The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-08-11
THE VALUE OF COURTESY.


Courtesy is at all times the pecu-
liar distinction of the gentleman. EX-
cept it be in constant employment, it
falls from the awkward user like
painted mask and reveals the coarse
ness beneath. It's flower does not
bloom in a day or in a night, but
springs from the seed which has its
due time of leaf and bud. Courtesy, re-
duced to its simplest terms which are
also its highest, is merely the assump-
ton of thoughtfulness toward others
and takes little nourishment from sur
face polish of manner. The real
GRACE of manners that is closely re-
lated to goodness of the heart is as
common among peasants as among
kings, among rustics as among caval'
iers and may be detected in the crudi-
ties of the mountaineer's tongue as
well as in the language of the purist
When an individual builds wall Of
selfishness about himself and retires
to the mountains to live the life of a
hermit or to his lonely cottage or his
bleak mansion for no other reason
than what we term "eccentricity,'
he is revealing the fact that he is un-
familiar with courtesy toward others
not that courtesy which we commonly
call politeness of manners but the
ability to live gracefully day by day
in contact with other men. When a
man withdraws from society, he
proves his recognition of his inability
to harmonic with society and it's
laws. We say of him, "he is very
odd" or 'he is recluse," but we
might say with equal truth "he is dis
courteous to his duty"
The individual call upon courtesy is
great but the public servant, the clerk
of corporations, the corporation itself
makes demands of equal importance
upon this quality of thoughtful SER
vice. The Christian Science Monitor
calls common civility corporation as
set and takes up this other phase of
the question as follows:
"A placard displayed in the Atlanta
(Ga.) office of the Postal Telegraph
Company, counseling the employees to
be courteous toward patrons of thar
corporation and all visitors calls forth
from the Manufacturers Record of
Baltimore the declaration that this
card, or one similar to it, should be
printed in the boldest type available
and put in the most conspicuous office
of every corporation dealing with the
public. 1t is held, and soundly, that
while it is bad enough to find lack
of courtesy anywhere, it becomes an
aggravated evil when found in offices
of semi-public corporations, for it
then arOuses feeling of hostility
that Graves an outlet through spoken
or written attacks upon responsible
corporation officials, and often
through legislation directed against
the corporations themselves.
A corporation may be made very
popular or it can become very obnoX-
ious as a consequence of the conduct
of it's employees toward the public
There is plenty of evidence to prove
that public service company poss-
essed of officials and servants who are
adopts in common civilty may lapse
in many other particulars and still re-
tain popular good will, while thor
oughly efficient public service CON-
pany may by reason of the brusque
uncivil, disobliging conduct of its en-
ployees, fall into public disfavor
There are two sides to the matter
of course. There is as good opportu-
nifty on the one side as on the other
to display good sense and good man
ners. The great difference is that
while the uncivil individual in private
life lowers and hurts only himself by
an exhibition of ill-nature or high