Fashionable Etiquette and Hypnosis

Was she hypnotized? “Kitty” dances the tango on television’s Mr. Selfridge — Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. 

Tango Dance Etiquette 101: Respect ... the person you are dancing with, Respect ... the culture and heritage of Tango, Respect ... the music and the band, Respect ... the people around you. 

Photo credit Pinterest, Etiquette tips from “Tango Dance Concepts”

Society Takes Up Hypnotic Dancing

PARIS, Feb. 19. —Hypnotism applied to dancing is the latest Parisian fad. It was launched last night at a fashionable ball by Mrs. Caro Campbell and Senorlta Umbra Luigini, two of the most beautiful leaders of fashionable society this season. The intricacies of the tango and the complications of the fox trot will no longer be unapproachable by the uninitiated If the new "art” proves what its patronesses claim it to be. All that is needed, they say, is a few minutes of hypnotism practiced upon a willing devotee. — International News Service, 1920

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

Mashers and Poor Manners

“Even now, it is not uncommon for a native rough-neck to stop in front of a man who is walking with his wife and speak to the wife, sometimes quite as impartial as if he were viewing a beautiful statue, and often, with about as much courtesy as an East Side gunman is wont to employ.”– A young man and woman, dancing the tango in 1920’s Argentina... A couple’s dance, the tango originated in the 1880s along the River Plate, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. It soon spread to the rest of the world.

 In 1920s Argentina 

BUENOS AIRES. (By Mail to United Press)—A girl who can walk a city square alone in Buenos Aires without being spoken to by from one to a dozen men, either is so hopelessly ugly that she offers no attraction whatsoever to the opposite sex, or else is able to inspire by a belligerent attitude the belief that she is a veteran prize-fighter. Even then, she is likely to be addressed from a safe distance by a languorous Romeo with soft dark eyes, and the price of two cups of tea in his jeans, who assures her that she is the loveliest creature that ever hit the pike, that he would gladly let her adopt him, walk over him, or deprive him of his last 30 centavos to appease her angelic thirst.

 An American or an English girl usually will blush and hurry on under such circumstances, or else halt and prepare for a fair fight, according to her conception of what the situation demands, but an Argentine girl will proceed undisturbed, unless accompanied by her mother, in which case the mother will turn about and gravely thank the observant gentleman. Two girls, one blonde and English, the other brunette and an Argentine, were walking together on the Florida – which in Buenos Aires is the next-best thing to Fifth Avenue —when the blond girl literally “blew up” in indignation: “Dang these mashers,” she said, loud enough for the policemen on the two opposite corners of the block to hear. The Argentine girl chided her: “But why are you angry? Is it not a compliment for the men to observe and praise you?” “It is not!” 

However, even the Argentines are beginning to recognize the difference between impersonal praise and appreciation of beauty and common ordinary “mashing.” The recognition was hastened by the increased annoyance caused by the number and insistence of the “mashers.” Even now, it is not uncommon for a native rough-neck to stop in front of a man who is walking with his wife and speak to the wife, sometimes quite as impartial as if he were viewing a beautiful statue, and often, with about as much courtesy as an East Side gunman is wont to employ. Not infrequently one of these men walks right up to a good looking woman and takes her by the arm. It is a serious offense — a penitentiary offense —to strike an Argentinian in the face and disfigure him, but there are few women visitors who know the law, and the police are a liberal lot. They usually side with offended beauty. – By Morgan Easterling, United Press Staff Correspondent , 1923

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

Argentinian Dining Etiquette

"They declared with some warmth to the cook, that the foreigners did not know how to eat. I apologized as well as I could, and endeavored thereafter to eat according to gaucho etiquette."

Table Manners in Argentina 

"We encamped near a swamp," says a gentleman, describing a meal he had with some cart drivers in South America, "and supped on sliced pumpkin boiled with bites​ of meat and seasoned with salt. The meal was served in genuine pampas fashion. One iron spoon and two cow's horns split in halves were passed around the group, the members of which squatted upon their haunches and freely helped themselves from the kettle. 

Even in this most uncivilized form of satisfying hunger there is a peculiar etiquette which the most lowly person invariably observes. Each member of the company in turn dips his spoon, or horn, into the center of the stew and draws it in a direct line toward him, never allowing it to deviate to the right or left. By observing this rule, each person eats without interfering with his neighbor. 

Being ignorant of this custom, I dipped my horn into the mess at random and fished about for some of the nice bits. My companions regarded this horrid breach of politeness with scowls of impatience. They declared with some warmth to the cook, that the foreigners did not know how to eat. I apologized as well as I could, and endeavored thereafter to eat according to gaucho etiquette." —New York World, 1894

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