never contradict directly any one who speaks to you. There are other methods of expressing one's opinion than contradiction.'

"If you are walking with another person, allow him to take the part of the sidewalk next to the houses.'

"If there are three persons, the place in the middle is the place of honor.'

"Never enter a salon (a drawing-room) without gloves, or with the bottom of your trousers turned up. Leave your hat, overcoat, and stick in the hall, but keep your gloves on. It is almost as bad to enter a drawing-room without gloves as without shoes.'

"Remember that politeness excites generosity and good will—that is why an ambitious young man should be polite. His manners will win him the approbation, or at least the neutrality, of those with whom he comes into contact, and that will be sufficient to win him success."

There are

We rise or fall by our manners. many men in the great failure army to-day who are there because of their wretched, disagreeable manners which proved too great a handicap for their best efforts. The bad mannered are constantly being tripped up in life and they have a hard time of it to overcome the bad impressions they make.

I have known of a number of brilliant lawyers who were barred from political offices to which

they had aspired because they had offended some one who held the key to the situation.

Many a political aspirant has blocked his advancement by incivility to some one whom he looked down on or to whom he did not think it worth while to be polite. An insult to a waiter in a restaurant, to a hotel clerk, or to a train conductor has been a boomerang to many a man who never dreamed that his rudeness would rebound to his own discredit.

Even from the most selfish, personal viewpoint, discourtesy is always bad business. One never knows in this land of chance and lightning change when fortune may send men who need assistance to the very man they have snubbed and abused.

A case in point is that of a lucky, but ragged prospector, who had located a gold mine. The miner, without taking trouble to clean up, went to a banker in Colorado Springs and asked him for a loan. The banker, looking him over disdainfully, said, "We don't lend money to tramps." The miner went away, and later, when he sold his mine for ten million dollars, he had an opportunity to pay the banker back in his own coin. He was solicited by the latter to open an account with his bank. The miner, who had not forgotten the man's former rebuff, looking him in the eye, said, "No, sir, I do not do business with tramps."

"What is the use of being gold if you look like brass" is a saying which carries a lot of meaning.

We all know how fine manners attract and how rude manners repel. It is not enough to have the pure gold of character, it must be in a fine setting.

It is said that from the age of seven to fourteen children show their mother's influence in a very marked degree, even unconsciously imitating her voice and manner, but after that age they begin to drift away, to become independent and to form habits of their own. What a wonderful asset for manhood, for womanhood, there is in starting out with correct life habits, habits of refinement and of culture, gentlemanly and ladylike habits!

Good manners are the product of a refined and cultured home, which is the natural and earliest school of manners. The youth who is polite and courteous to his father and mother and sister is likely to be polite and courteous to everybody else. The one who acquires the habit of courtesy and good breedng at home will be likely to act in a becoming manner wherever he goes.

When we see a youth in the street or in the home who instinctively and instantly does the right thing without stopping to think about it we know that he has been well trained, that he has lived in a refined home, that he has been accustomed to associating with good-mannered people.

If American children were properly trained, if good manners were generally practised among us, in our homes, in our schools, in hotels and theaters, in shops and restaurants, on the streets, every

where, all would fall in line. Politeness would be the rule, not the exception. It would be in the atmosphere, and our street-car conductors, our railroad officials, our shopgirls, our schoolboys and schoolgirls, people generally could not help being influenced by it. Everybody would catch the contagion of good manners.

"I think," says Emerson, "Hans Andersen's story of the cobweb cloth woven so fine that it was invisible—woven for the King's garment—must mean manners which do really clothe a princely nature."

It is true that genuine politeness is of the heart, the product of a princely nature, yet the possessor of a very kind heart may often be placed at a great disadvantage because he has not been trained in the outward forms of good breeding.

How often do we see kindly, well-meaning people put in the most awkward, embarrassing positions because they do not know how to behave properly at social functions or when things happen suddenly, like running up against a person, and then blushing and stammering instead of apologizing; not knowing how to behave at a well-ordered table, or not being able, because one has not been trained, to practise "the graceful observance of the right thing to say or to do" on all occasions.

One of the best fruits of fine home training, of education and culture, is that through these one is released from embarrassments which would tend

to weaken his self-confidence. Herein lies one of the great advantages of travel, of mixing in society. These things free one from many impediments, handicaps of Nature, such as shyness, timidity, lack of self-assurance, from the shackles of ignorance, from lack of poise, from a multitude of things that make one appear crude and awkward in company, that place one at a disadvantage in every situation in life.

Young people who have not enjoyed these advantages, especially those brought up in the country, are often discouraged because they do not know what to do, what to wear, or how to conduct themselves on social occasions, but if they will use their eyes and ears, observe and listen to others who have had the advantages they lack they will quickly absorb the information which will make them feel comfortable and at ease in society.

An excellent way for boys and girls, especially in small towns, or country places, to acquire a knowledge of social forms is to form "courtesy clubs," or to graft this idea of practising certain rules of etiquette upon existing organizations. It would result in great advantage, not only to the young people belonging to such associations, but also to the communities in which they live!

Plays are now introduced into kindergarten schools which tend to awaken and develop the desired qualities which are often lacking in children. "Justice plays," for example, or "courage