The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-10-10
MANNERS HAVE CHANGED.
Young, OPines the Man from
the West.

The man from the west, who is VS.
iting his married sister in Washing
ton, wore a puzzled look, says the
Stsr.
Say" he broke out, show long has
it been back this way since kids were
permitted to stop being polite to
their elders? I'll tell you why 1 in
quire. My sister has three young
ones, among them a six-year-old boy.
He was playing out in front of the
house this morning, and she called
him.
'Archibald!' she sang out from
the front window.
THE kid looked up at her.
"'What?' said he.
"'Come in; I want YOU said she.
"'I wonder said to myself, why
that young one doesn't say ''Ma'am"
when his mother addresses him. He
must be bad-mannered lad, and it's
queer that Sis doesn't correct him.
The boy entered the house.
DO you want to go on an errand
for mamma if she gives you a cent?
the boys mother asked him.
YES he replied.
"'You don't feel too warm with
that jacket on you, do you, Archi-
bald" she asked the kid, solicitous-
ly.
"'No,' said he.
81 was waiting for Sis to give the
cub belt on the jaw for not saying
ma'am' to her, like a polite little
man, when she spoke to him, and 1
was amazed that she didn't even no.
tice the kids lack of manners.
Before the shaver started on the
errand his father showed up.
Archie his father called to him.
What" said the kid, just as he
had to his mother.
"'You remember the kind of cigars
you got for me around the corner
the last time? said the boys dad.
YES said the kid.
Well, stop by there and tell the
man to send me another box of them.
! And don't loiter by the way
"'No,' said the kid.
His father hadn't noticed the boys
lack of manners any more than his
mother had.
Say, look a-here, Sis said I to
my sister when 1 got her alone that
day, I'm not trying to butt in with
any advice or anything like that, but
why don't you tear picket off the
fence and drub some manners into
that boy of yours?'
''She looked at me in a startled
kind of way, and with quite a heap of
reProach in her eyes, at that.
Why said she, what in the
world do you mean? Archibald is
| considered the best-mannered boy in
the neighborhood.'
els hep said 7, pressing on.
We'll, dye call it polite for a six
year-old kid to say what" and "Yes"
and mo" to his mother and father
without prefixing any "Ma'am" or
''Sir" to his remarks?'
Then my sister looked relieved
and smiled.
Why, John she said to me, 4
thought by the way you spoke that
Archibald had been really impolite.
Certainly we do not require him to
say 'Ma'am" or "Sir" to us or to
anybody else. Indeed, we should
punish him if he said any such things.
1t is not the thing for children to say
"Ma'am" or "Sir" to their parents,
or to anybody any more. That sort
of thing is now left for servants
ooh said I, but 1 couldn't help
sizing my sister up out of the tail
of my eye and putting this question
to her:
Sis, just supposing you or had
dropped the "Ma'am" and "Sir" when
we were young ones and were adj
dressed by our old mother and dad,
what dye think 'ud have happened
to US, hey?'
THAT cornered her, but she got
| out of it by saying that we lived in
an old-fashioned section of the coun-
try where the folks were way behind
the times, and all that.
maybe Sis was right" concluded
the man from the west, "but, at that,
I'm bound to say that it sort O. Jars
on me to hear the kids back this way
talking to their parents and other
grown-up folks in those familiar
terms. | say sir and ma am to old
folks right down to the present day
myself, and I'm past 40, with a pref
ty stable bald spot on top of my
head, and it doesn't hurt me any to
say those things. Comes natural, in
fact, because l was raised to respect
my elders, fashionable or no fash
ionable. If l wasn't a grabbed old
bach, and if 1 had a gang of young
'uns around, they'd get old-fashioned
real quick and say sir and 'ma'am'
to the grown-ups, or there'd be some
thing doing in the slipper and hair
brush line" and the western man
looked as if he meant it.
Ate His Bonnet.
An English driver for a Market
Ct h,,g