Show the girl who has cultivated the spirit of thankfulness does not gush over at the gift ot a daisy and snap an indignant thanks at the man who has lost a day from the office to gratify her little whim writes edward L pell in the woman s home corn canlon of course those mothers of ours had their whims and ex the priceless privileges ot thoughtlessness and snapping now and then as girls and other than girls have always done but I 1 think it cannot be denied that the girl of a generation ago had a conscience on the subject of debts of gratitude such as few have had since her day I 1 have said that I 1 am afraid that with many of us today it Is a lost art I 1 am sure that it is not given that prominence which it once had and that it is not cultivated with the en with which it once was girls are taught what etiquette says about it but etiquette deals only from the lips outward and the result Is that even our language tells the story of the decadence of thanksgiving A traveler from mars might hear our thanks a million times and never suspect that it was meant as an ack now of a favor I 1 am sure that up to say a dozen years ago in those parts of our country where gal lantry has held out longest one could not give up a seat in a car without being sure of a full return in an ac know that meant to ac knowledge something and that to day the average man is utterly upset and undone when his ears catch the old sweet sound of course this does not justify or account for the current lack of gal lantry among men but I 1 am not en in the hopeless task of restoring men to the old paths but in the hope tul one of pointing out a neglected talent which the most charming of girls may cultivate with good results I 1 am not grumbling I 1 do not mean to say that the girl of the period Is one whit behind the girl of the past I 1 do not believe in the decadence of women I 1 believe that the girl of today is equal to the girl her mother used to be but I 1 do not believe that it Is enough to say of our girls that they are equal to the girls of the past any more than it is enough to say of a flower that has had the best attention of the best florists tor a generation that it Is as beautiful today as it was thirty years ago if we have done wisely the girl of today ought to have not only some thing which her mother lacked but she ought to have all her mother s graces as well but it Is a serious question whether in pressing her de we have not cultivated some qualities at the expense of others just as in pressing the devel of a certain flower we have increased its size and beauty at the expense of its fragrance |