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| You should exchange calls with individuals before inviting them to your house. – Gilded age silver calling card tray, with a playful pup chewing on a newspaper, dated May 4, 1891. The card tray is featured in the book, “What Have We Here?: The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond...” |
- Letters should never be crossed.
- Letters of introduction should be brief.
- Always offer ladies the right arm.
- Ladies do not talk across the street.
- Never wait over fifteen minutes for a tardy guest.
- Walk around a lady’s train; don't step over it or on it.
- “Yours, etc...,” is a rude ending to letters as a rule.
- Say “Good-bye” on leaving, not “Good morning” or “Good evening.”
- In bowing, the inclination of the head alone is necessary.
- Much underscoring in a letter is vulgar and meaningless.
- A gentleman walking with a lady returns a bow made to her.
- Nothing is more vulgar than finery and jewelry out of place.
- It is the place of the one introduced to make the first remark.
- The custom of sending flowers to funerals is growing in disfavor.
- Don’t keep flowers for your friend’s coffins. Give them while living.
- Never pass an acquaintance without a salutation of recognition.
- Always speak to an acquaintance with a smile in your eye; avoid grinning.
- “Yours truly,” is the correct form for closing business but not friendly letters.
- Upon introduction, enter at once into conversation.
- Upon leaving a room, one bow shall include all.
- A call should not be less than fifteen minutes in length.
- A note requires as prompt an answer as a spoken question.
- Regrets in reply to invitations should contain the reason therefor.
- At table you are not required to thank the one who waits on you.
- You should exchange calls with individuals before inviting them to your house.
- The custom of leaving a blank margin on the left hand side of each page of a letter is obsolete. – San Jose Weekly Mercury, 1880
🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia
