Missouri Home Makers' Conference. 605 



but help you to get well." So all attention is directed to get- 

 ting fresh air, sunshine and happiness, and the next thing that 

 happens is a combination of good health and good temper. 



All that I have tried to do today is to give a few hints 

 about moral training. It would take many hours to talk over 

 even half our daily problems. I should like very much to 

 know from you what you think and do and what your most 

 serious problems are. And from you, friends in the State, 

 who may read this paper but who are not at this conference, 

 I wish that I might hear. I should like to know how other 

 mothers train their children to be good and true and loving 

 children. 



COURTESY IN THE HOME. 



(Mrs. W. F. Flournoy, Marionville, Mo.) 



Courtesy is, etymologically speaking, the politeness of 

 courts. It displays itself in the address and manners. The 

 courteous individual is one who is polite, civil, obliging and 

 affable. A person possessed of those qualities is truly agree- 

 able, while without them he may have great talent, good con- 

 duct, virtue, and still be disagreeable. Some one has very 

 truthfully said that "as charity covers a multitude of sins 

 before God so does politeness before men." I do not see that 

 the courtesy or politeness or good manners used in the home 

 is any different from that used elsewhere, yet my subject, 

 "Courtesy in the Home," might make one think there is a 

 difference. Politeness is a result or perhaps combination of 

 good sense and good nature and becomes a habit. And the 

 individual who is habitually polite away from home must 

 necessarily have some in reserve for home use. In order that 

 the habit of politeness may become a fixed habit it is very 

 necessary that children be taught to be polite and well-man- 

 nered from infancy. It is just as necessary a part of their 

 education as are the "three R's." Sometimes I think teaching 

 them the "three R's" is the easier task. 



Some of you who have no children can, perhaps, tell us just 

 the most approved methods for teaching children to be cour- 

 teous. I certainly hesitate to do so. However, little children 

 are great imitators, so perhaps example is one of the best ways. 

 Precept, of course, is always the easy method, but maybe not 

 so effectual. If a child is taught to have the proper respect for 

 the rights, property and opinions of others, that child has ac- 



