Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-08-18
BY Dorothy Dix

1t is announced that the New York
University is going to establish a
school of manners, and that the degree
of NJ. E.-Magister Eleagantiarium-
may be conferred on such students as
perfect themselves in the etiquette of
polite society.
This news sounds almost too good to
be true. Let us hope, however, that
such a course of study is really to be
established in one of our great schools,
and that it will be compulsory, for
nothing is more sadly needed.
For whatever other charms and vir-
tues the American youth may possess,
good are seldom among them.
AS a child he is almost invariably a
little savage. AS a hobbledehoy he is
generally a hoodlum, and as a grown
man he is only too often an awkward
b%lunderer, who is like a bull in the
social china shop.
On every side we encounter multi
tudes of men who have intelligence,
force, power, men who have achieved
success in their own particular calling,
but who are Is ignorant as babes of
any of the graces of human inter-
course.
They cannot enter or leave a room
without falling over their own feet.
They do not know what to say when
presented to a stranger, or how either
to pay or receive a compliment.
At dinner parties you may see them
hopelessly laundering around among
the silverware. At restaurants you
may observe them with their legs
twined like snakes around their chair
legs, grasping their forks as if they
were about to harpoon an attacking
whale, and, alas, you may even pass
away an evening listening to them eat
their soup.
Of course, we excuse such men by
saying that they have been too busy
with big affairs to give their attention
to such small matters as the proper
use of a fork or a spoon. We say that
it's more important that a mans heart
should be of gold than that he should
wear the right sort of coat for the oc-
%casion, and we try to gloss over his
boorishness by calling him a rough
diamond.
All of which is sheer nonsense. No
body will contend that a rough dia-
mond is as valuable as one that is cut
and polished, and the truth is. that
while a man may succeed without good
manners. he would succeed better with
them. To know how to do things, to
possess what the French call savior
faire, is always a help, never a handi-
cap in life.
People have always appreciated this
fact so far as women were concerned.
In all girls schools special attention is
paid to department, and girls are
taught the niceties of etiquette that
they perhaps do not have an oppor-
tunity to learn in their own homes.
More than that. at home stress is
laid on little girls behaving like ladies,
and wherever you go the small daugh-
ter of the house will receive you
charmingly, drop her little courtesy
and endeavor to engage you in cour
NCOu9 1OAN NV ~
But apparently the mothers of the
families make no effort to instil
%politeness into their boys, and the lads
Will storm into the room with their
caps on. They will never stop to
speak to the visitors, and only grunt
by way of reply when addressed.
And when these boys are sent off
school no effort seems to be made
to supplement their lack of home
training in They are
grounded in all the arts and sciences
except the most important art and
science of all, which is that of max
ing oneself agreeable to ones fellow
creatures.
For. when all is said and done, good
manners will carry one further than