The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-18
just Common
Good Manners


a his wares in tiny shop is an in
dependent American citizen, and
as such wishes to impress on every GUS
toner that he is las good as anybody
and a little bit better" Usually he sends
home customers purchases. Sometimes
it is not convenient to do this. Then
his royal highness refuses to make any
concession. A customer asks if he can
not send her some cream, later, after
his rush hour. He says:
No, I won't send nothin' to nobody.
You can take the cream or leave IL,
jist as you please"
But
There's the cream. I say. and you
can take it or leave it, jist as you like.
and I don't want no more argument
about it,
The customer, used to being treated
with courtesy. goes out and never en-
ters the place again. The young man
pats himself over. the chest looks into
his little mirror and says to himself,
'1'll let these yer people know I'm az
good as they are
If he had told the lady in a decent
courteous manner that he could not
grant her request that time, no harm
would have been done. But he was
simply a coarse, ignorant, conceited,
ungrammatical boor, filling a post
where kindness and gentlemanly
manners are perpetually called for.
Worst of ALL he absolutely prided him.
self on his unwhipped boorishness.
Then there is perhaps the woman
who takes in orders for work at her
home A stranger calls on her. She
answers the lady's inquiry thus:
Il don't work for nobody but my own
customers and folks my customers rec
ommends. And can't take no more
work nohow for the next six weeks"
! And she slams the door in the lady's
| face to emphasize her opinion that She
too, is an independent American cit
| izen, 'as good as anybody and little
bit better" And she, too-heaven send
her better light and knowledgei-is
only coarse, ignorant, conceited boor
| and does not know it.
1t is sheer dumb brute ignorance in
both the man and woman. Both these
citizens mistake rudeness and bad
manners for a manifestation of their
independence. They have no concep-
ton that the very first element of real
gentlemanliness or ladyhood is habitual
courtesy to every creature. They will
have to get many and many a hard
knock and much hard luck before they
have it pounded into their skulls that
every human being owes to every other
the debt of common civility And we
may be sure they will get the hard
knocks and the hard luck both in heap
ed up measure. Grass ignorance must
be Illuminated. even if it takes dyna-
mite to accomplish the enlighten-
ment.
1t is largely the fault of mothers that
such deplorable rudeness, such lack of
just plain. common good manners, is
so often encountered. They have not
trained their children to practice
habitually politeness and courtesy
They many time let their boys grow
to manhood untamed cubs, their girls
to womanhood with the impulses OF
spite and selfishness and vanity all un.
restrained. Did you ever think thai
the uncurbed, underlined human ami.
NAL is the most repellent of all crea
lures. worse even than the duml
brutes because his superior brain give
him so many more ways of being
offensive? Ellis
We, the citizens of the Wanted grea
republic of the world. are this day il
our general department below TIN
japanese. The. rudeness and boorish
ness to one another of individuals il
western nations are never found amonl
that fine little oriental people. The Jal
+ laborer in the rice fields is as polit,
e alike to his mates and to the strange
as one American gentleman is to an
: other. Maybe he gets drunk on SAX
and fights like a fiend now and then
1t but apart from this in all his associa
ton with his fellow creatures he Il
~ characterized by the exquisite courtes.
and kindness that western people
l. might we'll initiate.
The anirnalish manners which ar
g blemishes among other nations are un
1t pardonable in citizens of the grea
republic. 1t is the part of American
It women to correct our rudeness AM
% boorishness. They can do It effectuall.
and they are the only ones who car
'e One point. too, might be borne in mind
Bad manners and bad grammar FIRE
a quently go together. Let us look afte
y both among our children.
is JANE MOSES.