A YOUNG WOMAN’S ESCORT
It is the duty of a young woman’s escort to be looking after her pleasure and comfort in various ways. If he takes her to a dance, he must see, if possible, that her card is filled. If it is not filled, he should sit out with her the unclaimed dances. Ordinarily, a girl does not cross a ballroom unless accompanied by her escort or her chaperon.
AT THE THEATER
If a man takes a girl to the theater he should procure a program for her and should assist her in the removal of her wraps. Whenever accidentally or by arrangement, a man accompanies a woman he should not permit her to carry a package, umbrella or wrap, unless the latter be a light summer wrap which she may prefer to retain. The various opportunities offered men for small services, for little gallantries of conduct, can not be registered in detail. They are too many. It is sufficient to say that young women should encourage men in such amiable habits. Favors of the sort indicated are without cost and yet beyond price. If accepted graciously they react on manners to the advantage of both sexes. They help to make of society the pleasing spectacle which we imagine it to be in our dreams.
Young women who are guests at a box party should sit in the front seats with the men behind them. The writer was witness during the current year of a small-town box party straggling into a city theater, where each girl was awkwardly ranged alongside of her escort. The clumsy unsophisticated air of the party, each Jack beside his Jill, needs no comment.
A young girl should not grant a request for an interchange of letters with a young man without consulting her mother. A young woman should remember in writing to a young man that written words are not like spoken ones and are far more capable of misinterpretation. Though prudence is not a generous quality, it is one to be observed in all letter-writing but that arising out of the most intimate relations.