" in these days; fewer read aloud, and fewer
still endure listening to any book literally word by word.

Railroad station reading is as much in vogue as railroad station bolting
of meals. Magazines--"picture" ones--are all that the hurried have time
for, and even those who profess to "love reading" dart tourist-fashion
from page to page only pausing at attractive paragraphs; and family
relationships are followed somewhat in the same way.

Any number of busy men scarcely know their children at all, and have not
even stopped to realize that they seldom or never talk to them, never
exert themselves to be sympathetic with them, or in the slightest degree
to influence them. To growl "mornin'," or "Don't, Johnny," or "Be quiet,
Alice!" is very, very far from being "an influence" on your children's
morals, minds or manners.

=HOME EDUCATION=

A Supreme Court Justice whose education had been cut short in his youth by
the Civil War, when asked how, under the circumstances, his scholastic
attainments had been acquired, answered: "My father believed it was the
duty of every gentleman to bequeath the wealth of his intellect, no less
than that of his pocket, to his children. Wealth might be acquired by
'luck,' but proper cultivation was the birthright of every child born of
cultivated parents. We learned Latin and Greek by having him talk and
read them to us. He wrote doggerel rhymes of history which took the place
of Mother Goose. He also told us 'bed-time stories' of history, and read
classics to us after supper. When there was company, we were brought down
from the nursery so that we might profit by the conversation of our
betters."

Volumes full of "manners" acquired after they are grown are not worth half
so much as the simplest precepts acquired through lifelong habits and
through having known nothing else.

=THE OLD GRAY WRAPPER HABIT=

How many times has one heard some one say: "I won't dress for dinner--no
one is coming in." Or, "That old dress will do!" Old clothes! No manners!
And what is the result? One wife more wonders why her husband neglects
her! Curious how the habit of careless manners and the habit of old
clothes go together. If you doubt it, put the question to yourself: "Who
could possibly have the manners of a queen in a gray flannel wrapper?" And
how many women really lovely and good--especially good--commit esthetic
suicide by letting themselves slide down to where they "feel natural" in
an old gr