Boorishness is a product of selfishness far more than a product
of ignorance; or at least a product of that ignorance which is
in itself a product of selfishness. I was once at a wedding
breakfast in a rural community in the West. The groom ate in
silence the food that was set before him, dispatched his meal
before the rest of us were more than half through, pushed
back his plate, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand,
and turning to his bride, said, “Well, Sally, you may as well
get used to my way at the beginning, and I always leave the
table when I have got through with my meal!” With these words
he went out to pick his teeth on the door-steps, leaving his
bride with a flushed face and a pained heart, the object of our
commiseration. The man was a boor, you say. True! What made him
a boor? The fact that he selfishly thought of his own comfort.
It never entered his head to inquire whether his conduct would
be agreeable or painful to his bride.--LYMAN ABBOTT,
_The Chautauquan_.
(275)
=Borrowed Trouble=--See WAIT AND SEE.