POLITENESS PAYS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 2 April 1930, Page 7

POLITENESS PAYS

"Oh, well, it doesn't matter! It's only John," said Marion. 1 thought of the time only two years before when, everything mattered so intensely just because it was John. At the sound of a footstep that might be his out came the powder-puff. Even over a telephone conversation, common sense hardly restrained her from smoothing away an imaginary/ wrinkle from her stocking. But now John can come back from the office to find her in "any old thing," shiny and dirty, and immersed in one of the more unsavoury jobs about the home. Any old thing wouldn't so much matter in itself. The trouble is that any old mood, and any old conversation, and any old rude remark does for John. Even the grocer's assistant gets more sweet words, though one egg out of the dozen at least is always bad !

John can hardly be described as a model of graciousnoss, either. Thero were days when he carried Marion's parcels, noticed her clothes, nnd fell over himself to open the door for her. There were even times when ho offered to help in the kitchen. And I romomber bow, manlike, he look such an infinite amount of trouble over peeling the potatoes, that, what with sharpening the knife and such a minute attention to detail, dinner was quite half an hour late ! And Marion loved all his stories and reminiscences, just because she loved the light injiis eyes when he smiled and the sound of his voice. She never interrupted by saying she had heard the story fifty times before. And that was just as true then as now, though now she interrupt'! or c6rrects; and what is worse, doesn't even bother to listen—and yawns' ' * They take each other for granted without so much as a "please."

It is all becauso they have got too

much into the habit of one another to remember to he polito. Free-and-easy manners are all right up to a point. If you can't be cross and dirty and let off steam and bang doors in your own home, where on earth can you do it? The whole joy is that you can shut out the nuisance and the criticism of the outside world and behave and act in your own natural way. And this is just the point. Your own natural way is not an impolite, surly, •-ind ungracious manner. It doos seem siu'i ; pitv that so many married couples should let each other see the very worst side of one another day after day, while their nice, clean faces and pretty ways are reserved for comparative strangers and people who don't matter twopence. *■♦'»■*.»

Everyday existence is the sum of so many tiresome details. Love, it is true, makes everything a hundred times worth whil». It" adds a glow to the daily round of rooking and scrubbing and the routinc of work and the inexhaustible effort of enticing two wayward ends to meet. But love i.» a. wayward flame. Neglect it or take it for granted and one day you may find that it has flickered out. . It needs continual effort to keep thi.v flame bright and clear, and daily acts of politeness are a very sure and easy fan. . . . PoK'e'ie« pays every time, and it is by y° n ~ ows! thought-fulness and courtesv I'lit happiness remains. An.l it is bv remembTing to be polite to one another that John and Marion cro on mittorinrr to each other more than the whole world put together.—Women's Weekly.