SPANISH POLITENESS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume 2, Issue 132, 17 December 1879, Page 3

SPANISH POLITENESS.

Says the Hon. J. D. Washburn in a letter to the Worcester Spy.—You cannot imagine a more polite company than a crowd of Spaniards waiting at the station. No pressing of one another, no confusion ; a kindly interest in strangers, and deference to those who appear not to understand the language or customs of the country. A curious incident and illustration of this occurred one day as I was buying the tickets at a city station. They weigh all the gold coin, you know, and take nothing on its apparent face, value, as we do, without submitting it to this test. The hour for departure of the train had about arrived, the crowd was large, and I had taken my place at the head of the long column of people who wanted to buy tickets. The coin I handed to the ticket agent was one that had been clipped by some Jew, and it took a good while for the ticket seller to weigh it, and estimate what deduction should be made from its face value. Do you suppose the crowd pushed and pressed, and denounced the ignorance of the foreigner, as I fear might have been the case in some of our American cities ? Not a bit of it. They waited, each in his turn, in the most considerate manner, vindicating my claim to have a small deduction made, and showed, instead of impatience, an amount of sympathetic interest which with us is apt to be reserved for personal friends alone.