E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, MandM, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 17609-h.htm or 17609-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/6/0/17609/17609-h/17609-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/6/0/17609/17609-h.zip) OUR DEPORTMENT Or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society; INCLUDING Forms for Letters, Invitations, Etc., Etc. Also, Valuable Suggestions on Home Culture and Training. Compiled from the Latest Reliable Authorities, by JOHN H. YOUNG, A.M. Revised and Illustrated. [Illustration] F. B. Dickerson & Co., Detroit, Mich. St. Louis, Mo. Pennsylvania Publishing Co., Harrisburgh, Pa. Union Publishing House, Chicago, Ill. 1881. [Illustration] To go through this life with good manners possessed, Is to be kind unto all, rich, poor and oppressed, For kindness and mercy are balms that will heal The sorrows, the pains, and the woes that we feel. [Illustration] Copyrighted by Freeman B. Dickerson, 1879 and 1881. [Illustration] Preface. No one subject is of more importance to people generally than a knowledge of the rules, usages and ceremonies of good society, which are commonly expressed by the word "Etiquette." Its necessity is felt wherever men and women associate together, whether in the city, village, or country town, at home or abroad. To acquire a thorough knowledge of these matters, and to put that knowledge into practice with perfect ease and self-complacency, is what people call good breeding. To display an ignorance of them, is to subject the offender to the opprobrium of being ill-bred. In the compilation of this work, the object has been to present the usages and rules which govern the most refined American society, and to impart that information which will enable any one, in whatever circumstances of life to acquire the perfect ease of a gentleman, or the gentle manners and graceful deportment of a well-bred lady, whose presence will be sought for, and who, by their graceful deportment will learn the art of being at home in any good society. The work is so arranged, that every subject is conveniently classified and subdivided; it is thus an easy matter to refer at once to any given subject. It has been the aim of the compiler to give minutely all points that are properly embraced in a work on etiquette, even upon matters of seemingly trivial importance. Upon some hitherto disputed points, those rules are given, which are sustained by the best authorities and endorsed by good sense.