Perfect Behavior: A Guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in All Social Crises

HINTS FOR THE CORRECT PEDESTRIAN Let us suppose, for example, that you are a young gentleman of established social position in one of the many cities of our great middle west, and it is your desire to travel from your home to New York City for the purpose of viewing the many attractions of that metropolis of which I need perhaps only mention the Aquarium or Grant’s Tomb or the Eden Musee. Now there are many ways of getting to New York, such as (a) on foot, (b) via “rail”; it should be your first duty to select one of these methods of transportation. Walking to New York (“a” above) is often rejected because of the time and effort involved and it is undoubtedly true that if one attempted to journey afoot from the middle west one would probably be quite fatigued at the end of one’s journey. The etiquette of walking, however, is the same for short as for long distances, and I shall at this point give a few of the many rules for correct behavior among pedestrians. In the first place, it is always customary in a city for a young lady, either accompanied or unaccompanied, to walk on the sidewalk. A young “miss” who persists in walking in the gutters is more apt to lose than to make friends among the socially “worth while.” Gentlemen, either with or without ladies, are never seen walking after dark in the sewers or along the elevated, tracks. It is not au fait for gentlemen or ladies wearing evening dress to “catch on behind” passing ice wagons, trucks, etc.; the time and energy saved are doubtfully repaid should one happen to be driven thus past other members of one’s particular social “set.”