Gilded Age Girls Who Walk Badly

“…New York is filled with girls who walk badly.” – The $3.50 for 20 lessons in 1892 would be worth about $124.00 today. – The 1892 patent above is for a “dress shield or protector.”

Learning to Walk

According to an enthusiast on physical culture New York is filled with girls who walk badly. To get rid of the “plug, plug” of the heels the pupils are taken to the top of Murray Hill and made to toe down. They retrace in the stage and make the descent again and again. Price, $3.50 a term of twenty lessons. —New York World, 1892

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

Gilded Age Etiquette in Public

Though the fashionable manner inclines to a rather marked decisiveness and the fashionable voice to loudness, even harshness, there is a quiet self-possession about the gentlewoman, whether young or old, that marks her out from women of a lower class, whose manner is florid.

“In the Street”

A gentle-woman is known by her quiet self-possession. Self-effacement in the street is the rule of good manners as imperative in the street as it is in as in Society. One can almost invariably distinguish the well-bred girl at the first glance, whether she is walking, shopping, in an omnibus, descending from a carriage or a cab, or sauntering up or down in the Park. 

Though the fashionable manner inclines to a rather marked decisiveness and the fashionable voice to loudness, even harshness, there is a quiet self-possession about the gentlewoman, whether young or old, that marks her out from women of a lower class, whose manner is florid. This is perhaps the best word to describe the lively gestures, the notice-attracting glance and the self-conscious air of the underbred, who continually appear to wish to impress their personality upon all they meet. 

The well-bred woman goes quietly along, intent on her own business and regardless of the rest of the world, except in so far as to keep from intruding upon their personal rights. This is another test of the well-bred woman. A delicate sense of self-respect keeps her from contact with her neighbour in train or tramcar or omnibus, so for as such contact may be avoidable. The woman of the lower classes may spread her arms, lean up against her neighbour, or in other ways behave with a disagreeable familiarity; the gentlewoman never.

There was a good old rule of manners that forbade a lady to look back after any one in the street, or to turn and stare at any one in church, opera, theatre, or concert room. These good old rules seem fast to be becoming obsolete; or so one might suppose from the frequency with which they are disregarded. — Manners for Women, by Mrs. Humphry, “Madge of Truth”, 1897

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

Gilded Age Card Protocol

‘‘There is one unvarying rule for women, married and single. It is never right nor in good form to sign one’s name with the addition of Miss or Mrs. You are Mary Emily Jones, not Mrs. Patrick Fitzgerald Jones, to whomsoever you may be writing. If it is necessary to notify your correspondent of your married style and estate, you may do so and in one of several ways. 

A Woman’s Name: The Etiquette of the Signature and the Name on the Card

As far as the etiquette of the signature is concerned, Harper’s Bazar says: ‘‘There is one unvarying rule for women, married and single. It is never right nor in good form to sign one’s name with the addition of Miss or Mrs. You are Mary Emily Jones, not Mrs. Patrick Fitzgerald Jones, to whomsoever you may be writing. If it is necessary to notify your correspondent of your married style and estate, you may do so and in one of several ways. 

“Please remember that a correspondent should not be left in doubt as to this, much embarrassment being frequently caused by the omission, in letters between strangers, of exact information as to whether the writer is married or single. You may readily indicate all you wish to tell. “You may place Mrs. P. F. before the Mary Emily aforesaid in parentheses. You may write Mrs. Patrick Fitzgerald out fully and plainly in the left hand corner of your sheet below your proper signature, or you may simply inclose your engraved visiting card in your letter, this being on the whole most elegant and also the most convenient method of showing one’s relation to society. 

“The exception must be remarked here that the visiting card is out of place in an exclusively business letter — one which has not even remotely a social bearing. Card etiquette is one of the finest and most delicate tests by which a woman classifies her acquaintances. Its laws are unalterable, its sins of omission or commission among the few that are absolutely unpardonable. Concerning the name on the card an authority tells that the name engraved in script through the center should have the address below it in the right hand corner, the day for receiving in the left corner. This name should never include a husband’s title or profession, but spell out the husband’s name in full, and not be written with the initials alone. 

“A daughter in the first year of her social life has no card, but engraves her name on her mother’s card. After this probationary year the eldest or the only daughter in a family writes only Miss before her family name. The younger daughters write the full name. It has been decided that on a widow’s card the dear name so long borne, so hard to relinquish, may be retained with propriety for social use, though in all practical matters the widow writes her own Christian name instead of that of her husband.”— Los Angeles Herald, 1893

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