Furthermore, parents must never disagree before the children.  It simply can’t be!  Nor can there be an appeal to one parent against the other by a child.

“Father told me to jump down the well!”

“Then you must do it, dear,” is the mother’s only possible comment.  When the child has “jumped down the well,” she may pull him out promptly, and she may in private tell her husband what she thinks about his issuing such orders and stand her own ground against them; but so long as parents are living under the same roofs that roof must shelter unity of opinion, so far as any witnesses are concerned.

CHAPTER XXXVII

TRAVELING AT HOME AND ABROAD

To do nothing that can either annoy or offend the sensibilities of others, sums up the principal rules for conduct under all circumstances—­whether staying at home or traveling.  But in order to do nothing that can annoy or give offense, it is necessary for us to consider the point of view of those with whom we come in contact; and in traveling abroad it is necessary to know something of foreign customs which affect the foreign point of view, if we would be thought a cultivated and charming people instead of an uncivilized and objectionable one.  Before going abroad, however, let us first take up the subject of travel at home.

Since it is not likely that any one would go around the world being deliberately offensive to others, it may be taken for granted that obnoxious behavior is either the fault of thoughtlessness or ignorance—­and for the former there is no excuse.

=ON A RAILROAD TRAIN=

On a railroad train you should be careful not to assail the nostrils of fellow passengers with strong odors of any kind.  An odor that may seem to you refreshing, may cause others who dislike it and are “poor travelers” to suffer really great distress.  There is a combination of banana and the leather smell of a valise containing food, that is to many people an immediate emetic.  The smell of a banana or an orange, is in fact to nearly all bad travelers the last straw.  In America where there are “diners” on every Pullman train, the food odors are seldom encountered in parlor cars, but in Europe where railroad carriages are small, one fruit enthusiast can make his traveling companions more utterly wretched than perhaps he can imagine.  The cigar which is smoldering has, on most women, the same effect.  Certain perfumes that are particularly heavy, make others ill.  To at least half of an average trainful of people, strong odors of one kind or another are disagreeable if not actually nauseating.

=CHILDREN ON TRAINS=