A Gilded Age Coveted Degree

French style and fashion from 1895

What Is Style?

What we call style is almost precisely synonymous with what the French call “chic.” Either word means much or little, anything and everything; is definite to the mind and indefinable to the tongue. No one expects to find what is chic outside of Paris. No New Yorker, at least, expects to find style much beyond the fifty-mile radius with Central Park as a center. What the Parisienne is to the Old World the Manhattanese is to the New. 

The latter is rarely born where she makes her home. She comes from every part of the republic, from North, South, East and West, from city, village and hamlet, to the great municipal school of art, fashion, manners, and receives there the coveted degree M.S., Mistress of Style. So, if she reflects luster upon herself she reflects luster in a way on the whole country, showing what anyAmerican may become under properly plastic agencies and in aiming at her own. 

The mistress of style must be, in regard to the multitude, as one in a hundred: but she is a familiar figure in every cultured household, and a creature to be esteemed, to be admired, to be patterned after. She is not only the woman of the present, she is the woman of the future as well, for the future cannot eclipse her.— Harper's Bazaar, 1895

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

Gilded Age Poetic Etiquette Humor

Etiquette humor was popular in the late-1800’s, and early 1900’s as the Gilded Age was winding down, though fashion magazines weren’t usually the first to print the funny posts.~ Image source, Pinterest

Mr. Josh Simpkins on Etiquette

I've studied up on etiquette,
Read every book that I could get, 
And yet There isn't one in all the lot 
That tells a feller it is not 
De rigger to cat pie For breakfast; 
hence, why shouldn't I? 
And, furthermore, I cannot find 
In all the books I call to mind 
A single line 
That gives a reason worth a whoop 
Against a second plate of soup
When fellers dine, 
And as for eating marrowfats 
Without a spoon I think that that's 
A fool- Ish sort of rule. 

When I eat peas,
 I'll do as I darn please! 
And, what is more, till I'm a snob 
I'll eat my corn straight off the cob, 
And sparrergrass I'll eat as I 
Have always done in days gone by- 
A sort of dangling from the sky, 
A sort of gift from heaven come, 
Held 'twist my finger and my thumb;  

And as for those peculiar things 
Called finger bowls I vow, by jings,
 I will not use 'em as they say 
The bon ton uses 'em today. 
If my hands ain't both good and clean, 
The pump is where it's always been, 
And, far as ever I could see, 
It's plenty good enough for me.
I don't stand much on etiquette, 
But yet I'm too polite to wash my paws 
At table, spite of social laws.

 

–Harper's Bazar, 1900

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

Gilded Age Dining is Fashionably Late

“Second Début” Post on Gilded Age Dining…

Gilded age servers for the dining room – “A marked change has taken place in the fashion. The late evening dinner has for years been steadily gaining in popularity, and promises to become even more common than it is now. Thoughtful men and women recognize the wisdom of eating lightly at midday, when they are in the full tide of business, and reserving the heartiest repast for an hour when it can be discussed leisurely and digested peacefully.” – 1890

More Fashionable is the Late Time to Dine

Twenty or thirty years ago the late dinner was not nearly so popular as it is now. The majority of people dined in the middle of the day, and not a few of them considered a six-o'clock dinner as an effort after fashion, that was unworthy the imitation of sensible men and women. Even in the large cities, servants rebelled against an alteration of the time-houored custom of serving the principal meal of the day at, or near noon, while in small towns the late dinner was so unusual that it was almost impossible to persuade domestics to consent to it.

A marked change has taken place in the fashion. The late evening dinner has for years been steadily gaining in popularity, and promises to become even more common than it is now. Thoughtful men and women recognize the wisdom of eating lightly at midday, when they are in the full tide of business, and reserving the heartiest repast for an hour when it can be discussed leisurely and digested peacefully. Mistresses have learned that there is a gain in keeping the morning free for housework, instead of devoting most of it to the preparation of the dinner.The light lunch eaten in most homes demands much less time in cooking and eating than does a dinner, and leaves those who have partaken of it more fit for work than they would be, were their stomachs burdened with the task of digesting soup, meat, vegetables and dessert.

The late dinner is a more dignified meal than can possibly be made of a similar repast eaten at noon. The festal appearance imparted by the gleam of candles, lamps, or gas upon silver, china and glass, cannot be acquired by daylight. The pleasant harmony around the board of the members of the family, whose positions and interests have been divergent since morning, the happy consciousness that the work of the day is done, the knowledge that there is no toil waiting at the door of the diningroom, all bear their share in rendering the meal cheerful and care-free. 

More ceremony can and should be preserved at the evening dinner than is feasible at noon. The orderly sequence of courses and the careful serving have a part in adding to the dignity of the meal. These suggestions should not frighten the house-keeper who contemplates introducing the late dinner into their household. Very little extra work is involved in bestowing the touch of state referred to, and, after all, it consists chiefly in a slight additional care in waiting and serving, and to these the mistress can readily accustom the maid.— Christine Terhune Herrick, in Harper's Bazaar, 1890

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