WHO WAS-

Southland Times, Issue 21262, 8 December 1930, Page 6

WHO WAS-

MRS GENERAL? Mrs General is the author of that famous piece of advice for the formation of a small, genteel mouth. “Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips. You will find it serviceable in the formation of a demeanour if you sometimes say to yourselves in company—on entering a room, for instance —Papa, f>otatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, prunes and prism,” said Mrs General to Little Dorrit, whose mind and manners she had been engaged to “form.” When she took over the education of Mr Dorritt’s daughters, Mrs General was fortyfive and a widow; a very imposing person, straight of back, voluminous of skirt, imperturbable of manner, with eyes as expressionless as china balls, and brows unfurrowed by thought. Propriety was her god, and convention her altar, and naught else was suffered to find a place in her conception of the universe. She had no opinions, nor did she permit her young charges to indulge in them, believing them to be most unladylike appurtenances. Her system of education consisted of stultifying her pupils’ intelligence to its minimum limit, and applying a varnish of politeness to whatever was left. In spite of her exquisite gentility, Mrs General was not too proud to set her cap at Mr Dorrit, as you may read in Dickens’ novel, “Little Dorrit.”