1916 American Etiquette Humor

Having a good laugh with one’s friends was just as popular back in 1916 as it is today! – College chums in costumes, mugging for the camera in 1916. – Image source, Etiquipedia private library.

 

Some Etiquette Truth Found in These Funnies

“Pop,” said Willie, “what is a diplomat?”

“A diplomat, my son,” answered the wise father, “is a man who remembers a woman's birthday but forgets her age.” – Tit Bits, 1916

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Live and Learn. “I can’t understand this code of ethics.”
“What code is that?”

“The one which makes it all right to take a man's last dollar, but a breach of etiquette to take his last cigarette.” - Louisville Courier-Journal, 1916

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View Revised – A handsomely dressed damsel entered a crowded tram-car. A rough-looking old fellow, wearing a dilapidated hat and a suit of homespun clothes, rose to his feet.

“Miss, take my seat. I don't look as well as these ‘ere gentlemen,” he said, nodding to several men, “but I've got more politeness.” Without a word of thanks the young woman sat down.

“Miss,” said the old fellow, with a smile, “I believe I left my tobacco-pouch on the seat. Will you please get up?” No sooner was the seat unoccupied than the old fellow deliberately sat down again.

“B’lieve I'll keep sittin’ here, miss,” he explained. “I’ve got a little more politeness than these ‘ere gentlemen, but I have found out that I ain't got nigh so much common sense.” – Tit-Bits. 1916

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

Dinner Party Etiquette Humor of 1882

 

Oranges are held on a fork while being peeled, and the facetious style of squirting the juice into the eyes of your host is au revoir. 

It is with a view of elevating the popular taste, and etherealizing, so to speak, the manners and customs of our readers, that we give below a few hints upon table etiquette: 

• Oranges are held on a fork while being peeled, and the facetious style of squirting the juice into the eyes of your host is au revoir. 
• Macaroni should be cut into short pieces and eaten with an even, graceful motion, not absorbed by the yard. 
• If, by mistake, you drink out of your finger bowl, laugh heartily and make some facetious remark, which will change the course of conversation and renew the friendly feeling among the members of the party. 
• In drinking wine, when you get to the bottom of your glass, do not throw your head back and draw in your breath like the exhaust of a bath tub in order to get the last drop, as it engenders a feeling of the most depressing melancholy among the guests. 
• If you cannot accept an invitation to supper, do not write your regrets on the back of a pool check with a blue lead pencil. This is not regarded as ricochet. A simple note to your host informing him that your washerwoman refuses to relent is sufficient. 
• On seating yourself at the table, draw off your gloves, put them in your lap under your napkin. Do not put them in the gravy, as it would spoil the gloves and cast a gloom over the gravy. 
• If you have just cleaned your gloves with benzine, you must leave them out in the front yard.—Cincinnati Fair Journal, 1882

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

Baffling Etiquette Starts 1919 Fad

The new fad has come as a bright light of hope to the thousands of people whose formal dinner parties have too often been ruined by the use of the wrong fork or spoon. It is welcomed by the mere man who presides at less formal affairs and is afraid to meet his wife’s eyes for fear that he is serving potatoes with a tomato spoon or asparagus with a pie fork. Indeed—many problems have been solved by the fad. 

New System For Dinners? A Boon for Guests? Come Out Even at the Finish with this New Fad!
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You Can’t Use the Wrong Fork — New Fad Decrees Hostess Shall Bring Forth Proper Implement with Each Course

Here’s help at last for the poor dinner guest who always comes up at the end of the courses with one fork too many or a spoon too few. Here’s relief from those who cross-examine in the art of eating in attempts to sell “Which Fork and When” in 12 volumes with easy illustrations. It is one of society’s latest fads. Dame Grundy has decreed: That henceforth dinner tables shall be set with linen and china —but with no silver; that there shall be no puzzle for the guests—there shall be no silver to choose from. That each individual piece of silver will be brought to the diners with the dish to which it belongs. 

The movement is not just for the relief of the helpless guest, but it is the latest thing in society. The smartest dinners of late were served without a sign of silver on the table when the guests were seated. Already where Dame Grundy reigns supreme, it is considered without style to set dinner tables with silver. The new fad has come as a bright light of hope to the thousands of people whose formal dinner parties have too often been ruined by the use of the wrong fork or spoon. It is welcomed by the mere man who presides at less formal affairs and is afraid to meet his wife’s eyes for fear that he is serving potatoes with a tomato spoon or asparagus with a pie fork. Indeed—many problems have been solved by the fad. 

Dame Grundy has remembered the dinner guest who, many a time, has complimented herself upon her artful eating and then finds at the end of the courses that she has overlooked a puzzler of a funny looking spoon. There is consideration also for those fair diners who habitually pause for the hostess to single out and lead-off with the right fork, and of course, must sip much un-wanted water. No longer will the diner have to solve the what, why, where, when and how of the foreign-looking thing which is half-fork and half jelly spoon. No longer will the guest have cause to slip a valuable piece of silver into an inner pocket and carry it away just because he picked it up, discovered his mistake, and could not get rid of it any other way. 

The timid diner can now draw a deep breath of relief, for henceforth when peas are served they will be accompanied by the “one and only” designed for the consumption of peas. It is predicted in society circles that dinner parties will become more popular under the new silverless regime. At any rate the fad has come and guests are no longer startled on entering the dining room and finding nothing but fingers to eat with.—Fresno Herald, 1919

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

Etiquette, Snobbery and Satire

"Say 'good morning' or 'good evening' to the hostess, on leaving the room. 'So long, old girl' has gone out in the best society." — Burdette ~ When Emily Post wrote about the behavior of "Best Society" in her 1922 book of etiquette, she enlightened some readers and at the same time, opened the door to satire from others. Etiquette humor is much older than many think. It has been popular for ages, and will continue to be so, as long as some readers and writers of etiquette, continue to confuse etiquette with snobbery.

Recent Points in Etiquette

• Say "good morning" or "good evening" to the hostess, on leaving the room. "So long, old girl" has gone out in the best society. 
• If there are seventy-five or 100 persons in the company, it is not necessary for you to shake hands all round. 
• Do not be in haste to get down to dinner without waiting for a tardy guest. Give him at least thirty minutes. You may have to get down on your hands and knees and crawl around and feel for a lost collar button yourself sometime. 
• Upon introduction to a young lady, immediately ask her age and the size of her shoes. This will put you on an easy conversational plane. 
• In society, a note requires as prompt an answer as a spoken question. And in the bank it requires a great deal prompter one. 
• Do not thank any one who waits on you at table. Look wan and hungry as though you wanted more. 
• To tilt back in your chair and drum idly on your head with your fork is condemned in good society.— "Burdette" in the Marin Journal, 1881

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

Gilded Age Etiquette Laughs

“Every Saturday” was an American literary magazine published in Boston, Massachusetts, in the mid-19th century. Mark Twain was one contributor. By the amount of humorous articles Etiquipedia has found on dining etiquette, written during the Gilded Age in America, it is clear that those who did not have the benefit of dining at the finest tables, sought refuge in laughter at the peculiar seeming manners of those who did.

Table Etiquette

• Bread should be broken, not cut; but if you don’t like bread, ‘cut’ it. In ‘breaking’ bread use a curb bit. 
• Don’t fill your mouth too full; rather allow some of the food to get into your moustache. 
• Split a biscuit with your fingers, instead of opening it with a knife like an oyster. lf the biscuit be hard, a beetle and wedge are admissible in the best society. 
• Salt should never be put on the table cloth, but on the side of your plate. If, however, you want to pickle the tablecloth in brine, you must put salt on it, of course. 
• Do not rattle your knife and fork. A knife and spoon will be found more musical. 
• Eat your soup from the side of your spoon, either inside or outside. 
• Do not take game in your fingers. This, however, does not apply to a game at cards. 
• Do not rest your arms on the tablecloth. Stack your arms in a corner of the room before beginning dinner. 
• When asked what part of the fowl you prefer, answer promptly. If you want the whole of it, don't hesitate to say so. 
• Do not drink with the spoon in your cup; put it in your pocket. Forgetting it, you will be so much ahead. A close regard to this rule has enabled Ben Butler to accumulate a competency. 
• Never leave the table until all are through, without sufficient excuse. The sudden entrance of a policeman with a warrant for your arrest, is generally considered sufficient excuse in polite circles. 
• Never help yourself to articles of food with your knife or fork. Use a harpoon or lassoo. 
• When you have finished your meal lay your knife and fork on your plate, side by side, with the handles toward the right, a little south by southwest, bearing northerly when the wind is off the side-board quarter. –Every Saturday, 1880

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

Gilded Age Etiquette Humor

Frontier humorist, Bill Nye, more formally known as Edgar Wilson Nye, was the first editor of the "Laramie Boomerang." He named the Wyoming paper for his mule, because of what he described as the “eccentricity of his orbit.”

Bill Nye’s Delicate Hints Upon Table Manners in Fashionable Society

There are a great many people who behave well otherwise, but at table they do things that if not absolutely outré and ensemble, are at least pianissimo and sine die. It is with a view to elevate the popular taste and etherealize, so to speak, the manners and customs of our readers, that we give below a few hints upon table etiquette. 

If, by writing an article of this kind, we can induce one man who wipes his hands on the table-cloth to come up and take higher ground and wipe on his pants, we shall feel amply repaid. If you cannot accept an invitation to dinner, do not write your regrets on the back of a pool check with a blue pencil. This is not regarded as ricochet. A simple note to your host, informing him that your washwoman refuses to relent, is sufficient. 

On seating yourself at the table, draw off your gloves and put them in your lap, under your napkin. Do not put them into the gravy, as it would ruin the gloves and cast a gloom over the gravy. If yon have just cleaned your gloves with benzine, you will leave them out in the front yard. If you happen to drop gravy on your knife-blade, back near the handle, do not run the blade down your throat to remove the gravy as it might injure your epiglottis, and it is not embonpoint, any way. 

Oranges are held on a fork while being pulled, and the facetious style of squirting the juice into the eyes of the hostess is now au revoir. Stones in cherries or other fruit should not be placed upon the table-cloth, but slid quietly and unostentatiously into the pocket of your neighbor or noiselessly tossed under the table. If you strke a worm in your fruit do not call attention to it by mashing it with the nut cracker. This is not only uncouth, but it is regarded in the best society as blasé and exceedingly vice vena. 

After eating a considerable amount, do not rise and unbutton your vest strap in order to get more room, as it is not exactly aufait and deshabille– The Boomerang, 1881

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

A Collegiate Etiquette Lesson

 College students nationwide, following a Harvard undergrad’s $10 bet, set off a sensation across the U.S. in 1939
 — Above, the moronic craze of swallowing live goldfish.

 

 

According to an Associated Press release, a Chinese student at the University of Michigan, who memorized phrases from an etiquette book, had his first opportunity to try them out at a reception given by University President, Alexander Ruthven. When a cup of tea was handed to him, he solemnly responded: “Thank you, sir, or madam, as the case may be.” — As reported in The Express, October 1939

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

1850's Western Etiquette

The Yankee out West who recently wrote home to his mother that he had seen a live Hoosier, has sent his mother another epistle on Western etiquette.

"Western people go to their death on etiquette. You can't tell a man here that he lies, as you can down east, without fighting. A few days ago a man was telling two of his neighbors, in my hearing, a pretty large story. Says I, 'Stranger, that's a whopper.' Says, he, 'Lay there, stranger.' And in the twinkling of an eye, I found myself in the ditch, a perfect quadruped, the worse for tear and wear. 

Upon another occasion, says I to a man I never saw before, as a woman passed him, 'That isn't a specimen of your Western women, is it?' Says he, 'You are afraid of the fever and ague, stranger, aren't you?' Very much,' says I. 'Well,' replied he, 'That lady is my wife, and if you don't apologize in two minutes, by the honor of a gentleman, I swear that these two pistols," which he had in his hands,' can cure you of the disorder entirely— so don't fear, stranger.' So I knelt down and apologized. I admire the Western country much, but curse me if I can stand so much etiquette; it always takes me unawares." – Daily Alta, 1855

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

Diplomacy and Etiquette Humor

One of the founders of American publishing firm Random House, Bennet Cerf was also known for his wit, compilations of jokes and puns, and for regular television and personal appearances across the US

The mid-European diplomat was explaining Washington etiquette to his new assistant. "Remember that in these parts,” he warned, “no lady is ever fat. She is just a little short for her weight.”

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A very correct young diplomat, newly assigned to his United Nations delegation, surprised everybody by curtly declining an invitation to a big dinner sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Pressed for an explanation, the diplomat reminded reporters stiffly that his Foreign Office had given him explicit orders to give a wide berth to any kind of revolutionary organization. — Bennet Cerf, 1955

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

Jitney Etiquette Humor

Etiquette needs to be followed! —Should passengers rob their jitney driver? Should jitney drivers rob their passengers? 

Jitney Etiquette —Simple Rules for Beginners



EXPERTS on etiquette are being appealed to these days to give the rules for riding in jitney buses. Should the lady or gentleman passenger alight first? Should a married jitney driver permit unmarried and handsome young women to ride in the front seat with him ? Should passengers rob their jitney driver? Should jitney drivers rob their passengers?

Jitney ethics is quite a new branch of the subject of conduct, yet we see its rules violated every day. From police court to divorce court, jitney morals and jitney etiquette are being put to the test, and even the state legislature is dropping the idea of a tax on bachelors in favor of a tax on jitney drivers. Since the jitney operator only pays four or five taxes and licenses already, it is held better to put an added expense on him than on the bachelor, who seldom pays any kind of a tax and so isn’t used to the experience.

But to our many correspondents we give these admonitions:

• In alighting from a jitney, the gentleman should step out first, if he can do so without crushing the toes of the lady. 
• The superior court has decided that a jitney driver with a jealous wife should either force his lady passengers to ride on the back seat or be prepared to pay alimony. 
• In the matter of highway robbery, of or by jitney passengers, we think that anyone who would perpetrate such a crime is actuated more by wanton hope than by common sense.— Los Angeles Herald, 1915

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