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Politeness in Business Life
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The Relation of Good Manners to "Getting On" in the World—How Misbehavior in School Handicaps a Boy in Business Life—Why Some Doors are Closed to Some People—Good Manners in Public Places.

From the street men go into business offices and factories, children into school rooms. School is, in part, a child's business life and, in part, his social life. Good manners there are the same as in the workaday world, and places of public use. A pupil should be on time with well-prepared lessons, and clean and neat appearance. He should do the work that is expected of him, and be attentive, respectful and obliging to the teacher, and he should not disturb the work of his classmates. A boy who has been idle, mischievous and nosy in school, and rude to his teachers, will have to unlearn such manners before he can hold a place in a business office. He should not tell tales, in school or out. No employer wants a whiner, and a tattler is sure to tell business secrets.

The money value of good manners should be taught to growing boys and girls. We all know men of brains, honesty and industry, who have succeeded in business, who are personally disagreeable. But they would have had a larger and easier success, more friends and a pleasanter life if they had been well-bred. In the business, as in the social world, many doors are open to good-breeding that the boorish man cannot batter down. Of two boys or girls who apply for a place to work, the one whose appearance and manner make the best impression is likely to be given the chance.

Boys who start out with good manners will find business life much pleasanter and, with equal industry, will rise faster than boys who are rude and thoughtless in their behavior.

Begin by being courteous to your fellows at play. It isn't the boy who pushes or crowds that gets on best with his fellows, and this is just as true when you get to working in an office or "on the road."