Something to be noted
July 14, 1888Bad manners of our young folks of the fair sex
Objectionable ways which lessen the attractiveness of maidenhood- A practice in traveling- Munching candies in public places- an unwise habit
The traveler of years or wisdom accustomed to much exercise of his powers of observation or well acquainted with the world will have noticed that the young women of this period and perhaps of all other periods as well have one or two ways of their own which are more or less to be regretted, and which it would be well for them to look to and correct while they may, since once established with acquiescent usage no habit is easily overthrown.
These ways of our young ladies are ways which take off from the pleasant bloom of their maidenhood, and give them often a coarse grained and vulgar air, which none would regret more than themselves were they but aware of it, for they must know that few things are more unlovely in young girls than those which venture on the bold, the brusque, the assumption of too much savoir-faire or the obtrusion of themselves upon public notice.
One of these objectionable ways of our pretty damsels is a habit they have in traveling – and one which could hardly have existed before the days of railways, as stage coach authorities would never have winked at it- of taking not only the whole of a seat and taking the whole of that whether for parcels or for the fair travelers feet – a custom very observable in the frequent suburban trains. It would seem unnecessary to remind these young ladies that only a single seat was paid for by each of them, and that therefore no more should in decency be occupied by them on that score alone. But not only do they take teh space that does not belong to them but if anotehr traveler comes along looking for a seat no motion of withdrawl from the usurpation is made; the new comer has to ask if the place is occupied, and instead of pleasant answer or reassuring, not to say welcoming smile, receives a grudging negative, or else no reply at all in words, but in their place a frown and an angry sweeping aside of the parcels. As for the feet upon the opposite seat when it has been turned over, it goes without saying that a lady, young or old, must be exceedingly ill or weary and ina much greater degree than ordinary railway travel sees, in order to justify her lifting her feet into any such position.
Another unpleasant habit of our young ladies is that of munching candies at matinees, concerts, lectures, at all public places, in fact, sometimes not even excepting church, the vulgarity of which act in any public place whatever is apparent at a glance- vulgarity of bad taste, of appetite and the display of eating, as well as of the scattering of the redolence of the candies upon the atmosphere in many instances, the habit of being one which has inspired the witty pencils of many among our eminent caricaturists. A custom as much worse than this as unkindness and want of consideration are worse than vulgarity is that of regarding the late comers of theatres or concert- who enter quietly, anxious to make as little disturbance as may be, vexed with themselves more than any one else can be vexed with them- as if they were something only short of murderers, rising the while with an air of unspeakable hauteur, and drawing back as if the touch of their garments were defilement, assuming a scorn of the proceeding and the procedures which realize only anger at being disturbed. Of course it is disagreeable to gather up all one’s goods and rise in this way, but the tardiness is so much an accident that may happen to us all that it ought to be taken in a democratic spirit and accorded the treatment that it would be pleasant in tune to receive our best mannerism after all being vut the expression of true Christianity.
Still another unwise and unpleasant habit of our young people of the present and this is not confined to one sex is that o monopolizing attention and taking on themselves the whole burden of conversation and entertainment wherever they happen to be quite regardless of the presence of their elders and superiors who may be a thousand times more fitted to engross listener and observer- a habit which makes the boy seem boorish and bumptious ant the girl pityable pert and forward. The young have the world before them; they will do something better with their share if they wait and learn in silence than if they , obtrude themselves as if they had nothing more to hear and wisdom would die with them. One is tempted to say that it is enough for the young to be young, that the beauty of youth the bright color, the full eye, the velvet check, the gay spirit, is enough, without taking pains to make it all too obvious; the rose which blushes by itself in quiet places of the garden is far more attractive than the rose and every bee has rumpled- Harper’s Bazar.
source: Hamilton Daily Democrat
location: Hamilton, Ohio
