HOW TO BEHAVE AND HOW TO AMUSE.

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PREFACE.

Etiquette has been tersely defined as “the artof doing the proper thing in the proper way.” Anacquaintance with the rules of etiquette is of thegreatest service to all who are brought into contactwith Society, and in these days few, if any, arewholly outside of the world of social usage andconvention.

In this little Manual, it is not intended to laydown, in the fullest sense, rules for the guidanceof the reader in all stations of social life, but ratherto furnish hints that may prove useful in dealingwith those social events that are of most frequentoccurrence. The etiquette of the parlor, the assemblychamber, the street, the social function, issomething all should know, since to be ignorantconcerning such matters is to class one’s self as uninformedon many things that go to make up thesum total of everyday life, and to know and practicewhich adds greatly to the pleasure of living.The well-bred man or woman is always welcomed,whereas the person who has no acquaintance witheven the most ordinary social rules is quite differentlyregarded by the majority of people.

Nor is there any reason why an acquaintancewith social usages should longer be confined, as in[12]the past, to certain classes. The farmer’s boy, theintelligent mechanic and the humblest clerk orartisan, in these days of widely-diffused knowledge,may familiarize themselves with the customs andobservances of polite society to an extent thatwill go far toward placing them on a level withthose who would otherwise be regarded as theirsuperiors. Refined manners are the boundary linebetween the ignorant and the cultured, and it iswithin the power of all to aspire to belong to thatclass of men and women whose presence is alwaysagreeable, and who combine, in rare degree, thatcharm of manners and morals which is alwaysallied with true nobility of character.

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CONTENTS.