On Saying Please by Alpha of the Plough

On Saying Please

Summary

Alpha of the Plough is the pen name of Alfred George Gardiner, an English journalist, biographer and essayist. He is a world famous personality in literature.

Good manners are valuable in life. Bad manners are not a legal offence. Small words of courtesy make the wheel of life greasy. While bad manners make the life repulsive and difficult to live on. Bad manners are not a legal offence, law does not permit us to hit back if we are the victim of bad manners. Bad as well as good manners create a chain of reactions.

The lift man while observing the bad manners also retaliated the same. He threw the man out of the lift because he said only top not as ‘Top Please’.  Discourtesy should never be responded with discourtesy. Otherwise the life would become difficult to live on.

If a burglar breaks into ones’ house, the law compels the house owner to knock him down. If one is assaulted physically, one can retaliate accordingly. But what is of misconduct and bad manners. In the both cases the pain is equal but law does not allow us to box the ears of the persons who bears bad manners. Because bad manners are not put in the category of legal offence.

Bad as well as good manners are infectious. They create a chain of reactions. Once the writer had a chance to travel in a bus. Unfortunately he was with zero money in his pocket. He thought that the conductor might throw him out off the bus. The conductor gave him the ticket and requested the author to pay the money later on. All the way long, the conductor amused the passengers with his jolly mood and words of courtesy.

 That was the reason the people waited for his bus to board on.

One day sitting on the top of the bus the author was reading a book. Suddenly his sensitive part of the toe was trampled on rather heavily. The writer looked up, it was his friend conductor who was already humbled with his sense of sorry. Although the author was hurt badly but good behavior of man healed his pain.

Important questions

1.       “If bad manners are infectious, so also are good manners.” Elaborate.

2.       What is the importance of saying, ‘Please’?