separated and of different temperaments, agree on the main facts, we may accept their conclusions as representative. We no longer have a Pliny, a Plutarch, or a Herodotus to write the times or lives of a people; an Evelyn, a Pepys, or a Swift to picture for us society and its morals; but we have a fairly good substitute in the newspaper and the magazine.

Let us see what Americans say about their own manners. "I should like to urge the Italian," Mr. W. D. Howells writes, "to ignore our bad manners and our harsh voices. I would entreat him to remember for our sakes the instinctive courtesy of his race, and transmit its politeness and its sweetness to the American of his making over." 1

The fear that the immigrant will be corrupted by the bad manners of America is expressed by a writer in the Century Magazine.2

At the Gate of the New World [he says], what is the first lesson the immigrants learn? Is it the fundamental one of respect for the larger rights of others, of which we boast? Is it not rather the one of disrespect for the minor rights of courtesy and politeness? Do not false notions of equality very soon rob their respectful demeanor and speech of its bloom? This being the case, how can we expect them to discriminate in the scope of their indifference between minor and major rights? . . . An Italian from the Basilicata may know little and may be qualified to learn little more of the American system of government, but he knows instinctively the part that 1 Harper's Weekly, April 10, 1909.

• Manners and the Immigrant, February, 1910, p. 639.

manners play in life, and usually on arriving affords a better example of respect for others than his American neighbor. To establish respectful intercourse among all

respect toward the humble as well as from the humble — is to take the first important step toward making the immigrant a valuable American citizen.

The first thing that foreigners who come to this country notice [says a writer in the Washington Herald 1] is the lack of the small courtesies which are a part of every European child's training. They are taught in the home, in the public schools, in the factories, in the countinghouse; everywhere the little points of etiquette are made much of. In America, on the contrary, we rather pride ourselves on overlooking small things, in our ability to view things en grande. And then we are in too much of a hurry in this great land of the free, where, after all our boasting of freedom and liberty, personal rights are but little respected. We are in too much of a hurry to bother about small courtesies, in too much of a hurry to say "Please" and "Thank you," in too much of a hurry to stop to apologize when in our mad rush we knock the weaker ones down. And, then, what does it matter so long as we make our train, or are in time for our engagement? The proud boast is often made that an American always "gets there." An excellent thing, perhaps, but is it worth while to "always get there" when one considers the cost? ..

Little courtesies are not generally insisted upon in this country for many reasons, too many almost to enumerate. Mothers are too lax, too indifferent, or too fond to demand from their children the consideration and po

1 November 22, 1908.

liteness which is their due and their duty. . . . Teachers are sometimes not sufficiently well-bred themselves to notice the lack of breeding in their scholars, and if a pupil does good work it does not matter, they think, if the child does not take his hat off, stand when he should, and show the consideration that is due from pupil to teacher; or they feel, perhaps, as a modern pedagogue felt when he said in answer to a parent who complained to him that her son's manners were being corrupted at school, “Madam, I have to do with your son's mind, not his manners. Manners should be taught at home." In the working world a director or superintendent will affirm that he does not give a dash for a man's manners as long as his work is creditable, as long as he “gets there," and so the younger generation grows up into boors, because there is no one to set them right.

1

In the New York Times 1 a writer discusses the bad traveling-manners of his countrymen and countrywomen, for women are accused by Americans of even worse manners than men when away from home.

As my travels about Europe expanded [he says], I became conscious of a painful and ever-increasing shrinkage of my self-complacency, for the consensus of foreign opinion was everywhere the same that we are a nahappily not in the

tion of pigs in the assertive sense physical. We monopolize everything within our reach, regardless of other people's comfort, buying over the heads of less ambitious but more courteous travelers, making ourselves conspicuous, and forcing ourselves 1 September 23, 1906.

into undue dominance at the cost of personal dignity and public convenience. The only good thing to be said for us seems to be covered by that oft-repeated phrase, "They pay well."

While visiting the royal palace at Athens, which the King had graciously thrown open for inspection, a throng of touring Americans happened to enter the throne room while I was there. One of the young men who made loud remarks about the lack of magnificence, handled the purple velvet canopy with a familiar air till he was politely requested to desist.

"I wonder what it feels like to sit on a throne," he remarked jauntily, and the next moment he had set foot on the royal velvet of the dais and seated himself upon the throne. The look of outraged astonishment on the faces of the guards would have shamed any one but this "independent American," who smiled down at them with an "I'm-as-good-as-any-King" expression until an officer hurried up and begged him to rise. "The King is in the adjoining room, sir," he said in great trepidation. "Indeed," said the American. "Well, I'm not afraid of any King." When he had finally been persuaded to vacate his position, the guards knelt down and wiped the dust marks of his feet from the velvet with their hand

kerchiefs, while we withdrew some of us in deep disgust and humiliation.

The decadence of good manners in American life is becoming a common plaint [declares a writer in the Washington Post 1]. The little courtesies that are the hallmark of good-breeding are becoming rarer and rarer -so scarce, in fact, as to class as old-fashioned those

1 April 12, 1909.

who use them. The gentle art of politeness is fast becoming a lost accomplishment, or at best to be brought into action only upon special occasions. But it is a significant indictment that women are the greatest offenders against the accepted canons of good-breeding; they rush in where mere man fears to tread; and as the adoration of women is a cult in America, they unfortunately set the average of manners at a very low level. Marion Harland, in a recent article, comes to the conclusion that of the two sexes woman takes the palm for rudeness and other forms of ill-breeding.

In the Saturday Evening Post1 Lillian Bell agrees with the writer last quoted that the manners of women are worse than those of men.

Men are bad enough [she says], but they are incapable of the petty and persistent meanness of women, especially when traveling. A man has more sense of shame. . . . For selfishness and inconsideration, commend me to a woman traveling. She will deliberately occupy two seats in a street car; see other women stand, laden with bundles, without offering to move up, and otherwise try to prove to everybody with eyes in their heads that they, these women, have no manners at all. . . . Far from displaying good manners themselves, many women are incapable of appreciating good manners in others. If a well-bred woman does move up to make room for a standing woman, how often is the first woman thanked? Sometimes not even a bow or a glance is given! . . .

I wonder more than all what is to become of the courteous, law-abiding, considerate portion of the American

1 December 22, 1906.