Charles W. Eliot introduced [at Harvard] a system of discipline
based upon personal loyalty to college interests. It is related
that at a faculty meeting shortly after he had been inducted
into office, one of the faculty asked him with considerable
severity the reason for this doing away with time-honored
rules of discipline, when the young president replied, with
great sweetness and courtesy, “The reason is, we have a new
president.”--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”
(608)
See KINDNESS.
* * * * *
The Brooklyn _Eagle_ has an office boy whose name, let us
say, is Joe. The other day Joe was present when the wife of
a member of the staff called to see her husband. The latter,
having just returned from lunch, deferentially greeted the lady
by raising his hat. Joe contemplated this act of courtesy with
that fine scorn which office boys feel for all obligations that
are not compulsory. “Huh!” he remarked to a companion. “You’d
think them two was strangers!”
(609)
=Courtesy Imitated=--See SYMBOLS, THE VALUE OF.