der that he carries a night key
Or, it may be that it Is some fav-
orite child who, In the fatal lack
of parental restraint and wise
direction. is permitted to stretch