Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1885 — Public Politeness. [ARTICLE]

Public Politeness.

I wa# ooming up town, and entared ft* (jfef# in which five elegantly dressed fine-looking women were sitting on eech dde of ii They might be the lady patronesses of some society. There wa# room for another person on each side, but not one of thoae women moved to make room for me, and I rode a mile Oi more, while these ten women—l do not any ladiaa—declined to give me a leak a# they ooold have done any moment, without rising or crowding. The moat of them were probably mothers. But a# the instinct of good manneik— that is, of politeness, which is simply the law of kindness—was not in the breast of ode of tne ten, what is to be expected of their children ? They cannot teach what they do not know, and, aa they know nothing of politeness, their children will be boors. Going to the omnibus again for a sample of manners, I opened the door to Step in, the other day, when a boy took advantage of my holding it open, jumped in and took the only vaoant seat, tickled that he got the start of me ana got the seat. This was young America all over. The great Athenian philosopher said that democracy has the foundation in the principle that one man is aa good as another, if not a little better. And many wise men have insisted that popular goverment tends to destroy reverence for superiors and deference to others, which are essential elements of refined manners. “In honor preferring one another,” is the inspired religion of politeness. It is not one of the highest virtues. It may be where there is no virtue. And I do not say the politest nations are the strongest, nor that it is impossible to get money, and power, and all that, with the manners of a pig. The very trait of character which the “gintleman wht pays the rint ” exhibits when he puts his foot into the trough to keep others away while he eats, is the trait erf many who succeed in getting much money. But there is a better way. And it is the way that has few walking in it, tn this day of ours.