SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 3 September 1929, Page 5

SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE

If the motorist who made an ugly dent in my off-side front mudguard the other day would own up to his misdeed he would hear something to his advantage. I would deliver a lecture on common decency as between brethren of the,wheel, a heart-to-Jieart talk that would, 1 hope, make blip less of a selfish hog and more of a man. To have one’s car damaged in a terri-, fic jam or in a straight-out accident is bad enough, but what annoys one more than anything else is to turn up at the parking place to find that some careless ifool has bent your guards or scratchedyour panels and gone off without a word.- Income cases the accident .is unavoidable and decent motorists leave their cards in your car. You don*t mind the damage so much then, arid may even feel a friendly impulse towards the other man. Courtesy is a disappearing. art, spy some. I wonder whether it is, or are we. inclined to base our judgment upon individual acts of, boorishness? Your hear people say that motorists are a lot of selfish wretches. A friend of mine goes so far as to declare he could phoot most of them. I suppose lamto be exempt from the wholesale slaughter on account of giving him a run in my car now and again. But statements such as these are not to be taken seriously. The woman whose silk stockings are ruined by a .-splash, from a passing car hates all motorists for the time being, but later on when she is sailing along a smooth road in a luxurious saloon she forgets her enmity and has even been known to glare indignantly at slow-m'oving pedestrians. No, courtesy is riot a lost art, neither are motorists all worthy of death. Some men still give up their seats in trams to ladies. Some ,ladies still say ‘‘Thank you ” with a pleasant smile'as they graciously accept the seats. Some business men still carry their social courtesies to their offices, rising when a lady enters, offering her a seat, and opening the door for her when leaving. Some don’t, I know, and I do not suggest that ladies expect it; I am merely trying to prove that courtesy still persists in odd corners of this world of ours; One leading business man I know of is very courteous to lady customers, but a rude bear to women employees. The “he-man,” the virile being whose theory of' “ treat ’em rough” seems to work well enough,has no time for courtesy. Neither has be time for any of the finer things oi life, such as art or literature. He is little more than an animal, and if he succeeds in life at all it is because of his animal cunning and instinct. Life is so much more pleasant when we treat our fellows with courtesy. On the other hand, life is made very much harder than it is—and it is hard enough in all conscience for most of us—by every act of callousness, discourtesy, or , common everyday thoughtlessness. That dent in my mudguard roused anger in my heart, whereas had the,, perpetrator left his card with “sorry” nencilled on it I would have felt more like a Christian towards him and thought no more about the matter except to have the dents “ undented.” Courtesy is a virtue that is extant, although it may not be as popular as one would like; when we learn afresh that courtesy is not the weakness of a half-wit, or a sign of social or business inferiority we will have no doubt become more alive to its practical value in the forming of character and its advantage to each one of us in our daily contact with our fellows. —R.H. in the Auckland “ Star.”