The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-04-21
New manners ?"

What do they mean when they tell
us about the ''old school of courtesy"
when men were knightly in their man.
ners, women gently considerate of ALL
and boys and girls had beautiful pat
terms from which to trace their con-
duct?
Do they mean that We more modern
folk do not take the time, or, alas that
we do not know how to be gracious
and courteous in the royal way of old
er days?
Ofhand, We have no basis of COM
pairing the manners of today with
those of yesterday, but there must be
some truth in the observations of the
many who say that young folk, as one
meets them in public places, in the
swing of society, even in the seclusion
of home, have permitted self-assertion
to replace the old-time Difference that
grown Indifferent to the art Of re-
membering the claim of others.
They say that young men and wom-
en- forget that there is nothing so
kingly as kindness" and that the
grace of courtesy buds and blossoms
into something better than mere popu-
larity-that it wins love by virtue of
its own effort to fit in with the ways
and the whiIns of others.
1t is strange that fashion should put
it's changing seal upon things that
count in the making of manhood and
womanhood, but it is true that there
is fashion in manners: and just now |
am afraid there is a tendency to cul-
'tivate certain newness and hardness
of manner not easily describable, but
readily recognizable.
One sees it in really young folk, as
they come trooping on the cars, not
from work, not from humble homes,
but from the leisure class, from homes
where courtesy and quiet dignity
should be the rule of the day. One
does not like to be too critical of their
easy freedom in talk. too observant Of
their flippant pose, because they are
subscribing to what they consider con-
stitutes the much-vaunted chicness
and piquancy of the American girl.
1t must be fashion; it cannot be bad
manners that are responsible for the
awful pose one sometimes sees. 1t is
not easy to characterize it-ungraceful
mannish. rakish, Indifferent, sporty"
or indicate? One thinks it is all
in one. And the manner Of speech is
quite in harmony, seemingly an effort
to be racy, up to the moment, and in
touch with life as it is lived at high
tension. There is something pitiful in
it all, and one can only hope the fash
ion is a fleeting one.
We hear the new woman much ex-
we have nothing but admiration for
the latter product, but we draw the
line sharply at these offensive mani
festations of borrowing from man his
very worst tendencies. Pray, let us
keep the sweetness and delicacy of
womanhood unmarried, and then II
chivalry goes by, 1t will not be be-
cause there is anything amiss at the
real heart of things.
Puritanical, if you like, but one must
wish that our girls as they grow to
young womanhood would remember
that an alert, dig1ified pose of body,
a natural tone of voice and pure,
well-chosen words are as pretty and
as significant today as ever.
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them the pleasant and really beautiful
meeting-point of the demure, shrink
ing girl of other times, who never
freely or fully came into her own,
and the modern, independent product
of these days, who believes that wom-
anliness is inseparable from quiet
dignity, as we'll as remembrance of
by so pleasantly.
In society, where personal charac-
teristics count for so much, and where
popularity is a shibboleth for all, it
must be remembered that that much
desired goal is reached only by the
few who make things easy for the
hostess and pleasant for other guests,
even at some personal cost.
One guesses that women who enter
tain much have a way of measuring
the young people who respond to their
social calls, and they learn, quickly
enough, that there is no tag of fash
ion ever put upon courtesy.
These are freer, easier times than
prevailed in the days when the "old-
school of courtesy" was at it's height;
and women know more of freedom
and breadth Of outlook than ever were
theirs in the long ago.
They have grown more independent,
more resourceful and more alert. But
if on the way to broader living, they
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