The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-01
SUBWAY ETIQUETTE.
Rule Forbids Men to Give Women
 Seats Between Certain Hours.

From the New York Sun.
 A woman who has travelled up and down between the Bridge and Harlem every week day since the subway was opened, using the express trains only, has formu- lated a. code of subway seat etiqutte which her friends are studying with in- terest and amusement.
 It is not considered good form for a man to offer a seat to a woman in a sub way express train. The young woman has come to this conclusion after months Of close observation. The men on whose acts she bases her opinion include some more or less conspicuous in the social, political, professional and business annals of the town men who are expensively clad, LOOK well fed and able bodied men, in short, who show no indications whatever Of physical exhaustion.
 Repeatedly" said the woman, T have got in at the Bridge to find almost every seat occupied by men from the Wall street district, each fortified with a newspaper. and on one occasion I was the only pas senger standing while fifteen men-l counted them-seven on one side. eight on the other, occupied seats on either side of that end of the car
 ''It was that circumstance which set me to keeping tabs on the code of man
 
 trains, and these are some of the rules of etiduette practiced by them which I have worked out:
 ''JJnless a woman is very old and de- crepit or is carrying baby, don't budge.
 "No matter if dozens Of men are sitting and two women standing, don't budge. It takes only about five minutes to cover the distance between the Bridge and Fourteenth street and the chances are about even that the women who are standing will get out there or that some of the seated passengers will get out and thus create vacant seats. And the crowd of women who pour in at Fourteenth street will be sure to get seats at Forty second street if they don't leave the cars at that point and six minutes at most covers the distance to the sGrand Central station.
 q actually heard young man req soning the matter out after that fashion when taken to task by a woman" ex- plained the formulator of the subway code of manners. Another of the rules is this:
 Don't discriminate between a pretty and plain woman, and in order to avoid temptation keep your eyes fixed on a newspaper.
 Between g and 10 in the morning and and in the afternoon well dressed men are most in evidence in the subway ex- press trains, and it Is the exception when man occupying 8 sea, during those hours raises his eyes from his newspaper when a woman stands near him. Every man of them is likely to scan passengers as they enter the car, then drop his eyes quickly as the standees approach and keep them dropped.
 Ut is different in the local trains and in the express trains earlier and later in the day, when the cars are jammed to the guard rails with men ana women, many of whom are well acquainted with physical toll. At such times the subway code is q little more liberal in the matter of giving seats to women.
 "Other rules in the code of subway eti- quette are
 "Occupy a whole seat and refuse to move along to make room for one more to sit.
 .When entering a car sit down in the first vacant seat even if a woman is di- rectiy behind you or at your side.
 If you doubt the correctness of this code just travel up and down town for one month or less on subway express train at the hours have named and keep your eyes open is what the woman tells doubting listeners.
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