Page:Book of Etiquette, Volume 1, by Lilian Eichler.djvu/288

 ents love glitter and ostentation. They must seem wealthy and prosperous at all costs. They devote their time and thought to their home and outward appearance—they never think about knowing their children.

But the heart parent, La Rue tells us, is the man or woman who is essentially a home maker. He provides a library for the child, a cosy room, an environment that is truly home. And he spends time with him, learning all about his hopes and ambitions, encouraging him, teaching him. He knows the child; and the child knows that he has a friend upon whom to depend not only for material comforts but for spiritual advice and guidance.

You must know your children, before you can attempt to make them well-mannered and well-bred.

The strongest force that enters into the molding of children's character and deportment is the character and deportment of their own parents. Youngsters cannot find the beautiful gift of good manners in some unknown place; whatever they do and say is in imitation of something they heard their elders do and say. The whole life of a man or woman is colored by the environment and atmosphere of his or her early childhood.

Children should not be taught "party manners." If they are to be well-bred at all, they must be so at all times; and ill-bred parents can no more have well-bred children than an oak tree can have pine needles. And the chief beauty of perfect manners is that they are so habitual as to be perfectly unconscious.

Of great importance, therefore, is the law of teaching