[GENTLE MANNERS.]
There is one great thing that will carry you comfortably through life, and that is a nice, gentle manner. I see you all have nice, gentle manners, and what I ask you to do is to carry them outside the school, and retain them when you are on the roads or in the fields, or in your own homes. I ask the boys to cultivate the same language outside as inside the school, and the girls the same manners.
School Prize Distribution, Rhiwderin,
April 24th, 1891.
Bad language is unnecessary. Bad words are used by some people in every other sentence, without any necessity at all, and they mean nothing. If you can only learn to drop those disagreeable words you will be much more pleasant members of society. I like to see boys lively, spirited, and anxious to amuse themselves whenever they can. But they should be kind and gentle to their mothers and sisters. It is the nature of boys to be tyrannical to the other sex, but they will lose nothing by being as kind and gentle as they can be.
Boys' Brigade Inspection, Newport,
April 19th, 1894.
"It is the nature of boys to be tyrannical to the other sex."
It has been well said that good manners are something to everybody, and everything to somebody. Some people will not take anyone into employment unless they have good manners. As an old soldier, I know the value of esprit de corps. A hundred soldiers with the spirit of their corps are worth two hundred who do not care a straw about the regiment.
Pontywain School,
December 15th, 1909.