Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1919 — SET EXAMPLE IN COURTESY [ARTICLE]

SET EXAMPLE IN COURTESY

Venetians Were the First to Put Before World the Nobleness of Gentle Manners. Pompeo Molnienti, the historian, relates that in the sixteenth century the manners of the Venetian people were evident In every department of daily life, even down to the greetings -in-tho street. The very nobles In the Seleento, the period of greatest hauteur, were wont to salute courteously by raising their cap with the left hand and laying the right on the heart. The populace was always obsequious, especially toward patri-cians^-and foreigners, and to every question addressed to them would never answer brusquely, “Yes,” but always, “At your service,” though this humility of expression implied not so much servility as an inborn courtesy of feeling. The penalties for blasphemy were exceptionally severe. For instance, Benlgna, in his memoirs, writes, under June 28, 1724: “A certain Bertelll for having used foul oaths was placed in the pillory and had his tongue cut <ut.” Yet, ceremony in Venice was never allowed to degenerate into ridiculous etiquette. As early as the close of the sixteenth century a resolution was passed forbidding the use of glowing expressions in salutations.