The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-04-03
NEATNEss.

mo young mB1 HAS any BUSINESS &c
dress shabbily. Neatness is a great in
ner and outer factor in q young mans
success. Our clothes enthusiastically
affect our feelings, as any man knows
who has experienced the different SEN
sation that comes to him when attiFed
in a new suit from the feeling when
wearing old clothes. No EN- ployer ex
poets his clerks Of moderate income
to dress in the immediate fashions, but
he likes to see them neat in appearance.
It commends them to his attention
We all have an inner consciousness
that q young man who keeps himself
looking neat and clean is more worthy
of confidence than he who is re-
CARELESS of his appearance and looks
sol8d AMI shabby. Noatnees always
attracts, just as ~ehabbiness invariably
repulses.
Particularly would I emphasize the
value of clean linen to a young MAJ
There is no earthly excus why any
young fellow should wear soiled col.
lars and cuffs. Soap and water are
within the reach of the smallest purse,
and the home or the outer laundry is
accessible to all. No single element in
his dress cuts more OF a figure in a
young mans success than his linen.
However worn may be his clothes, his
appearance always invites closer prox
unity when his linen is clean.
do not wish to be understood as
making too much of dress as a factor
in a young mans life. But I believe
in it sufficiently, and l have een evi
dences again and again to strengthen
that belief, that no young fellow anx.
ious for his self betterment can afford
to slight his appearance.
HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD WOMEN.
The attitude which a young man as
sumes toward women is n Of the
surest index fingers to his character,
and nothing stamps him with such IN.
erring accuracy before men. And il
this be true in a general sense of his
attitude toward the whole sex, 1T ap
plies with particular force to his posi-
ton as a n. "As is the son 30 will be
the husband" is a well known saying.
and it is like wise true th at as lie the son
so is the man. When a young man
re~verences his mother it lie easy for him
to believe in the nobility of the sex to
which she belongs. And it is a cor
rect belief.
That women are morally better and
spiritually nobler than men should be
believed by every young man. No idea
OF the best and truest qualities Of wo-
manhood ia too high for him to set for
himself. Such q belief of his young
manhood will become q conviction of
his later manhood. / know that it is
the fashion of some men TO speak
lightly of women and womanhood; and
young men in their susceptible years
are sometimes apt to listen to these
low standards, and inclined to accept
them or be influenced by them. But
of one thing every young fellow may
be assured: that the man who speaks
of woman in any but the most respect
full terms is either a knave or a fool
very often he is both. And this is one
of the few rules in life to which tn re
is no exception. I wish that young
men would more closely associate their
mothers with women in general, and
realize that every slur cast upon
women as a sex is a slur upon their
mothers. This is the feeling which
prompted General Grant to give a les
son In politeness which will always be
told Of him. The story ia doubtless IA
miliar to all how one evening an officer
came into camp, and in q rollicking
mood said to those assembled:
81 have such a rich story that I want
to tell you. There are no women pres
emit, are thereH"
Whereupon General Grant, lifting
his eyes from the paper which he was
reading, and slowly looking his officer
square in the eyes, said slowly, but
mo, but there are gentlemen pres
Nothing in this world stamps a man
more decisively in the eyes of his fell
low men than the practice of telling
'cfcoIor" stories in which women are
concerned. I have often seen this
practice followed, but never yet have l
seen a single instance when the story
did not lower himself i'm the esti-
nation Of his listeners. Men are prone
10 laugh at the se stories when they are
Told them; but privately I have no
that they form their own opin-
ion of the mar who tells them and tho