Character and Conduct

Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Character and Conduct’

19
Manners Makyth Man Edmund Saul Dixon

The Revd Edmund Dixon urged young people to think about what a little politeness could do for them.

In 1855, the November 24th issue of Charles Dickens’s Household Words carried a long article on good manners. Written by frequent contributor the Revd Edmund Saul Dixon, it took a look at etiquette in England, France and Arab lands, and the Arabs were the clear winners. The opening lines impressed on young readers the importance of courtesy, in a fashion suggesting that Dixon had a quite remarkable pet dog.

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20
He Is Only Defending the Land of the Zulus! Frances Colenso

Frances Colenso admired the gallantry of the men who defended the fort at Rorke’s Drift, and the restraint of the men who attacked it.

On January 22nd, 1879, some 150 British soldiers repelled an attack by several thousand Zulu warriors on a tiny garrison at Rorke’s Drift. It was a gallant action in an otherwise dubious war: the British colony of Natal had picked a quarrel with King Cetshwayo of the Zulus as an excuse to annex his realm. Frances Colenso, daughter of the Bishop of Natal, appreciated the Zulus’ restraint.

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21
Character Counts! Elbert Green Hubbard

Salesman Richard Cobden wondered why his employers left a full warehouse in his hands without any kind of security.

Richard Cobden, the great liberal statesman, began with few advantages in life. His father, a bankrupt Sussex farmer, handed him over to relatives, who hastily packed the ten-year-old boy off to a Yorkshire boarding school — a veritable Dotheboys Hall. At fifteen, he was released from this captivity, but sweeping the floors for his rich uncle did not seem to promise much better.

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22
The Making of a Great Citizen Elbert Green Hubbard

Travelling salesman Richard Cobden was still in his twenties when he bought a loss-making mill for a hundred times his annual salary.

At sixteen, poor relation Richard Cobden accepted a menial job from his uncle, who let him know how great a favour it was. Resolutely, Cobden freed himself from family obligations, and by his late twenties he was a trusted broker at the London office of a Manchester textile mill. His next step up was a daring leap.

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23
Double Standards Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson wondered why New Yorkers elected to Congress the kind of man they would turn out of their own homes.

American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson was unimpressed with the quality of the Representatives that the people of New York sent to Congress. They were the kind of men most people would banish from their homes, but New Yorkers were quite happy to send them to the House if it meant their Party secured a majority and dipped into the pork barrel.

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24
The Great Brassey Keeps his Word Samuel Smiles

Once railway engineer Thomas Brassey made a promise he kept it — even if he wasn’t aware that he’d made one.

Railways came to Belgium when the Brussels to Mechelen line opened on May 5th, 1835. In 1848, the first stage of the Sambre and Meuse line opened at Charleroi, with British engineers in charge of construction, and six years later it reached Vireux. At Olloy-sur-Viroin the company had erected a smithy at no small expense, and employed a local blacksmith. One day, Thomas Brassey arrived to inspect progress on the line.

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