Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society: A condensed but thorough treatise on etiquette and its usages in America, containing plain and reliable directions for deportment in every situation in life.Frost, S. Annie (Sarah Annie)
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Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society: A condensed but thorough treatise on etiquette and its usages in America, containing plain and reliable directions for deportment in every situation in life.
Frost, S. Annie (Sarah Annie)
Etiquette -- United States
During the arrangement of pecuniary matters, a young lady should
endeavor to understand what is going on, receiving it in a right
spirit. If she has a private fortune, she should, in all points
left to her, be generous and confiding; at the same time, prudent.
Many a man, she should remember, may abound in excellent
qualities, and yet be improvident. He may mean to do well, yet
have a passion for building; he may be the very soul of good
nature, yet be fond of the gaming-table; he may have no wrong
propensities, and yet have a confused notion of accounts, and be
one of those unfortunate men who muddle away a great deal of
money, no one knows how; or he may be a too strict economist, a
man who takes too good care of the pence, till he tires his wife's
life out about an extra dollar; or he may be facile, or weakly
good-natured, and have a friend who preys on him, and for whom he
is disposed to become security. Finally, the beloved Charles,
Henry, or Reginald may have none of these propensities, but may
chance to be an honest merchant, or a tradesman, with his floating
capital in business, and a consequent risk of being one day rich,
the next a pauper.
Upon every account, therefore, it is necessary for a young lady to
have a settlement on her; and she should not, from a weak spirit
of romance, oppose her friends who advise it, since it is for her
husband's advantage as well as her own. By making a settlement,
there is always a fund that cannot be touched--a something,
however small, as a provision for a wife and children; and whether
she have a fortune or not, this ought to be made. An allowance for
dress should also be arranged; and this should be administered in
such a way that a wife should not have to ask for it at
inconvenient times, and thus irritate her husband.
Flirtations on either side should be avoided, not only as, matter
of etiquette, but of humanity. No one who is really sincere in his
professions will wish to inflict pain on the object of his
affections. The same remark applies to the other side. Can it be
anything but painful in the extreme for a really loving heart to
see in the beloved one a tendency to trifle with the most sacred
emotions of the heart?
It is not etiquette to make signal displays of devotion in public,
or to be constantly sitting apart from the rest of the company;
but, on the other hand, "the authorities" will do well to make
occasions when the engaged pair can be by themselves, doing so,
not ostentatiously, but rather doing it, without speaking of it or
drawing attention to it. Nothing can make an engaged couple look
more foolish, and feel more uncomfortable, than for the family to
quit the room in which all have been sitting, with some such
remark as: "Come away! Fanny and Mr. Amor want this room to
themselves." Poor Fanny!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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