Rude American Chits Annoy Miss Brits

“The Lady Mauds and Lady Beatrices are sore at finding themselves outshone in the highest circles by American chits, who before coming abroad, were just ordinary misses in small provincial towns in the United States.”

‘Chit’ — A a dismissive and derogatory term for a an immature girl, lacking in respect. — Not satisfied with advising the young single women of England, Henry Du Pré Labouchère (British politician, publisher, writer and even theatre owner, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras) is now mainly remembered for the Labouchère Amendment, which for the first time in the United Kingdom, criminalised all male homosexual activity. 

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Our Girls Abroad

An Apology for the English Maiden’s Total Eclipse

Ladies Abroad Finding Themselves Outshone by the Girls of America— A Hint to English Mauds and Beatrices—Emancipation from Cant

The Lady Mauds and Lady Beatrices are sore at finding themselves outshone in the highest circles by American chits, who before coming abroad, were just ordinary misses in small provincial towns in the United States. It is a hard case to be thrust into the shade by these fair invaders. But soreness about it will only spoil good looks. Why not rather learn the art of war from the invading belles, who were not reared in hothouses, but in public free schools? In a great degree, they have conquered because they are in the habit of thinking themselves as good as no matter whom, and of not being shamfaced in the presence of mortals of uppermost rank. I don't think it occurs to the Mauds and Beatrices that very few uppermost personages, in no matter what country, have, or can have, much conversation. Having had allowances from their cradles upward there is no strenuous effort in their lives. And so that intensity of thought, feeling and will which makes a man a man, and sublimates a woman, is wanting in them. 

Etiquette throws on them the onus of startling subjects of conversation. Having to talk de haut en bas, but there is no quick interchange of ideas. As it was 300 years ago, so now. Their lives being flat, they must fall back on buffoonery—a reason why Schneider’s dressing room at Les Varietes was “Le Passage des Princes.” License of speech is sure to be granted to any one whose talk tickles or is droll. There are few rosebuds in etiquette ridden courts who can so converse. But the United States free schools produce them in thousands. Originality in America is not confined to the unornamental sex. The conditions of life are so different there from what they are in England, and there is such emancipation from cant in most of the forms in which it tyrannizes us, that the beauty from Ohio, Illinois or Delaware is startingly novel, and whatever piquancy there is in her talk, comes home with a double force. 

Beauties from America 

There are such heaps of Miss Jennie Chamberlains in the United States, that hardly any one notices their points. Americans are astounded at the effect they produce on English noblemen when they come out at the Riviera or in London. As to the etiquette invented by Lords Chamberlain, those flowers from over the Atlantic are in happy ignorance. So they start topics in colloquies with royal personages instead of waiting for them to be started, and when they find they please, they go ahead. “Sir,” or “madam,” or “your royal highness,” used as commas, are in the conversation of ordinary persons. Then the young and fair Americans neglect no advantage which is derived from attention to personal appearance. They know how to dress, and they grudge no money that they can give to the best dentists. Being in the habit of dancing from infancy, their gestures are easy and not angular, always talk distinctly, and, if sometimes with a slight twang, in an audible voice. 

Our girls often mumble or run on in a chirruping jabber that really is not speech. They, too, often deal in set phrases which get soon exhausted. I think when a British girl is nice, she’s the nicest of any; and many more than there are could be charming, if they could only learn how to speak, and to move about in an easy, graceful way. The American girl has neat features, a delicate skin and a fine nervous system. But in the rest of the organization, nature has been wanting in generosity. The western woman or girl is a finer human being than the eastern. In the southern states, womanhood is nearest to perfection. Women there are reposeful—not precisely amusing, but intelligent, sweet and interesting. — Henry Du Pré Labouchere in London Truth, 1888

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia