The age-herald., 1897-09-26

Newspapers may come and newspapers may go With the migratory habis that Tennyson wrote about in his overflow ing, never-ceasng book, but ever and always the public may expect to find .he ubiquitous writer who iterates and re- Ierates dogmat1eally certain rules which should regulate the names of men and women. These can be depended upon to be always and ever in objec J.onable evi- dence. When there threatens to be a death of interesting matter in an up-to- date journal, there wlli surely be found lengthy. essayical dissertations upcn How a lady should shake hands, "How a gentleman should enter a foom," Should a lady permit the ann clutch?'' etc, etc To foreigner who visits thls country for the first time such journal istic advice muslt be very surprising, led as he had been to believe that he was tiaveling in country where men and women were familiar with the usages of respectable society and were non a class of barbarians needing instruction upon the simplest rules of good breeding. Between the effort of sensational corre- spondents to make every man who be- tOlllsS e. Vel1ullcl UT GIllDSSHlCl aPPISi as a member of the Highest social cir ctes, and the gratuh:ous advice given by writers atout tfie primary regulations of good conduct, am outsider must nat ulplly decide ltha. all the stories pralj ed about the crudeness of -Arner.can morals and manners necessarily are correct. He has perfect right to draw such an inference from the opp o.turdties afforded him by metropolitan yellow journal ism.'
 When one reads :he long essays writ ten by that authority on social usages. Mrs. Sherwood, ons naturally begins to Investigate matters and to ask few per- tinent questions. In her last promnlga- tion Mn,s Sherwood gives instructions upon that old-fashioned habit of nar- kind of shaking hands, and in order to be thoroughly understood by the "learn- ed and unlearned," she had ler essay illustrated with numerous examples of the various positions assumed by men and women when they shake each others hands. She tells what is proper and what is not, about this form of friendly greeting; what is old-tinIey and what is new and novel, and above all what is ultra swell" If Mrs. Sherwood had lived in this section she would have concluded that those persons who are entitled, because of birth and breeding, to enter the realms of good soclety-the best socicty-are perfectly familiar with all the regulations which are deemed essential by refined, cultivated people. A man or woman who does not know qlcw to shake hands properly, and when to shake Ina nds, i,as no right to enter good society; he or she are evidently Phinstines, witirout the knowledge of the better side of life which should be inborn and instructive. When men and woman have had the advantage of proper and refined training they vii! not deem 1t essential to adopt new styles of hand shaking; they win ad- here to the form which came to them with sother indications of cultivation from well-bred mothers and fathers They will leave, usually, all the hand grasping inovations to those persons whose recent entry into social life has given them many things to learn in or der to keep pace in any wise with those to the manner born.
 There are few things which so ununbs- HdkLtuiy iHulCtte HSWlltso 1S lfie Way a man OF woman greets friend or &C., quain,ance. whether they clasp hands or do not. The safest plan for one With re- cerl- social plans to adopt is 10 take as model the manners of one born tn Iha best and most cultivated circles of sou.h- nrn life. Their unfailing courtesy. kind illness and considera tion; their disgust for shams and snobs ard their desire to cultivate the pure5t and lofiest instincts will make such a. person a far better guide in all tbihngs which pertain to the best society than all the letters ever published Tby Mrs Sherwood or any other fuena newspaper contaibutor.
 Nvay should there be any discussion of hand shaking methods, anyway? One who does not understand the process should be kept out of social life until he does master the problem, remembering that if he were entitled to consideration socially he would not have ta be taught amy of ,bilese .Hliings which come inst nc.- lively to Tadfss and gentlemen, If man and woman really desire to fmpsove fleIi. condition and begin by taking lesssns tn hand-shaking. let them bear in ii,irsl that the very first lesson to be lsarned ts mot to shake hands with their arms on a level wi h thetr shoulders. srAey: should remember tlrat any affected hand grasp is very suspicious indication They