p. 469 | DECLINE OF MANNERS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 5, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 30.

DECLINE OF MANNERS.

No ONE who is brought into contact with the young people of the present day, will deny that the manners of the rising generation do not receive that degree of attention from the rank and file, at least, of their instructors, which the importance of the subject demands. The habit of allowing children to mix on terms of practical equality with their elders, and of permitting them to take a full share in the conversation of the drawing-room, appears to be an increasing tendency, and is one which cannot be on all grounds too severely reprehended. Nothing takes the bloom off a child's thoughts more quickly than the desire to shine, and the awakening of that hunger for applause which is often fatal even to children of a larger growth. It is a grave injustice to the children themselves to thrust them forward into an atmosphere in which they are naturally at a disadvantage, and in which they can only feel at home when they have been robbed of that frank and modest unconsciousness of look and speech which ought to be their safeguard, as it undoubtedly is their charm. Even the warmest admirer of American institutions and customs will, if his opinions are based on personal knowledge, draw the line when he comes to deal with the manners of the children in transatlantic homes. There the system of forcing human sensitive plants in the hot atmosphere of the drawing-room can be studied to advantage, and no one who looks dispassionately at the results will feel any difficulty as to the nature of the verdict which truth compels him to pronounce.—London Standard.