The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-03-14


Tacre IS an etiquette scr the stairs and
the elevator.
1t seeEas rather absurd to state this.
4 raan who has the right love of woman
a. his heart ana the grace of a coed bring
ing up might be expected to have
only one etiquette to cover every occasion.
And good manners. like charity. / mus.
confess as a woman, cover TO me 4 multi
tude of Sins.
Bulwer LJtton once c~leverly said s.there
is ms polisy like poiiteness; ana a GOOD
manner is the yest thing III the world,
either TO get one a good name or to supply
the want of it."
Some people assert that good manners
are useless without a good neart-but,
Well, I am not SO sure of that You know
one of our earliest artists gave his sketch
OF the devil as a man faultlessly attired in
evening dress, bowling with the air of
Chesterfield. 1 fear that artist knew wo-
mems ~frailties almost as we'll as Anthony
Hope.
But the advent OF woman as a day
laborer in the fields of commerce has
put a new phase on manners: ami, in
csdentally added a straw to the load of
Courtesy which Il man must carry for the
gen Ter sex.
What was formerly reserved for the
drawing room must now be On tap. 1t
IS hats off" in co~unting-room, news
paper, Insurance and real estate offices,
TO say nothing OF the shops. In every
acre where the plough is preparing the
financial ground for a harvest, men find
women. Maybe they are at the plough,
more probably only following it.
Men may assert that if women cry for
pnf1Q1SrU rhaoL t1arr -LA..l5
equal courtesy. But the be tier men do
not say that. First, because the age of
chivalry never dies out in the heart. and
second. because they know what the world
should know. that the women VINO cry
fer equality in any thing. do noS represent
the majority.
Men have spoiled them for too many
generations by considering them as SUI
periors socially for women to accept 50
complete a revolution.
And there is no reason for their so do
ing. Men prefer to give women Difference.
and as far as 1 nave been able to investi-
gate. women prefer to have it. The people
may talk about ''horrid, rude men,, all
they want. but listen to this: A woman
Is going to get what she expects. There
are exceptions, for they are needed to ssb-
stantsate the rule.
**
This preface is to prove that polite
ness IS as necessary to the stairs and
elevators as to the theatre and darwing-
room And If any men read this page it
wouldn't go amiss if they would consider
the subject as well as the woman.
First of all, she should remember that
the least p~oiiteness deserves an ac-
knoWlsogment 1t may be the mcst
necessary, the most common place of at
tehtlons, put. a bow and a thank yo,l,
Is the. response of refinement.
L need not tell any Well conducted girl
ihat there are ways and ways of banking
men Graciousness without significance
Is an attitude that will never get a wonn-
an into trouble.
one gilmmer OF coquetry to a stranger
destroys good breeding. If you must be
coquet-sh, reserve it for the man Won
know, and. above all, keep it, in anv case
cut of public places.
Every man should uncover his head if
a woman enters the elevator. and keep if
uncovered while she is there. ssPshawu'
You say every one knows that" But
does every one do that?
A woman should always have precea-
ence in going out; but the woman ought
to nave sufficient good judgment to get
out as quickly as possible. It is polite
ness on her part never to strain courtesy
on his side.
The etiquette of the stairs is more in
tricate.
To begin with, a man should always
precede a woman going up and follow
her coming down. Six out of ten men
Will stand at the foot Of the stairs and
le- a woman pass and go up. This is en-
tirely wrong. 1t gives a woman a most
unpleasant sensation to wonder whether
the backs of her shoes ara polished and
the binding neatly brushedkson her skirt.
1t is not necessary for a man to I'M
cover his head if either preceding or fol-
lowing a woman on the stairs. AS he is
therefore relieved of one courtesy. he
should be extra careful about the other.
And he should be especially particular
when he emembers that in so doing he
saves the woman much
But for the people that pass on the
stairs there the question of hats
and bows.
If a man IS beginning to ascend mar
row steps and sees a woman descending,
he should step down and with hat off
Wdll Tor ner 10 pass. And there comes
in her bow of thanks.
II he is too far advanced on the steps
to go back he should not crowd her, but
stand with head uncovered as she passes.
A man and woman should never stop
to talk on the steps. He should go with
her to the first landing.
The salute ton of the steps and eleva-
tor does not call for further acknowl-
edgnnert. There is no reason for a man
who daily lifts his hat in passing to a
stranger on the stairs to presume upon
this In any way.
1t is not an Introduction, but simply
the looked-for Difference a well-brcd man
pays to any member of the gentler sex.
1t was nan years ago when Addison
wrote: Take a fine lady who is of a
delicate frame, and you may observe
from the hour she rises a certain weari-
ness of all that passes about her. I
know more than one who is much too
nice to be quite alive.p Since that good
old time Philadelphia has taken it upon
herself to make mice people, represent
cutie another kind Of specimen. The
nice woman of today is the one who is
oEfx,o fropa hood m fnnf rxvho 5s I,;..~.tu-