Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment / Or the Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad; Containing Rules of Etiquette for All Occasions, Including Calls; Invitations; Parties; Weddings; Receptions; Dinners and Teas; Etiquette of the Street; Public Places, Etc., Etc. Forming a Complete Guide to Self-Culture; the Art of Dressing Well; Conversation; Courtship; Etiquette for Children; Letter-Writing; Artistic Home and Interior Decorations, Etc.

by Maud C. Cooke

Ministers from Foreign Countries.

Foreign Ministers call upon the President on the first of January and the Fourth of July. They call first, in person or by card, upon the Vice-President, Cabinet Officers, Judges of the Supreme Court and the Speaker of the House on the first opportunity after presenting their credentials to the President. They also make an annual call of ceremony, by card or in person, on the above mentioned officials soon after the meeting of Congress. They are entitled to the first calls from all other persons.

The Judges of the Court of Claims call in person upon the President on New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July. They pay first calls to Cabinet Officers and Members of the Diplomatic Corps, and call annually, by card or in person, upon the Vice-President, Judges of the Supreme Court, Senators, Speaker and Members of the House soon after the meeting of Congress.

The intercourse of the other officers of the Government is regulated by superiority of rank in the public service.

The intercourse of the families of officials is regulated by the rules which govern the officials themselves.

Besides the public levees of the President, the ladies of the White House hold receptions at stated periods, to which invitations are regularly issued. The President sometimes appears upon these occasions, but is under no obligation to do so.

It has long been the custom for the President to give a series of State Dinners during the session of Congress, to which the various members of that body, the higher Government officials and the Diplomatic Corps are successively invited. In order to show attention to all, and offend none, it is necessary to give quite a number of these dinners during the session.

[The proper titles to be used in addressing the President, Members of the Cabinet, Members of Congress, Judges of the Supreme Court and other Government officials, are found in the Department on “Letter-Writing.”]

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[Delsartean Discipline]

“The end and aim of all our work should be the harmonious growth of our whole being,” says Fröebel. “Know thyself,” quoth Epictetus, the Stoic, and, knowing thyself, grow strong of mind, self-centered and self-possessed. “Know thyself,” reiterates the modern disciple of Delsarte, since only by knowledge of self can be developed the real personality of the individual.

Grace and self-possession are the aim of Delsarte; it therefore fairly falls within the province of a work on etiquette to look somewhat into the subject. If one would control others he must first control himself, possess himself. Delsarte looked upon the nature of man as a trinity, and believed that the mental, moral and physical should be educated at the same time. Modern education tends to develop man in special directions to the neglect of others. Either the overstrained mental faculties revenge themselves by giving us the nervous, broken-down, mental type so common; or else we have the crude physical type wherein ordinary labor has exercised but a few muscles and joints.