The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-11-11
GOOD MANNERS.

described as perpetual setting up OF
certain standard of taste (which yesterday
was ridiculous because it was 80 new, and
tomorrow will be ridiculous from it's being
common The modes change suddenly
and capriciously, at the arbitrary command
of some mysterious censor of style. Good
manners in. the essence survive from
generation to generation. The well-bred
person of to-day is very much like his
well-bred forbears in essential things.
A man or woman who performs an act
of mere politeness awkwardly may exhibit
fine manners. Good manners are good
conduct according to the time and circum-
stances. The begrimed son of toll, riding
homeward after weary day, who surren-
ders his seat in the crowded car to a woman,
to an aged or decrepit person, performs an
act of true gentility which puts to shame
many of the gracious things done in pol
ished circles. Good manners imply self
sacriicial performance; sometimes slight
and trifling, sometimes noble and heroic.
An act of courage in good cause is SUI
premely good behavior. George Eliot says
woman of the world can put great deal
of contempt into bow. Persons unframed
give infinite grace to deed of courtesy and
kindness.
The true gentleman possesses something
more than fine manner, and yet form
ehonl1 MT ho ,pdorxol,,oI &c an ol;,rot
of every kind of success. It is related of
a certain member of Parliament that he
conquered the House of Commons by his
manner alone, while his hearers vainly
sought for the value of the speech in its ar
gument and style. $50 the air with which
celebrated barrister waived white cam
brio handkerchief passed for eloquence."
There is safe middle ground, highly
respectable neutral zone, between the ex-
cessive and puerile striving to initiate
slavishly the perfect exemplars of good
form and the contemptuous rejection of the
reasonable conventions of intelligent So
ciety. "To be old fastened is the greatest
crime coat or hat can be guilty off, but
an old-fashioned person is no culprit. In
truth, we are we'll disposed toward the old
fashioned person. The term, so far from
being an epithet of reproach, is badge
of distinction. We refer to old fashioned
hospitality and courtesy in tone which
implies the decadence of modern manners.
Still we must make concessions to the forms
and usages which our age has by the gen.
eral suffrages of well-bred people ordained
to be the symbols of good manners. We
may protestb our example, without singu-
larity or eccentricity, against the follies of
the times. "Society will pardon much to
genius and special gifts, but being in the
nature of a convention it loves what is
conventional, or what belongs to coming
together" Good and bad manners have
been differentiated as those that help or
hinder fellowship.
Courtesy shines resplendantly in our
accommodating attitude toward strangers.
The man who goes block out of his wav
to put stranger on the right course to his
destination is man that Sir Philip Sidney
would have admired. A great writer has
said that if man be gracious to stranger
it shows he is citizen of the world, and
that his heart is no island cut off from
other lands. 1t costs nothing to scatter
the seeds of courtesy and kindness.
1t is fine sentiment that good manners
are the "shadows of virtues.'' Bad men
pay tribute to the virtues by assuming their
outward garb and signs. The good and
the bad alike display the hallmarks of
good breeding. Some happily constituted
persons practice good manners as they do
morality, almost by intuition; but as a rule
gentility is acquired from example and
precept, by the training of a watchful
mother. The authoritative word of Emerson
is that beautiful behavior is the finest of
the line arts. Without home mentor and
guide to the requirement of the great art,
the art of behaving we'll, the young-in
contact with others not carefully trained to
consider the rights and feeling of their
companions-may and often do learn
vicious manners that, like strong weeds in
the field, are hard to uproot. A youth who
starts out with intelligence, good health
and an engaging manner, with the port
and mein of gentleman, sets sail for
every prosperous gale.
One of the accepted definitions of polite
ness is that it is the art of showing by ex-
ternal signs the internal regard We have