Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-10

eraciousness does not help. No sit
uation it does not adorn.
There is a time for everything,
said the wise man. and there is also
a way for doing everything, for it is
not what people say to us that so
much makes us fighting mad, it's
the way they say it. 1t is not what
thew do to us that we resent so
much as the way they do it.. And
the secret of this difference is gra-
ciousness.
You know how it is. Haven't you
been invited to places with such a
lack of tact and graciousness that 1t
made the invitation an insult instead
of a compliment? Haven't you had
women say to you, Wont you come
to my bridge party Friday? I'm
lust in debt to everybody and L am
giving a big affair to pay them all
off" Haven't you had man say
to you Il told my wife we must
have you out to our country place
some time, and I have been trying
to get her to ask you for week
end
And haven't you felt like reply
ing. Keen your old invitation.
There's no compulsion about asking
me to your house. I've got plenty
of bread and butter OF my own, ana,
a long sight better cook than you
have, and you and your stupid wife
bore me to death, anyway, with
your meat,ax social technique"
And haven't you had other people
couch their invitation in such a flat.
tering form, and throw into it such
an intimation that they were de-
pending on you to be the life of the
party, and infuse into it such
warmth of welcome and hospitality
that YOU would have broken an en-
eaeement with the Prince of Wales
and the presidents wife, to have ac-
cepted it?
such is the power of graciousness.
And haven't you had people give
vol things, valuable things that you
desired, or helr you when you neede
help, IN such a way that you ft..t ike
throwing their benefactiC in Their
faces Don't you know people who
never give anything without tying a
string to it, or passing out a lecture
along with it? Haven't you seen an
old aunt give a pretty young girl
really substantial check, and say as
she did so, Now, my dear, don {
waste this money on foollShness.
Don't throw it away on silly chlttons
that have got no wear to them, BIT
buy some good. warm winter flan-
nels and q dress that will last you
for two years"
And don't you know people who
never help anybody in trouble with
out going over the whole litany or
their failures, and mistakes and
shortcomings? Perhaps the reason
why there is so little gratitude Is
because most generosity is so grudg-
ingly bestowed
And don't you know a few people
who give themselves with their gifts,
who show such a pleasure in doing
you a kindline~s that they make you
feel that you are bestowing favor
upon them in permitting them to
serve you, that they make a 10.cent
present of more value in your eyes.
than 4 limousine or a tiara would De
from the ungracious.
pon't you remember the gratitude
that you felt toward some Jolly OLD
relative when you were young, who
would slip a few dollars in your hand
without asking you what you were
going to- do with it, Or saying a word
about youthful folly? And when mis-
fortune came your way, can you ever
forget th.se who helped you, not 50
much with money as with sympathy
and understanding diA not
make you feel that you were down.
and-uuter on whom they were be-
slowing aims, but as a brother and
sister who had stumbled on the hard
road, and to whom they were just
reaching out a sustaining hand?
And it is graciousness tn, takes