Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1886 — Punctiliousness. [ARTICLE]

Punctiliousness.

If one were required to sum up in a single word the most infallible and invariable evidence of good-breeding, he could not do better than to say “punctiliousness;” and even should he be confronted with the sneer that to be punctilious is as characteristic of the martinet as of the gentleman, he need not therefore be shaken from his position. Exactitude is a thing which is learned only by inheritance, or at least by training from the cradle, and it is in a just appreciation of the comparative value of trifles that breeding, no less than genius, is manifest. It is the boor who insists that little things are beneath notice, and who disregards conventionalities with a scorn he miscalls manliness and breadth, but which is in reality uncouthness and ignorance. It is astonishing how many people in what prides itself upon being the best society are lacking in punctiliousness. Of course everybody replies to invitations, acknowledges courtesies, sends a note in recognition of holiday gifts and flowers, because people who are ill-bred enough to neglect [these observances are soon left without invitations, attentions, and gifts to acknowledge. Nobody nowadays who pretends to the most ordinary politeness thinks of failing to dispatch a letter to the host or hostess whose hospitality he has been enjoying, and nobody but a boor fails to offer excuses for being late to dinner, failing to appear at an appointment, and the like. It is not to these perfectly well understood and obvious observances which we allude; the wellbred person does all this, but so does many a one whose title to that adjective is at least extremely doubtful. The punctiliousness which stamps a map as a thoroughbred—if the expressive, though somewhatslangy term may be forgiven—is an instinctive scrupulousness ; a constant sense that noblesse oblige makes it impossible for him not to be exact and faithful in his discharge of the-claims of others upon him, however slight; an estimate of the value of his obligations which makes a trival appointment a matter to be scrupulously fulfilled except for sufficient reason; a fidelity to his word which renders him incapable of breaking even promises which, to the underbred world, seem too slight to be even remembered. A martinet, as the term is commonly used, is a man who is unreasonably punctilious ; a gentleman differs only in being strict. Nor does the punctiliousness of the gentleman stop with social observances, conventional duties, and a fulfillment of the rules of etiquette. A man may be a gentleman, and, for reasons, disregard these things, although a wellbred man rarely finds himself in circumstances where this is necessary; but in the more vital matters of kindliness, respect, and a due regard for the rights of others, the law of punctiliousness admits of no suspension. There is no such thing as being too minutely careful of the feelings of others in our daily intercourse with our fellows; it is hardly possible to conceive of cases where in common situations one can be too punctilious in forbearance, generosity to the opinions or even the prejudices of others. It is not inconsistent with the highest and heartiest manliness, it is the flower of culture and of kindliness; and at once the stamp and vital principle of practical good-breed-ing is this chief of all the social virtues, punctiliousness.— Boston Courier.

A spider, as shown by an estimate by means of actually weighing it and then confining in a cage, ate four times its weight for breakfast, nearly nine times its weight for dinner, thirteen times its weight for supper, finishing up with an ounce, and at bp. m., when he was released, ran off in search of food. At this rate a man weighing 160 pounds would require the whole of a fat steer for breakfast, the dose repeated with the addition of a half-dozen well-fatted sheep for dinner, and two bullocks, eight sheep and four hogs for supper, and then, as a lunch before going to his club banquet, he would indulge in about four barrels of fresh fish.

The largest tree in Georgia almost rivals the giants of California forests. It is twenty feet in circumference at the ground, and its girth a short distance above is four feet greater. The great tree is 155 feet in height.