A man should learn to put his coat on in a public place of entertainment so that he will not require assistance from the woman who is with him.
The young woman to whom a seat is offered should take it, unless her companion is an older woman, when it would be quite proper to extend the courtesy to her.
It is very bad taste, even for a frolic, for a young girl to assume boy’s clothes, or get herself up in any way that will tend to make herself look masculine.
There is no impropriety in giving to those men friends with whom one is well acquainted, some trifling souvenir at Christmas or Easter, or on birthdays.
It is customary for a young man to send a young woman only such gifts as flowers, candy, and books; and as these presents are sent merely as a slight return for her hospitality and invitations to her house, etc., it is not necessary for her to send him any gift in return. If, however, a young woman and man are on intimate enough terms to exchange presents, she may send him any small article for the desk or toilet; such as a silver-handled whisk broom, court-plaster case, pen-wiper, paper-cutter, or books, which are a good present and always acceptable to any one.
Nothing looks more ill-bred than to see a young man, under his parents’ roof, devoting himself during a whole evening entirely to one young woman to the ignoring of the others.
A man who is escorting two women in the street should not walk between them, but on the outside of both near the curb; at the theater or at any place of amusement or at church, he should sit nearest to the aisle, at the side of one of them.
Unless there is some good reason why she needs his support, a man seldom offers his arm to a woman he escorts, even in the evening. A husband may offer his arm to his wife, of course, and a man may proffer this help to an invalid or aged person.
A little delicate perfume may be used with propriety, but a heavy perfume, and one that scents the entire room in which the person who uses it happens to be, is in very bad form.
In opening a door from the hall to the drawing-room, a man should hold it while a woman precedes him in entering.