One sometimes meets a charming girl who has a beautiful complexion, bright eyes, a pleasant manner, and a merry laugh. But, alas! her shrill, screaming voice, or her nasal tones, or her harsh discordant way of speaking, neutralizes her other advantages. With my eyes shut, simply by hearing a girl's voice in another room, or in a public conveyance where she sits at my back and I cannot even glance at her, I can tell whether a young girl is well or ill bred; almost I can state positively whether she belongs to the better-educated or the untaught classes in our land. Her voice tells the whole story. It is a surer indication than anything else about her of the people she has lived among, the care that has been taken in her upbringing, and the sort of character, refined or coarse, which she bears.
There are little mannerisms of speech which belong to certain parts of the country, and which are caught up unconsciously by young people, so that when they go away from home those who meet them have little difficulty in deciding from what point they started. For instance, if a young girl drops her final g's, and says mornin', evenin', greetin', meetin', comin', and goin', I know where she comes from. I have visited in a place or two where the sweet-voiced people nearly all cut off their final g's. And if she rolls her r's, and says the words that have r in them with a burr, I recall a journey I made one summer, and I remember numbers of nice girls who all paid r the compliment of twisting it lovingly around their tongues as they used it. A girl who says daown for down and caow for cow labels herself as plainly as if she labelled a trunk, and so does a girl whose vowel sounds are all matters of conscience to that degree that she speaks as if she were mentally spelling her words.
We ought to try to pronounce correctly. There are changes in pronunciation from time to time, but the dictionaries and the usage of well-educated persons will guide us, if we care about the matter and take pains to be right. But if we happen to hear some old-fashioned lady or gentleman pronounce a word in a by-gone manner, we shall, of course, be too polite to take notice, nor will we, as rude people have been known to do, repeat the same word in our own turn, with a different accent. I cannot too strongly urge my girls to be polite in all circumstances. Politeness is merely consideration for others, real unselfishness.
Kathie asks me to give her my views about flirting. My dear child, I haven't any. I cannot imagine school-girls flirting, if by this is meant interchanging looks and smiles in a silly way with strangers. No well brought up girl ever does this; and when a girl allows herself to infringe on the code of behavior which holds her aloof from strangers, she shows herself to be either very ignorant or very stupid.
When you are travelling, or are in any place where a stranger performs a kind and obliging act, acknowledge the courtesy by a simple bow and a thank you. The man who rises and gives you a seat in a car is entitled to this acknowledgment, and so is any one who, at any time, shows you politeness. But you must not enter into conversation with strangers, nor make new acquaintances in public.
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