The L'anse Sentinel

Two virtues disappearing.
Loyalty Among Women and Courtesy Among Men,

Loyalty seems to be one of the old fashioned virtues which of late years have become almost obsolete--loyalty to one's friend, one's guest, one's host even to the members of one's family. It seems to belong no longer to the ethics of modern life. "Yes, I am very fond of So-and-so," is the usual preface, "but," and then follows the usual criticism, which is generally exaggerated, is often unkind, and almost always gives a disagreeable impression of the person discussed. In old days it used to be considered bad taste to criticise either a guest or a host, but such intimate intercourse nowadays seems only to give an added opportunity for satirical remark.

It is literally true as society is at present constituted that a person who speaks well of friends is voted a bore, while a tongue that spares no one gives its owner a decided popularity. Oddly enough, however. the listeners who enjoy the gossip, which in the nature of things is necessarily ill-natured, never seem to realize while they laugh over the shortcomings of mutual acquaintances that they themselves will be the next victims, for it may be taken as a well-proven rule that a person who says sharp things of one friend will not spare another. Every one of us is vulnerable, and if our intimate friends cannot "be to our virtues very kind, and to our faults a little blind" whom can we trust? We shall have to end by "loving our enemies" and praying to be "delivered from our friends," like Job of old.

If loyalty has become obsolete among the women of late years, the men might well plead guilty to another indictment --chivalry with them has certainly died out. It used to be said of American men that they were very Bayards in knightly homage to their womenkind. But where now is that boasted consideration? Women are dragged into print and have their private and sacred affairs discussed without any redress. It is not so very long ago that courtesy toward the sex in public conveyances used to be the rule. Now it is the exception. and the tone of careless indifference prevails even in matters social, Politeness towards women simply because they are women is now conspicuous by its absence, and there is a give and take sort of manners in vogue that is very deficient indeed in the respect shown of yore. Perhaps this is not altogether the fault of the men; it may be that the women have brought this state of affairs on themselves. If the new woman had not appeared, it is possible that the old-fashioned gentleman would not have gone out of existence, and that our men might have remained preux chevaliers-but whatever the cause, and wherever we may look for the reason. it cannot be denied that another very desirable virtue has become practically extinct.-N. Y. Tribune.