12 SEPTEMBER 1925, Page 17

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Snt,—R. W. Emerson once

said : " Manners form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned." Manners are the " happy ways of doing things " in life, and the habit of tidiness is not least important among their number.

Of recent years, and especially since the opening of Ken Wood, much has been said upon the subject of litter. The Spectator has published some eloquent paragraphs under this title. The object must be to attempt to develop in the mind of the British public a conception of tidiness as a necessary !part of decency, and, as the Spectator has already asserted, " continual suggestion " can bring the desired improvement !Example and suggestion must combine to spread the habit of (neatness, but, above all, the subject must not be dropped from discussion until some definite success has been achieved. ',Habits, whether they be good or bad, are very communicable : ;men catch them from each other. In Aberdeen I have seen an 'old Scotsman actually walk the entire length of a tramcar in '‘order to place his single ticket in a waste-paper box which was tat the other end of the car. He set an example which many passengers must have noticed, and which a few may have copied. Would that some Aberdonian could teach us how to keep our Regent Street as free from litter as is Union Street in

the " Granite City " !—I am, Sir, &c., G. P.