Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1889-09-13
A Study in Etiquette.

If there is any book more apt TO be en-
tertaining than another. il is one in which
the effort i, made to produce silk purse
from the year of certain useful hut vul-
gar domestic animal by the process ef
teaching etiquette Etiquette as She is
Taught" is that code Of social manners and
customs accepted as good form in the
circles which find ready letter writer"
an aid in the conduct of correspondence.
The etiquette is usually given clear. with
no attempt TO render il texciting or especial
" palatable and its entertaining quality is
inherent in the nature of the rules laid
down.
II must be. however. that some Young
people have found the mental food too
solid, for now comes a writer who has pro-
dueed a story for girls which clearly sugar
coats an invaluable series of lessons in
social propriety. The story is not an es-
pecially original one except in its ethical
features. The heroine is a country orphan
girl Of slender means but great beauty.
who is taken in hand by rich city cousin
and given course of what may be called
social Sprouts" She has been a few
weeks at Saratoga, glimpse of the White
Mountains. a aside visit and then goes
into the city swim in the house of her rala-
tIves where, the reader is repe atedly told.
thirty servants are kept.
The girl is awful nice. She is so spon-
taneous and so splendidly independent.
| har i frfftn ann.
barraSsng, and there are times when one
cannot help fearing that her independence
will be mistaken by thoughtlesS people as
i'll breeding or even rudenesS, but she is an
awfully nice girl. Her cousin is a great
leader. and by aid of her fine house and
thirty servants seems to have New York
society so well in hand that she can swing
it about her head The advantage of liv
ing in such house, with many servants
about, is beyond computing. Our sweet
| and amiabIe little rural bud received an in
vitation to dinner from lady who, in her
| opinion has sighted her. Being told to
acknowledge it. she writes:
''My dear Mrs Blank:
after the way you treated me last
night will never speak to You again to
you again until you apologize" or words
| to that effect.
She is told, kindly but firmly, that social
usage demands that notes of ceremony be
| expressed in the third person and after one
more futile attempt succeeds in evolving a
| response so framed and couched in less
| vigorous English.
At length the cousin falls i'll and her
protege proves an indefatigable nurse and
a ready scholar. Invitations pour in which
| the illness of her hostess compels her to at
| vitations demand formal answers and in
recognition of what the sending of card is
| sufficient Thus, before the cousin recov-
| ers, the girl becomes quite the mistress of
social form, a fact which the author dem
onstrates by producing note of regret
written by the young woman quite without
| aid or advice and which runs somewhat
after this fashion,
"Mrs. - presents her compliments to
Mrs. - and begs leave to acknowledge
her kind invitation for Thursday, which
Mrs. - greatly regrets that she cannot
accept on account of severe attack of
| typhoid fever
Another week of such admirable training
| and Mrs. -, by her amanuensis, would
have nlI,' bulletin Of pulse and temper
aturc.
Then the hostess recoyers has a card of
acknowledgement and thanks engraved and
sent to all who called upon her during her
illness. Then she packs her trunk, dis
misses the thirty servants and goes to
Europe, while the young girl returns To her
country home and takes to religion and the
writing of bad verse.
1t is a nice story, and should be in every
| family-of savages.