The record-union., 1897-07-11
BESELENA'S PRATTLE.
Fer the "Record-Union."

Fer the Record Union"
1t sometimes seems to me that chiv-
airy is either dead or sleeping This
I thought strikes me particularly when 1
see the lack of courtesy and considera-
ton that men sometimes show to
women. 1t didn't use to be so in the
days of our mothers and grandmothers.
1t cannot be denied that the world has
progressed in many ways. but in doing
so great many minor details seem to
have been overlooked
The mothers are largely responsible
Tor this lack of poIiteness on the part of
| their boys and girls. The average
mother of to-day. either cannot or will
not, take time from her household and
social duties to teach her children kind
ness and consideration of others. Then,
too, many women cherish the mistaken
idea that the schools can teach their sons
and daughters the gentle art Of man
ners. Just how faIlacious this idea is
may easily be seen by comparing the
children OF any school, who receive home
training with those who do not Po-
likeness, ii is said. is inborn: it is a plant
Of many generations growth, but like
any other plant, it needs constant care
and attention, and the mother who is
either too selfish, or too needless of her
children to devote a part Of her time to
them cannot but expect that they viii
grow up rank and wild as the weeds of
the field
A great many young people Cherish the
perverted idea that it is smart" to be
downright rude; this gives them a GER
tain self-importance in their own eyes.
l do not particularly allude to the callow
youth and maiden, either. when thus
complain of a want of consideration, but
to matured men and women as we'll who
have not even the advantage of youth on
their side as an excuse. We can over
look a great many things in the young;
even boorishness itself; we set it down
as lack of experience which viii cover
a multitude Of sins.
Perhaps, too, the new woman may be
in a measure responsible. When lovely
woman stOOps to folly and boomers,
which after all, are nothing more nor
less than exaggerated trowsers, and in
sIsts on placing herself on a par with
men, and not ony that but lifts up her
silvery voice and shrieks loudly for
flights" and Emancipation, just as
though she We're not living in the freest
country in the world, the chivalrous part
of man receives a severe shock. Next to
their patriotism, there is nothing the
men of our country pride themselves on
mere than their treatment of its women
and to have these same women get up
and declare that they are bonded slaves
To the demon man is rather trying to
fhaiT at i1.c4 to icc CT 11rNIxy
amused and surprised, and then his sur
prise gives place to just resentment and
he takes the woman at her word and
treats her accordingly.
Men do not have time to observe the
little niceties of manner and speech
among themselves, which are so dear
to the heart Of all Womankind. Personally
I don sympathize with the new woman.
| may be bit old fashioned, I'll admit,
hut away down in my heart, though l
do not always give voice to my senti-
ments, ! think she deserves everything
she gets. If a woman insists upon being
placed side by side with man she should
be treated as one. 1t is a somewhat re-
rlarkable fact that it is not always the
woman, who from force of necessity is
obliged to earn her own living, who is
siven over to woman's rights, but it is
| the married woman; the mothers of
children and mistresses of comfortable
establishments who have nothing to &C.
cupy their time and so take up with the
first fad that happens to strike their
/ fancy. In nine cases out of ten you will
! find that it is the idle women and not
| the workers who shout the loudest for
| freedom.
Everyone knows that a real, true gen
tlenan would not for one moment be
guilty of a lack of courtesy to any wo-
man. no matter how advanced CD she
may be. A true gentleman is all that
the word implies. He never for a mo-
ment loses sight of the fact that his
mother was a woman, and having this
! thought always with him he treats all
womanknd with the same thoughtful
consideration he would wish shown to
her. The man who respects woman
kind in general is a man to be trusted !;
he is a man who would make kind hus-
band and q loving father: he is the
sort of man that women like instinct
lively. and q woman's instinct seldom
leads her astray For the men, how
ever, who cannot, or will not learn po4
liteness, no matter how superficial, I
think there ought to be a school of po-
liteness erected by some philanthropic
individual, where they would be obliged
to attend certain number of hours each
day, because even a veneering of polish
is better than none at all.
Once, a long time ago, read some
where, that gratitude was the music Of
the SOUL and the quotation impressed
me so deeply that it has fingered in my
memory ever since. It does seem to me
that the benefits forgot are so much
more numerous than those which are re-
membered. In the majority of cases,
where favors are bestowed, the object
is either utterly unworthy and the kind
ness is wasted upon them, or he is so in
tensely selfish that he takes the greatest
self-sacrifice as only his just due. And
it is always the most selfish people who
seem to have the most favor showered
Ipen them. This is strange, but true
while the unselfish people, those who are
totally unconscious of self, are con-
stanty excusing and overlooking the
faults of others. We have all at one
time or another, possibly many times
and oft, done favors for others, and we
have all felt the sting of ingratitude
Nothing hurts more, or cuts deeper than
this it hurts our pride to think that we
could have been SO mistaken in our
judgment Of human nature. In all of
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