The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-07-02

dJu our uUluGo Iiid0 W. uOliOl dit SlSuU,
and without question. When we see
a child that is rude and noisy we
avoid it as we would the plague.
When We meet a woman who is ag-
gressive and ungracious we give her
scant civility in return. When we
have dealings with a man who is
boorish and rough and unpleasant
we drop the acquaintance as soon
as possible, but we are the slaves
of the child who is deferential and
polite, while the women who
charms us with her graciousness,
and the man who is always suave and
courteous and agreeable has the world
in sling. Every body likes them
and every hand gives them a boost
up the ladder of success.
OF course the ill hammered people
may be, and often are, models of all
the virtues They may be brilliant,
and talented, and have the noblest
and tenderness of hearts, but this is
busy world, and every few of us are
going to take the trouble to pry off a
rough and prickly rind on the chance
of finding something sound and sweet
below 1T. | know a woman, gifted
musician, who should have made
fortune out of her splendid voice, who
has almost starved, simply because of
her bad manners. know more than
one Industrious and capable merchant
who has failed for no other reason
than his aggressive manners drove
away customers instead of drawing
them to him. Now and then it is
true, man like Carlyle or Matthew
Arnold succeeds in spite of his man
ners, but until we are dead sure
that we are transcendant geniuses it
is a pretty big risk to take to do with
out good manners.
These are mere truisms that every
body knows, and yet the marvel Of
marvels is that parents do not think it
worth their while to teach their chill
dren good manners. Politeness among
children has as much gone out of fash
ion as pantelettes, while difference to
elders is a back number theory of which
young Americans has never even heard.
A great deal has been said lately
about the prejudice against children
and the heartlessness of landlords who
refuse to rent to the people with chill
dren. The whole explanation of this
extraordinary condition Of affairs lies
in the fact that people no longer teach
their children good manners, and, in
consequence, landlords will not rent
to people who are going to turn lot
of little vandals loose to deface and
destroy, nor will other people go to live
in house where children are per-
mitted to yell and whoop through the
corridor like gang of Comanche In
dians on the warrath.
So far as the childen themselves are
concerned. they are more sinned against
than SHINING, for they are being ham
dioapped for life-they are making
enemies where they should make
friends, and acquiring faults it will
take years for them to over come, il
they ever do.
That this like of good manners is al
most universal among the children OF
the present day, nobody will dispute
for a moment. Even other parents,
with purblind folly that would be
amusing if it were not sc tragic,
+, will desoant to you about the rude
ness, of the children next door or
across the street, but when their own
young ones come tearing in the house,
stepping Oh peoples feet and tearing
their clothes, they only smile and
say, Jack is SO impetuous,.' as if
it were an actual treat to be trampled
on by Jack.
! The old idea that children should
be seen and not heard is as extinct as
the Dodo. So are the respectful, de-
ferential little gentleman and ladies'
i
that theory produce, Indeed so far
from the young ste1s occupying back
seat and listening to the discourse of
their elders, they take the center of
the stage and monopolize the CONVEX
Stations, while their enfaptured parents
egg them on. There ism t a child of
who would hesitate to interrupt the
most learned and distinguished person
in the community, nor father and
mother who wouldn't think how de-
lighted everybody must be at the priyi-
| lege of hearing little Johnny speak.
In one family that ] knew, when the
oracle, little girl OF seven opens her
mouth, tense whisper runs around
the room, sSh-s -ssssh, Mabel is going
to speak, and everybody 'Sh-sh-sssh-
es.
Every day I see we'll dressed chill
M