Two Gentlemen | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 15, 1882

Two Gentlemen.

I saw two young gentlemen on a street-car today. One of them was grown up. He was handsomely dressed in a gray business suit, and had very neat kid gloves and fine boots. The other was about twelve years old. His jacket had several patches, and needed more; and his shirt was of brown cotton and not very clean. Do you wonder how I knew he was a gentleman? I will tell you. The boy went through the car to give some message to the driver. As he returned, he gave a little jump through the door, and as he did so, his bare foot touched the grown gentleman's knee, and left a little mud on it. Turning round on the platform, he raised his straw hat, and said very politely, in a clear tone, "Please excuse me." Then the other gentleman bowed in his turn—just as he would have done to one of his own age—and said with a pleasant smile, "Certainly."

The Iroquois Indians, many of whom are very fine gentlemen, say sometimes of a rude person, "His mother did not teach him manners when he was young." I am inclined to think that the mothers of both my young gentlemen had taken a good deal of pains with their manners, because their politeness came so naturally and easily.—Selected.