Gilded Age “Polite Life”

The newness of our country is perpetually renewed by the sudden making of fortunes, and by the absence of a hereditary, reigning set. There is no aristocracy here which has the right and title to set the fashion. — Writer, Georgene Corry Benham, author of  “Polite Life and Etiquette or What is Right and the Social Arts”

THERE is no country where there are so many people asking what is “proper to do,” or, indeed, where there are so many genuinely anxious to do the proper thing, as in the vast conglomerate which we call The United States of America. The newness of our country is perpetually renewed by the sudden making of fortunes, and by the absence of a hereditary, reigning set. There is no aristocracy here which has the right and title to set the fashion.

We contend that it is in no way derogatory to a new country like our own, if on some minor points of etiquette we presume to differ from older countries. We find it necessary to fit our garments to the climate, our manners to our fortunes and our habits and customs to the demands of the age in which we live. 

We have, however, many faults and inelegancies of which foreigners justly accuse us, which we can easily correct by a little careful study of this book, which is given to the people after much thought based on common sense and every-day life.— From “Polite Life and Etiquette or What is Right and the Social Arts,” by Georgene Corry Benham, 1891

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