The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-07-26
GERMAN ETIQUETTE.
Some of the Rules That Americans afs
Forever Disregarding.

Some Of the Rules That Americans afs
Forever Disregarding.
German etiquette is very minute
1t .ioes not stop with the ordinary
rules for eating. drinking. calling and
receiving. 1t prescribes mazes OF
trivial details which would fill so many
fat volumes that even the Germans
have not had the courage TO write
them. 1t directs man what TO say
just before beginning to drink glass
of beer and just before finishing It, 1t
tells him the exact words he must use
in insulting a stranger. 1t graduates
nicely the depth of the bows that are
due to the Privy Councillor, the Court
Councillor, the tutor, the judge. the
tradesman, the barber and the restaur-
ateur. 1t explains why the clergyman
should bow first to the Herr Baron and
last to the Herr Banker. 1t describes
just how man must kiss womans
hand in the drawing-room and just why
he need not give her his seat in
! horse-car 1t even prescribes the circle
in which a man may waltz at ball.
Perhaps the best criterion OF the
minuteness of German etiquette is the
little unwritten code on pocket man
ners. German good form is shocked
by the helter-skelter condition of the
American pocket. A well-bred Ger
man never allows his keys and his jack
knife, his small change, his shoe-but-
toner and his cigar-cutter to jingle
about loosely in his trousers-pocket.
A naked cigar protruding from a
waist-coat pocket shocks the mOdesty
of German good form much more
than a dozen or more Of Rubens'
strapping Dutch goddesses. The
greatest offense against German pocket
manners is to carry small silver coins
loose in the pocket. A German Lieu
tenant may have only half dollar to
his name, but he carries rs big purse
as if he owned all the notes OF the I'M
perial Reichsbank. In paying for five
cents worth of beer he goes down into
his trousers and draws out his habby
pocket-book with dignity, thanking
Heaven he is a mannerly, high-born
| Prussian, and not vulgar tradesman
| like the American at his side. who has
just slapped down on the table mess
of gold, silver, keys and manicure ap-
paratus. The small German school
boy is not even allowed to carry his
Car fare without purse. The servant
girl, who earns but $40 year, would
not carry the price of loaf OF black
bread through the street in her hand.
Every reputable smoker in Germany
has his ''cigar-etuis." He prepares to
smoke By emptying out all his three
cent cigars on the table before him,
and laying the case aside. Then he
draws little cigar clipper from an
other case. removes the tip of the least
offensive-looking cigar. and drops the
small bit of tobacco into a tiny box
which he carries in his waistcoat
pocket. At the end of each smokers
year he sends all these cigar tips to
charitable institution in his province
Two years ago the asylums in the little
province of Brunswick received four
hundred marks worth of tobacco in
this wise. After slowing away the
orphans share" of the cigar, the
smoker takes knife from its chamois-
skin bag and finishes the job which the
clipper began. A case containing a
cigarette-holder and leather match
safe are the last articles which the
well-bred German about to smoke adds
to the collection of small bags and
eases on the table before him. OF
course, all this elaborate preparation
to smoke one three-cent cigar strikes
the American tourist as trife ridicu-
lOus. A German. however, regards it
as Indicative of the breeding of the
smoker. He looks upon the rough
and-ready manner in which an Amer
lean carries his cigars, matches and
knife much as an American looks upon
a man who travels without tooth
brush and night-shirt.
The little code of pocket manners is
enforced just as tyrannically by Ger
man public opinion as other branches
of German etiquette. Americans. who
consider such minute matters all bosh
and say SO. are apt to be roughly cor
rected Or altogether abandoned by
their more fastidious friends. Like
the Inspector in ''The Moonstone,"
German etiquette holds that there are
no trifes, and any foreigner who holds
otherwise can not cut much of aafigure
in German society.-N Y. Sun.