The word “gentleman,” is evidently no mark of wealth or station. “You are no gentleman,” said a waiter in a tavern to a person who had given him three-pence. Three-pence more would have constituted the gentleman in the eyes of the waiter, while in truth the three-pence might have been withheld through poverty.
“What sort of a person,” said an individual to his landlady, “is that who occupies your back parlor?” “He is a tailor by trade,” said she, “but very much the gentleman.” This meant that he paid his five shillings a week regularly!
A Sailor in a Coach.—Sailors are favorites, from a general belief in their superior frankness and gallantry; but an early association with tar and oakum is by no means calculated to purify the taste or give the manners the highest finish. We shall not easily forget the sensation once produced by the arrival of a distinguished naval officer at an archery meeting in England; he was pleased to descend the steps of his carriage stern foremost, as if he were descending an accommodation ladder!
Criticism upon Preaching.—“I didn’t like our minister’s sermon last Sunday,” said the deacon who had slept all the sermon time, to a brother deacon. “Didn’t like it, brother A.; why I saw you nodding assent to every proposition of the parson.”
Want of punctuality is a species of falsehood.
