My friend took his seat, and presently began to be very uncomfortable. For everybody seemed amused at him, glances were levelled in his direction, girls giggled, elderly ladies drew their faces into a pucker, and the atmosphere of the place was as electric as the fluid which sent the car through space. After a short interval the puzzled gentleman discovered that it was not he who was the object of mirth to his comrades on the road, but a poor, shy, blushing, tearful, trembling, frightened girl who was sitting by his side. She, poor child, was dressed in an outre fashion, which did not please the set of people in that conveyance, and, evidently, she had met with an accident, for her clothing was tumbled and torn, her face was bruised and cut, and one hand had been wrenched and seemed to be paining her very much. I can imagine nothing more brutally ill-bred and rudely ignorant and unfeeling than the behavior of those silly girls and boys, and still more silly grown-up people in that car. Can you? They were laughing at a child who had met with an accident on her wheel!
Now, for an opposite picture. One afternoon lately, at the terminus of a great railroad, in a crowded waiting-room, a foreign lady with her attendants attracted some observation, but was neither stared nor laughed at. Yet her costume was really extraordinary. Around her neck she wore a dozen chains of gold, linked together and sparkling with rare gems. The chains hung to her waist, and gleamed like a gorgeous breast-plate. Pendants of diamonds hung from her small brown ears. Her small dark hands were loaded with jewelled rings; her head was enveloped in many folds of white silken gauze. Open-worked silk stockings covered her little feet, and she wore high-heeled slippers with painted toes. Her travelling-gown was a rich shimmering brocade, ill fitting and with a long train. Her maids, one fair and white, the other black as ebony, were loaded with baskets and bundles, and her servitor held in leash two magnificent collies, while a green and yellow parrot chattered from his perch on the man's arm.
All this was a sight to arouse attention and excite curiosity, but this was a well-bred throng of people gathered in the waiting-room, and the lady, probably a princess from some tropic island, was annoyed by no looks, laughter, or remarks.
One of the first rules to be adopted by a thoroughly polite person is this: Never show surprise, except of the genuinely gracious kind, the kind that expresses cordial interest and pleasure. Never laugh at an awkward predicament, at, for example, a fall, or a mistake made by another. Be careful never to pain any one, friend or stranger, by ridicule, or by thoughtlessly plain speaking.
ILL-TEMPERED BABIES
are not desirable in any home. Insufficient nourishment produces ill temper. Guard against fretful children by feeding nutritious and digestible food. The Gail Borden Eagle Brand Condensed Milk is the most successful of all infant foods.—[Adv.]