Salt Lake Tribune | 1912-02-11 | Page 41 | Manners

Nlaillief S y The Gentlewoman j H SEVERAL distinguished French ladies contributed recently to a symposium on the subject sub-ject of man's manners. The conclusion arrived at by a lady wri.er and a lady lawyer -were that "tho little duties of old-fashioned gallantry" were no longer doomed necessary by the woman who claimed equality with man. If our women of independent views were asked their opinion they would probably come to much the same conclusion. They no longer long-er ojcpoct a puntilious' politoneos from men, though they aro always al-ways pleased when .they receive it. Good manners arc somewhat unfashionable un-fashionable nowadays. The motor J speed at which we live leaves little lit-tle leisure for the cultivation of gracious nnd stately ceremony. So "polite manners" "are left to the shopwalker, the salesman, the social so-cial climber, and the man or woman wo-man with au "ax to grind." Perhaps af.'er all it is better in some respects that it is so. The present state of things may not bo so pleasing, but, nt ain' rate, it makes for sincerity. How often it happens that good people have tlio worrA manners, and bad people the best I The successful adventurer or assassin, whether in real life or on the stage, is generally plaudiblp or manner nnd genial oT aspect. Courtesy is necessary to tho criminal. crim-inal. It, is oue of his "most important import-ant assets. The egotist very frequently fre-quently has fascinating manners; his charm of manner blinds people to his imperfections. On the gther hand- how manv good and highly rospectable people smSI havo very bad manners. Highly HH sincere souls, for instance, seldom ilH havo delightful manners. Tn order laH to be quite charming, a certain ialM amount of insincerity and humbug- SHI ging aro absolutely necessary. The imlfl "T-say - what-T menn-and - mean Klfl whal-T-say" individual ha? no HI chance whatever of being designat- Sffll ed a Hmrnier. jflVffl Furthermore, charming manners m9H are not often found in conjunction with exceptional intellectual now- hmI ers. Cireat scientists, philosophers, HH literateurs, are not usually remark- BPnl able for their "8'ddress." Abpeuce WHm of mind usuallv means absence of 9KU manners. A shopwalker has better mHmI manners, than a savant. His mind IfiVJ is engaged on the small affairs of nBH tin moment tho opening of a fftYfl door, the picking up of a dropped fHflH handkerchief and the hundred-and- Omm one little politonosses to the ladies MHB as the vulgar phrase it. HH Generally speaking, the less per- Hmm sonality one possesses the fewer HMM moral. "mental and physical quali- nMM ties the more is ..ho cultivation of manners necessary. ! "Euripides," savs Aspasia. "has WM uot the tine manners of Sophocles, but the movers and masters of our Hmm souls have surely a right to throw tLmm out. their limbs as carelessly as Pfl they please in a world that be- Bfl longs to thorn. " RH People of strong individuality IfBfl an make .'heir own manners. HfiWi Manners should cxprps parson HM alitv. nnd if men and women, e- SHU pecially women, expressed them- ffiwal selves in their manners, instead of iNOfl aping the mnnners of other peoolo, W'rH human nature would be a Httle Teas r.ffS monotonons than it is at present. ,. fflifl