Must a Manly Man Be a Brute?
Behold the conception of manliness entertained by a certain newspaper out in Kansas! I will not name it, for it may see the error of its ways and repent; but this is what it says:
“A man soon gets mighty tired of treating his wife like a goddess. If he cannot be at ease with her, and smoke when he pleases, and take off his coat if he wants to, and throw ashes on the floor and cigar stubs all over the house, he is going to be mighty uncomfortable, and long to go where he can. For it is born in a man to like to do these things, just as it is born in a girl to like to do her own pet things. Moreover, if a girl has once known a man in a perfectly comfortable, chummy way, she will find him worth twice as much as before he dropped his awe of her. Men are pretty nice as they are; but, for goodness' sake, don't try to make a man ladylike. He isn't and won't be if he is even half a man."
I can see the man who wrote that. He is in his shirt-sleeves, and the shirt is not clean. His collar is dirty, too, and he wears no necktie. His shoes are not blacked. His face is rough with three days' beard. His hands are grimy, and the tips of his fingernails are black. He grips a cigar between his teeth, and his mustache is yellow with tobacco. He smells of the vile weed so strongly that no one with a nose can get within ten feet of him. As I watch him he kicks off his shoes and sticks his feet up on the table. All this he thinks is being manly. Nothing ladylike for him, if you please.
Well, I am glad to say that there are some men that know what it is to be a gentleman. They do not confound it with being ladylike, either.
A gentleman is a manly kind of man. A gentleman will not want to smoke in the presence of ladies-or of nonsmoking men, for that matter. A gentleman will not want to “throw ashes on the floor and cigar stubs all over the house." A gentleman will have regard for the rights and wishes of others. He will not take pleasure in making a nuisance of himself. He will not see how near he can come to a pig, and how closely he can make his surroundings imitate a pigsty.
A gentleman is far more likely to have clean, strong muscles and a quick eye and a firm hand and a level head and good nerves and to make his way in the world and stand high in the honor of men than any whiskey-guzzling, pipe-puffing rowdy who thinks it is manly to be a brute.
Meet for the Masher.
I have read an item in a newspaper which pleases me immensely. A Buffalo judge has imposed on a “masher “a sentence of 180 days in the penitentiary or a fine of $500. As the man is a waiter, he may prefer to lose a few of his fees and remain at large; but it is safe to say that he will not pester any more girls on the street cars.
It is time that the strong arm of the law mashed the “mashers." Of course there are girls that invite their attention, but the “masher “seeks larger prey. His impudent eyes and insulting words are too often turned upon decent and modest girls, whose beauty is thus made a distress to them.
Gentlemanliness cannot be put into a conceited booby by a course in the penitentiary, but an extinguisher can be put upon his boorishness, which is all the public can reasonably expect.