TRAVELING AT HOME AND ABROAD
To do nothing that can either annoy or offend the sensibilities of others,
sums up the principal rules for conduct under all circumstances--whether
staying at home or traveling. But in order to do nothing that can annoy or
give offense, it is necessary for us to consider the point of view of
those with whom we come in contact; and in traveling abroad it is
necessary to know something of foreign customs which affect the foreign
point of view, if we would be thought a cultivated and charming people
instead of an uncivilized and objectionable one. Before going abroad,
however, let us first take up the subject of travel at home.
Since it is not likely that any one would go around the world being
deliberately offensive to others, it may be taken for granted that
obnoxious behavior is either the fault of thoughtlessness or
ignorance--and for the former there is no excuse.
=ON A RAILROAD TRAIN=
On a railroad train you should be careful not to assail the nostrils of
fellow passengers with strong odors of any kind. An odor that may seem to
you refreshing, may cause others who dislike it and are "poor travelers"
to suffer really great distress. There is a combination of banana and the
leather smell of a valise containing food, that is to many people an
immediate emetic. The smell of a banana or an orange, is in fact to nearly
all bad travelers the last straw. In America where there are "diners" on
every Pullman train, the food odors are seldom encountered in parlor cars,
but in Europe where railroad carriages are small, one fruit enthusiast can
make his traveling companions more utterly wretched than perhaps he can
imagine. The cigar which is smoldering has, on most women, the same
effect. Certain perfumes that are particularly heavy, make others ill. To
at least half of an average trainful of people, strong odors of one kind
or another are disagreeable if not actually nauseating.
=CHILDREN ON TRAINS=
People with children are most often the food-offenders. Any number not
only let small children eat continuously so that the car is filled with
food odors, but occasional mothers have been known to let a child with
smeary fingers clutch a nearby passenger by the dress or coat and
seemingly think it cunning! Those who can afford it, usually take the
drawing-room and keep the children in it. Those who are to travel in seats
should plan diversions for them ahead of time; since it is unreasonable to
expect little children to sit quietly for hours on end by merely telling
them to "be good." Two little girls on the train to Washington the other
day were crocheting doll's sweaters with balls of worsted in which were
wound wrapped and disguised "prizes." The amount of wool covering each
might take perhaps a half hour to use up. They were allowed the prize only
when the last strand of wool around it was used. They were then occupied
for a while with whatever it was--a little book, or a puzzle, or a game.
When they grew tired of its novelty, they crocheted again until they came
to the next prize. In the end they had also new garments for their dolls.
=LADIES DO NOT TRAVEL WITH ESCORTS=
In a curiously naïve book on etiquette appeared a chapter purporting to
give advice to a "lady" traveling for an indefinite number of days with a
gentleman escort! That any lady could go traveling for days under the
protection of a gentleman is at least a novelty in etiquette. As said
elsewhere, in fashionable society an "escort" is unheard of, and in decent
society a lady doesn't go traveling around the country with a gentleman
unless she is outside the pale of society, in which case social
convention, at least, is not concerned with her.
Ladies are sometimes accompanied on short, direct trips by gentlemen of
their acquaintance, but not for longer than a few hours.
If a lady traveling alone on a long journey, such as a trip across the
continent, happens to find a gentleman on board whom she knows, she must
not allow him to sit with her in the dining-car more often than a casual
once or twice, nor must she allow him to sit with her or talk to her
enough to give a possible impression that they are together. In fact she
would be more prudent to take her meals by herself, as it is scarcely
worth running the risk of other passengers' criticism for the sake of
having companionship at a meal or two. If, on a short trip, a gentleman
asks a lady, whom he knows, to lunch with him in the dining-car, there is
no reason why she shouldn't.
=THE YOUNG WOMAN TRAVELING ALONE=
In America, a young woman can go across every one of our thousands upon
thousands of railed miles without the slightest risk of a disagreeable
occurrence if she is herself dignified and reserved. She should be
particularly careful if she is young and pretty not to allow strange men
to "scrape an acquaintance" with her. If a stranger happens to offer to
open a window for her, or get her a chair on the observation platform, it
does not give him the right to more than a civil "thank you" from her. If,
in spite of etiquette, she should on a long journey drift into
conversation with an obviously well-behaved youth, she should remember
that talking with him at all is contrary to the proprieties, and that she
must be doubly careful to keep him at a formal distance. There is little
harm in talking of utterly impersonal subjects--but she should avoid
giving him information that is personal.
Every guardian should also warn a young girl that if, when she alights at
her destination, her friends fail to meet her, she should on no account
accept a stranger's offer, whether man or woman, to drive her to her
destination. The safest thing to do is to walk. If it is too far, and
there is no "official" taxicab agent belonging to the railroad company,
she should go to the ticket seller or some one wearing the railroad
uniform and ask him to select a vehicle for her. She should never--above
all in a strange city where she does not even know her direction--take a
taxi on the street.
=REGISTERING IN A HOTEL=
A gentleman writes in the hotel register: "John Smith, New York."
Under no circumstances "Mr." or "Hon." if he is alone. But if his wife is
with him, the prefix to their joint names is correct: "Mr. and Mrs. John
Smith, New York."
He never enters his street and house number. Neither "John Smith and Wife"
nor "John Smith and Family" are good form. If he does not like the "Mr."
before his name he can sign his own without, on one line, and then write
"Mrs. Smith" on the one below. The whole family should be registered:
John T. Smith, New York
Mrs. Smith, "
and maid
(_if she has brought one_)
Miss Margaret Smith, "
John T. Smith, Jr., "
Baby and nurse, "
Or, if the children are young, he writes:
Mr. & Mrs. John T. Smith, New York, 3 children and nurse.
A lady never signs her name without "Miss" or "Mrs." in a hotel register:
"Miss Abigail Titherington" is correct, or "Mrs. John Smith," never "Sarah
Smith."
=LADIES ALONE IN AMERICAN HOTELS=
If you have never been in a hotel alone but you are of sufficient years,
well behaved and dignified in appearance, you need have no fear as to the
treatment you will receive. But you should write to the hotel in
advance--whether here or in Europe. In this country you register in the
office and are shown to your room, or rooms, by a bell-boy--in some hotels
by a bell-boy and a maid.
One piece of advice: You will not get good service unless you tip
generously. If you do not care for elaborate meals, that is nothing to
your discredit; but you should not go to an expensive hotel, hold a table
that would otherwise be occupied by others who might order a long dinner,
and expect your waiter to be contented with a tip of fifteen cents for
your dollar supper! The rule is ten per cent, beginning with a meal
costing about three or four dollars. A quarter is the smallest possible
tip in a first class hotel. If your meal costs a quarter--you should give
the waiter a quarter. If it costs two dollars or more than two dollars,
you give thirty or thirty-five cents, and ten per cent on a bigger amount.
In smaller hotels tips are less in proportion. Tipping is undoubtedly a
bad system, but it happens to be in force, and that being the case,
travelers have to pay their share of it--if they like the way made smooth
and comfortable.
A lady traveling alone with her maid (or without one), of necessity has
her meals alone in her own sitting-room, if she has one. If she goes to
the dining-room, she usually takes a book because hotel service seems
endless to one used to meals at home and nothing is duller than to sit
long alone with nothing to do but look at the tablecloth, which is
scarcely diverting, or at other people, which is impolite.
=ON THE STEAMER=
In the days when our great-grandparents went to Europe on a clipper ship
carrying at most a score of voyagers and taking a month perhaps to make
the crossing, those who sat day after day together, and evening after
evening around the cabin lamp, became necessarily friendly; and in many
instances not only for the duration of the voyage but for life. More often
than not, those who had "endured the rigors" of the Atlantic together,
joined forces in engaging the courier who was in those days indispensable,
and set out on their Continental travels in company. Dashing to Europe and
back was scarcely to be imagined, and travelers who had ventured such a
distance, stayed at least a year or more. Also in those slower days of
crawling across the earth's surface by post-chaise and diligence and
horseback, travelers meeting in inns and elsewhere, fell literally on each
other's neck at the sound of an American accent! And each retailed to the
other his news of home; to which was added the news of all whom they had
encountered. It is also from these "traveling ancestors" that families
inherit their Continental visiting lists. Friends they made in Europe, in
turn gave letters of introduction to friends coming later to America. And
to them again their American hosts sent letters by later American friends.
But to-day when going to Europe is of scarcely greater importance than
going into another State, and when the passenger list numbers hundreds,
"making friends with strangers" is the last thing the great-grandchildren
of those earlier travelers would think of.
It may be pretty accurately said that the faster and bigger the
ship, the less likely one is to speak to strangers, and yet--as
always--circumstances alter cases. Because the Worldlys, the Oldnames, the
Eminents,--all those who are innately exclusive--never "pick up"
acquaintances on shipboard, it does not follow that no fashionable and
well-born people ever drift into acquaintanceship on European-American
steamers of to-day--but they are at least not apt to do so. Many in fact
take the ocean-crossing as a rest-cure and stay in their cabins the whole
voyage. The Worldlys always have their meals served in their own
"drawing-room" and have their deck chairs placed so that no one is very
near them, and keep to themselves except when they invite friends of their
own to play bridge or take dinner or lunch with them.
But because the Worldlys and the Eminents--and the Snobsnifts who copy
them--stay in their cabins, sit in segregated chairs and speak to no one
except the handful of their personal friends or acquaintances who happen
to be on board, it does not follow that the Smiths, Joneses and Robinsons
are not enlarging their acquaintance with every revolution of the screws.
And if you happen to like to be talked to by strangers, and if they in
turn like to talk to you, it can not be said that there is any rule of
etiquette against it.
=DINING SALOON ETIQUETTE=
Very fashionable people as a rule travel a great deal, which means that
they are known very well to the head steward, who reserves a table, or
they engage a table for themselves when they get their tickets. Mr. and
Mrs. Gilding for instance, if they know that friends of theirs are sailing
on the same steamer, ask them to sit at their table and ask for a
sufficiently large table on purpose. Or if they are traveling alone, they
arrange to have one of the small tables for two, to themselves.
People of wide acquaintance in big cities are sure to find friends on
board with whom they can arrange, if they choose, to sit on deck or in the
dining saloon, but most people, unless really intimate friends are on
board, sit wherever the head steward puts them. After a meal or two people
always speak to those sitting next to them. None but the rudest snobs
would sit through meal after meal without ever addressing a word to their
table companions. Well-bred people are always courteous, but that does not
mean that they establish friendships with any strangers who happen to be
placed next to them.
In crossing the Pacific, people are more generally friendly because the
voyage is so much longer, and on the other long voyages, such as those to
India and South Africa, the entire ship's company become almost as
intimate as in the old clipper days.
=THE TACTICS OF THE CLIMBER=
There are certain constant travelers who, it is said, count on a European
voyage to increase their social acquaintance by just so much each trip!
Richan Vulgar, for instance, has his same especial table every time he
crosses, which is four times a year! Walking through a "steamer train" he
sees a "celebrity," a brilliant, let us say, but unworldly man. Vulgar
annexes him by saying, casually, "Have you a seat at table? Better sit
with me, I always have the table by the door; it is easy to get in and
out." The celebrity accepts, since there is no evidence that he is to be
"featured," and the chances are that he remains unconscious to the end of
time that he served as a decoy. Boarding the steamer, Vulgar sees the
Lovejoys, and pounces: "You must sit at my table! Celebrity and I are
crossing together--he is the most delightful man! I want you to sit next
to him." They think Celebrity sounds very interesting; so, not having
engaged a table for themselves, they say they will be delighted. On the
deck, the Smartlys appear and ask the Lovejoys to sit with them. Vulgar,
who is standing by (he is always standing by) breaks in even without an
introduction and says: "Mr. and Mrs. Lovejoy and Celebrity are sitting at
my table, won't you sit with me also?" If the Smartlys protest they have a
table, he is generally insistent and momentarily overpowering enough to
make them join forces with him. As the Smartlys particularly want to sit
next to the Lovejoys and also like the idea of meeting Celebrity, it ends
in Vulgar's table being a collection of fashionables whom he could not
possibly have gotten together without just such a maneuver.
The question of what he gets out of it is puzzling since with each hour
the really well-bred people dislike him more and more intensely, and at
the end of a day or so, his table's company are all eating on deck to
avoid him. Perhaps there is some recompense that does not appear on the
surface, but to the casual observer the satisfaction of telling others
that the Smartlys, Lovejoys and Wellborns sat at his table would scarcely
seem worth the effort.
=THOSE ACQUISITIVE OF ACQUAINTANCE=
There is another type of steamer passenger and hotel guest who may, or may
not, be a climber. This one searches out potential acquaintances on the
passenger list and hotel register with the avidity of a bird searching for
worms. You have scarcely found your own stateroom and had your deck chair
placed, when one of them swoops upon you: "I don't know whether you
remember me? I met you in nineteen two, at Countess della Robbia's in
Florence." Your memory being woefully incomplete, there is nothing for you
to say except, "How do you do!" If a few minutes of conversation, which
should be sufficient, proves her to be a lady, you talk to her now and
again throughout the voyage, and may end by liking her very much. If,
however, her speech breaks into expressions which prove her not a lady,
you become engrossed in your book or conversation with another when she
approaches. Often these over-friendly people are grasping, calculating and
objectionable, but sometimes like Ricki Ticki Tavi they are merely
obsessed with a mania to run about and see what is going on in the world.
For instance, Miss Spinster is one of the best-bred, best-informed, most
charming ladies imaginable. But her mania for people cannot fail on
occasions to put her in a position to be snubbed--never seriously because
she is too obviously a lady for that. But to see her trotting along the
deck and then darting upon a helpless reclining figure, is at least an
illustration of the way some people make friends. It can't be done, of
course, unless you have once known the person you are addressing, or
unless you have a friend in common who, though absent, can serve in
making the introduction.
As said in "Introductions," introducing oneself is often perfectly
correct. If you, sharing Miss Spinster's love of people, find yourself on
a steamer with the intimate friend of a member of your family, you may
very properly go up and say, "I am going to speak to you because I am
Celia Lovejoy's cousin--I am Mrs. Brown." And Mrs. Norman, who very much
likes Celia Lovejoy, says cordially, "I am so glad you spoke to me, do sit
down, won't you?" But to have your next chair neighbor on deck insist on
talking to you, if you don't want to be talked to, is very annoying, and
it is bad form for her to do so. If you are sitting hour after hour doing
nothing but idly looking in front of you, your neighbor might address a
few remarks to you, and if you receive them with any degree of enthusiasm,
your response may be translated into a willingness to talk. But if you
answer in the merest monosyllables, it should be taken to mean that you
prefer to be left to your own diversions.
Even if you are agreeable, your neighbor should show tact in not speaking
to you when you are reading or writing, or show no inclination for
conversation. The point is really that no one must do anything to
interfere with the enjoyment of another. Whoever is making the advance,
whether your neighbor or yourself, it must never be more than tentative;
if not at least met halfway, it must be withdrawn at once. That is really
the only rule there is. It should merely be granted that those who do not
care to meet others have just as much right to their seclusion as those
who delight in others have a right to be delighted--as long as that
delight is unmistakably mutual.
=STEAMER TIPS=
Each ordinary first class passenger, now as always, gives ten shillings
($2.50) to the room steward or stewardess, ten shillings to the
dining-room steward, ten shillings to the deck steward, ten shillings to
the lounge steward. Your tip to the head steward and to one of the chefs
depends on whether they have done anything especial for you. If not, you
do not tip them. If you are a bad sailor and have been taking your meals
in your room, you give twenty shillings ($5.00) at least to the stewardess
(or steward, if you are a man). Or if you have eaten your meals on deck,
you give twenty shillings to the deck steward, and ten to his assistant,
and you give five to the bath steward. To any steward who takes pains to
please you, you show by your manner in thanking him that you appreciate
his efforts, as well as by giving him a somewhat more generous tip when
you leave the ship.
If you like your bath at a certain hour, you would do well to ask your
bath steward for it as soon as you go on board (unless you have a private
bath of your own), since the last persons to speak get the inconvenient
hours--naturally. To many the daily salt bath is the most delightful
feature of the trip. The water is always wonderfully clear and the towels
are heated.
If you have been ill on the voyage, some ship's doctors send in a bill;
others do not. In the latter case you are not actually obliged to give
them anything, but the generously inclined put the amount of an average
fee in an envelope and leave it for the doctor at the purser's office.
=DRESS ON THE STEAMER=
On the _de luxe_ steamers nearly every one dresses for dinner; some
actually in ball dresses, which is in worst possible taste, and, like all
over-dressing in public places, indicates that they have no other place to
show their finery. People of position never put on formal evening dress on
a steamer, not even in the _à la carte_ restaurant, which is a feature of
the _de luxe_ steamer of size. In the dining saloon they wear afternoon
house dresses--without hats--for dinner. In the restaurant they wear
semi-dinner dresses. Some smart men on the ordinary steamers put on a dark
sack suit for dinner after wearing country clothes all day, but in the _de
luxe_ restaurant they wear Tuxedo coats. No gentleman wears a tail-coat on
shipboard under any circumstances whatsoever.
=TRAVELING ABROAD=
Just as one discordant note makes more impression than all the others that
are correctly played in an entire symphony, so does a discordant incident
stand out and dominate a hundred others that are above criticism, and
therefore unnoticed.
In every country of Europe and Asia are Americans who combine the
brilliancy which none can deny is the birthright of the newer world, with
the cultivation and good breeding of the old. These Americans of the best
type go all over the world, fitting in so perfectly with their background
that not even the inhabitants notice they are strangers; in other words
they achieve the highest accomplishment possible.
But in contrast to these, the numberless discordant ones are only too
familiar; one sees them swarming over Europe in bunches, sometimes in
hordes, on regular professionally run tours. This, of course, does not
mean that all personally conducted tourists are anything like them. The
objectionables are loud of voice, loud in manner; they always attract as
much attention as possible to themselves, and wave American flags on all
occasions.
The American flag is the most wonderful emblem in the whole world, and
ours is the most glorious country too, but that does not mean that it is
good taste to wave our flag for no reason whatever. At a parade or on an
especial day when other people are waving flags, then let us wave ours by
all means--but not otherwise. It does not dignify our flag to make it an
object of ridicule to others, and that is exactly the result of the
ceaseless flaunting of it by a group of people who talk at the top of
their voices, who deliberately assume that the atmosphere belongs to them,
and who behave like noisy, untrained savages trying to "show off." In
hotels, on excursions, steamers and trains, they insist on talking to
everyone, whether everyone wants to talk or not. They are "all over the
place"--there is no other way to express it--and they allow privacy to no
one if they can help it.
Numberless cultivated Americans traveling in Europe never by any chance
speak English or carry English books on railroad trains, as a protection
against the other type of American who allows no one to travel in the same
compartment and escape conversation. The only way to avoid unwelcome
importunities is literally to take refuge in assuming another nationality.
Strangely enough, these irrepressibles are seldom encountered at home;
they seem to develop on the steamer and burst into full bloom only on the
beaten tourist trails--which is a pity, because if they only developed at
home instead, we might be intensely annoyed but at least we should not be
mortified before our own citizens about other fellow-citizens. But to a
sensitive American it is far from pleasant to have the country he loves
represented by a tableful of vulgarians noisily attracting the attention
of a whole dining-room, and to have a European say mockingly, "Ah, and
those are your compatriots?"
Some years ago, a Russian grand duke sitting next to Mrs. Oldname at a
luncheon in a Monte Carlo restaurant, said to her:
"Your country puzzles me! How can it be possible that it holds without
explosion such antagonistic types as the many charming Americans we are
constantly meeting, and at the same time--" looking at a group who were
actually singing and beating time on their glasses with knives and
forks--"those!"
A French officer's comment to an American officer with whom he was talking
in a club in Paris, quite unconsciously tells the same tale:
"You are _liaison_ officer, I suppose, with the Americans? But may I be
permitted to ask why you wear their uniform?"
The other smiled: "I am an American!"
"You an American? Impossible! Why, you speak French like a Parisian, you
have the manner of a great gentleman!" (_un grand seigneur_,) which would
indicate that the average American does not speak perfect French nor have
beautiful manners. There is much excuse for not speaking foreign
languages, but there is no excuse whatever for having offensive manners
and riding rough-shod over people who own the land--not we, who seem to
think we do.
As for "souvenir hunters," perhaps they can explain wherein their
pilfering of another's property differs from petty thieving--a distinction
which the owner can scarcely be expected to understand. Those who write
their names, defacing objects of beauty with their vainglorious smudges
and scribblings, are scarcely less culpable.
In France, in Spain, in Italy, grace and politeness of manner is as
essential to merest decency as being clothed. In the hotels that are "used
to us" (something of a commentary!) our lack of politeness is tolerated;
but don't think for a moment it is not paid for! The officer referred to
above, who had had the advantage of summer after summer spent in Europe as
a boy, was charged just about half what another must pay who has "the
rudeness of a savage."
But good manners are good manners everywhere, except that in Latin and
Asiatic countries we must, as it seems to us, exaggerate politeness. We
must, in France and Italy, bow smilingly; we must, in Spain and the East,
bow gravely; but in any event, it is necessary everywhere, except under
the American and British flags, to _bow_--though your bow is often little
more than a slight inclination of the head, and a smile--and to show some
ceremony in addressing people.
When you go into a shop in France or Italy, you must smile and bow and
say, "Good morning, madam," or "Good evening, monsieur," and "Until we
meet again," when you leave. If you can't say "Au revoir," say "Good
afternoon" in English, but at all events say _something_ in a polite tone
of voice, which is much more important than the words themselves. To be
civilly polite is not difficult--it is merely a matter of remembering. To
fail to say "good morning" to a _concierge_, a chambermaid, or a small
tradesman in France, treating him (or her) as though he did not exist, is
not evidence of your grandeur but of your ignorance. A French duchess
would not _think_ of entering the littlest store without saying, "Good
morning, madame," to its proprietress, and if she is known to her at all,
without making enquiries concerning the health of the various members of
her family. Nor would she fail to say, "Good morning, Auguste," or
"Marie," to her own servants.
=EUROPE'S UNFLATTERING OPINION OF US=
For years we Americans have swarmed over the face of the world, taking it
for granted that the earth's surface belongs to us because we can pay for
it, and it is rather worse than ever since the war, when the advantages of
exchange add bitterness to irritation.
And yet there are many who are highly indignant when told that, as a type,
we are not at all admired abroad. Instead of being indignant, how much
simpler and better it would be to make ourselves admirable, especially
since it is those who most lack cultivation who are most indignant. The
very well-bred may be mortified and abashed, but they can't be indignant
except with their fellow countrymen who by their shocking behavior make
Europe's criticism just.
Understanding of, and kind-hearted consideration for the feelings of
others are the basic attributes of good manners. Without observation,
understanding is impossible--even in our own country where the attitude of
our neighbors is much the same as our own. It is not hard to appreciate,
therefore, that to understand the point of view of people entirely foreign
to ourselves, requires intuitive perception as well as cultivation in a
very high degree.
=AMERICANS IN EUROPEAN SOCIETY=
It is only in musical comedy that one can go into a strange city and be
picked out of the crowd and invited to the tables of the high of the land,
because one looks as though one might be agreeable! To see anything of
society in the actual world it is necessary to have friends, either
Americans living or "stationed" or married abroad; or to take letters of
introduction. Taking letters of introduction should never be done
carelessly, because of the obligation that they impose. But to go to a
strange country and see nothing of its social life, is like a blind
person's going to the theater, and the only way a stranger can know people
is through the letters he brings.
Under ordinary circumstances no knowledge whatsoever beyond the social
amenities the world over are necessary. A dinner abroad is exactly the
same as one here. You enter a room, you bow, you shake hands, you say,
"How do you do." You sit at table, you talk of impersonal things, say
"Good-by" and "Thank you" to your hostess, and you leave.
The matter of addressing people of title correctly is of little
importance. The beautiful Lady Oldworld (who was Alice Town) was asked one
day by a fellow countryman, what she called this person of title and that
one, and she replied:
"I'm not sure that I know! Why should I call them at all?" which was a
perfectly sensible answer. One never says anything but "you" to the person
spoken to; and it might be an excellent thing not to know how to speak
about anyone with a title, as it would prevent one's mentioning them.
Having gone into the subject thus far, however, it may be added that if at
a dinner you are put next to a Duke, if it is necessary to call him
anything except "you," you would say "Duke." Unless you are waiting on the
table instead of sitting at it, you would not say, "Your Grace" and not
even _then_ "My Lord Duke." Neither, unless you are a valet or a
chambermaid, would you say "Your Lordship" to an Earl! If you are a lady,
you call him "Lord Arlington." If you know him really well, you call him
"Arlington." To a knight you say, "Sir Arthur," which sounds familiar, but
there is nothing else you can call him.
In England a stranger is not supposed to introduce anyone, so that titles
of address are not necessary then either; but if you happen to be the
hostess and French or Americans are present, who like introductions, you
introduce Sir Arthur Dryden to the Duke and Duchess of Overthere, or to
Prince and Princess Capri. In talking to her, the latter would be called
"Princess" and her husband "Prince Capri" or "Prince" or by those who know
him well, "Capri."
=PRESENTATION AT COURT=
Frequently American men are presented at the British Court at levees held
by the King for the purpose. Such men are of course distinguished citizens
who have been in some branch of public service, or who have contributed
something to art, science, history or progress.
An American lady to be eligible for presentation at a foreign Court should
be either the wife or daughter of a distinguished American citizen or be
herself notable in some branch of learning or accomplishment.
It is absolutely necessary that such a candidate take letters of
introduction to the American Ambassador,[C] or Minister if in a country
where we have a Legation instead of an Embassy. She would enclose her
letters in a note to the Ambassadress asking that her name be put on the
list for presentation. The propriety of this request is a very difficult
subject to advise upon, in that it is better that the suggestion come from
the Ambassador rather than from oneself. It is, however, perfectly
permissible for one whose presentation is appropriate, but who may perhaps
not know the Ambassador or his wife personally, to do as suggested above.
It must also be remembered that rarely more than three or perhaps five
persons are presented at any one time, so that the difficulty of obtaining
a place on the list is obvious.
An American lady is presented by the American Ambassadress (or the wife of
the American Minister) or by the wife of the Chargé d'Affaires if the
Ambassadress be absent; or occasionally by the Doyenne of the diplomatic
corps at the request of the American Embassy.
It would be futile to attempt giving details of full court dress or
especial details of etiquette, as these vary not alone with countries, but
with time! If you are about to be presented, you will surely be told all
that is necessary by the person presenting you. These details, after all,
merely comprise the exact length of train or other particulars of dress,
the hour you are to be at such and such a door, where you are to stand,
and how many curtsies or bows you are to make. In all other and essential
particulars you behave as you would in any and every circumstance of
formality. In general outline, however, it would be safe to say that on
the day of the ceremony you drive to the Palace at a specified hour,
wearing specified clothes and carrying your card of invitation in your
hand. Your wraps are left in the carriage (or motor-car), you enter the
Palace and are shown into a room where you wait, and wait and WAIT! until
at last you are admitted to the Audience Chamber where you approach the
receiving Royalties; you curtsy deeply before them and then back out.
Or else--you stand on an assigned spot while the King or Queen or both
make the tour of those waiting, who curtsy (or bow) deeply at their
approach and again at their withdrawal.
If you are spoken to at length, you answer as under any other
circumstances, exactly as a polite child answers his elders. You do not
speak unless spoken to. If your answer is long you need say nothing except
the answer; if short, you add "Sir" to the King and "Madam" to the Queen.
This seemingly democratic title is as a matter of fact the correct one for
all Royalty. "Yes, sir." "Very much indeed, Madam." "I think so, Madam."
[Footnote C: In South America alone, where out of courtesy to those who
also consider themselves "Americans," the Embassies and Legations of our
country are known as those of The United States of America. But in all
other countries of the world we are known simply as "Americans"--it is the
only name we have. We are not United Staters or United Statian--there is
not even a word to apply to us! To speak of the American Minister to this
country or that, and of the American Embassy in Paris for instance, is
entirely correct.]
=FOREIGN LANGUAGES=
In the Latin countries, grace and facility of speech is an object of
lifelong cultivation--and no one is considered an educated person who can
not speak several languages well. Those who speak many fluently, by the
way, are seldom those who constantly interlard their own tongue with words
from another.
Not to understand any foreign languages would be a decided handicap in
European society, where conversation is very apt to turn polyglot,
beginning in one tongue and going on in a second and ending in a third. So
that one who knows only English is often in the position of a deaf person,
even though Europeans are invariably polite and never let a conversation
run long in a language which all those present do not understand. It might
easily happen that a French lady and an American, neither understanding
the tongue of the other, meet at the house of an Italian, where there is
also an Italian monolinguist, so that the hostess has to talk in three
languages at once.
It is unreasonable to expect the average American to be a linguist; we are
too far removed from foreign countries. As a matter of fact, if you would
make yourself agreeable, it is much better (unless your facility was
acquired as a child or you have a talent amounting to genius for accent
and construction), to make it a rule when you lunch or dine with Europeans
to talk English, since all Latins acutely suffer at hearing their language
distorted. English, on the other hand, is not beautiful in sound to the
foreign ear; it is a series of esses and shushes, lumped with consonants
like an iron-wheeled cart bumping over a cobble-stoned street. The Latin's
accent in English is annoying even to us at times, but the English accent
in French, Italian or Spanish is murderous! Furthermore, the Latin
passionately loves his language in the way the Westerner loves his city;
he simply can not endure to have it abused, and execrates the person who
does so. And, proportionately, he loves the few who prove they share his
love by speaking it creditably.
=TO IMPROVE ONE'S ACCENT=
If you want to improve your accent, nothing can so help you as going to
the theater abroad until your ears literally absorb the sounds! All people
are imitative. There are few who do not gradually lose the purity of a
good foreign accent when long away from Europe, and all speak more
fluently when their ears become accustomed to the sound.
The theater is not only the best possible place to hear correctly
enunciated speech, but a play of contemporary life is equally valuable as
a study in manners. There is also a suavity of grace in the way Europeans
bow and stand and sit, and in the way they speak, that is unconsciously
imitated. These "manners" need not--in fact, should not--be gushing or
mincing, but you gradually perceive that jerking ramrod motions and
stalking into a drawing-room like a grenadier are less impressive than
awkward.
=THE SPOILED AMERICAN GIRL=
The subject of American manners, as they appear to Europeans, cannot be
dismissed without comment on a reprehensible type of American girl who
flourishes on shipboard, on tours, and in public places generally--but
most particularly in the large and expensive hotels of Continental
resorts.
If she and her family have a "home," they are never in it, and if they
have any object in life other than letting her follow her own unhampered
inclinations, it is not apparent to the ordinary observer. Such a girl is
always over-dressed, she wears every fashion in its extremest
exaggeration, she sparkles with jewelry, and reeks of scent, she switches
herself this way and that, and is always posing in public view and playing
to the public gallery. She generally has a small brother who refuses to go
to bed at night, or to stop making the piazza chairs into a train of cars,
or to use the public halls as a skating rink. When he is not making a
noise, he is eating. And his "elegant" sister looks upon him with disdain.
Sister, meanwhile, jingling with chains and bangles, decked in scarfs and
tulle and earrings, leans on or against whatever happens to be convenient,
flirting with any casual stranger who comes along. She invariably goes to
her meals alone--evidently thinking her parents should be kept apart from
her. She is never away from the Kurhaus or Casino, abroad or the hotel
lobby in America. She is nearly always alone, and the book she is
perpetually reading is always opened at the same page, and she is sure to
look up as you pass. She is very ready to be "picked up" and to confide
her life's history, past, present and future, to any stranger, especially
a young one of the opposite sex. She is rude only to her mother and
father. She is also (we know, but Europe doesn't) a perfectly "good" girl.
Her lack of etiquette is shocking, but her morals are above reproach. She
does not even mean to be rude to her parents, and she has no idea that the
things she does are exactly those which condemn her in the opinion of
strangers. If she were constantly with, and obviously devoted to her
mother, she would make an infinitely better impression, both as to good
form and as to heart, than by segregating herself so that she can be
joined by any haphazard youth who strolls into view, and thereby
cheapening not only herself but the name of the American girl in general.
Curiously enough, if she marries in Europe, she is apt to "settle down"
and become an altogether admirable example of American-European womanhood,
because she is sound fruit at heart--merely wrapped in tawdry gilt paper
trimming by her adoring but ignorantly unwise parents who, in their effort
to show her off, disguise the very qualities which should have been
accentuated.
=LADIES TRAVELING ALONE IN EUROPE=
Europeans can not possibly understand how any lady of social position can
be without a maid. A lady traveling alone, therefore, has this trifling
handicap to start with. It is a very snobbish opinion, and one who has the
temerity to attempt traveling all by herself has undoubtedly the ability
to see it through. She need after all merely behave with extreme quietness
and dignity and she can go from one end of the world to the other without
molestation or even difficulty--especially if she is anything of a
linguist.
In going from one place to another, it is wiser to write as long as
possible ahead for accommodations--possibly giving the name of the one (if
any) who recommended the hotel. But in going far off into Asia or other
"difficult" countries, she would better join friends or at least a
personally conducted tour, unless she has the mettle of a Burton or a
Stanley.
=MOTORING IN EUROPE=
Motoring in Europe is perfectly feasible and easy. A car has to be put in
a crate to cross the ocean, but in crossing the channel between England
and France, no difficulty whatever is experienced. All information
necessary can be had at any of the automobile clubs, and in going from one
country to another, you have merely to show your passports at the border
properly viséd and pay a deposit to insure your not selling the car out of
the country, which is refunded when you come back.
Garage charges are reasonable, but gasoline is high. Roads are beautiful,
and traveling--once you have your car--is much cheaper than by train.
Once off the beaten track, a tourist who has not a working knowledge of
the language of the country he is driving through, is at a disadvantage,
but plenty of people constantly do it, so it is at least not
insurmountable. With English you can go to most places--with English and
French nearly everywhere. The Michelin guide shows you in a little
drawing, exactly the type of hotels you will find in each approaching town
and the price of accommodation, so that you can choose your own stopping
places accordingly.
"And etiquette?" you ask. There is no etiquette of motoring that differs
from all other etiquette. Except of course not to be a road hog--or a road
pig! People who take up the entire road are not half the offenders that
others are who picnic along the side of it and leave their old papers and
food all over everywhere. For that matter, any one who shoves himself
forward in any situation in life, he who pushes past, bumping into you,
walking over you, in order to get a first seat on a train, or to be the
first off a boat, any one who pushes himself out of his turn, or takes
more than his share, anywhere or of anything--is precisely that sort of an
animal.
=ON A CONTINENTAL TRAIN=
Europeans usually prefer to ride backwards, and as an American prefers to
face the engine, it works out beautifully. It is not etiquette to talk
with fellow passengers, in fact it is very middle-class. If you are in a
smoking carriage (all European carriages are smoking unless marked "Ladies
alone" or "No smoking") and ladies are present, it is polite to ask if you
may smoke. Language is not necessary, as you need merely to look at your
cigar and bow with an interrogatory expression, whereupon your fellow
passengers bow assent and you smoke.
=THE PERFECT TRAVELER=
One might say the perfect traveler is one whose digestion is perfect,
whose disposition is cheerful, who can be enthusiastic under the most
discouraging circumstances, to whom discomfort is of no moment, and who
possesses at least a sense of the ridiculous, if not a real sense of
humor! The perfect traveler furthermore, is one who possesses the virtue
of punctuality; one who has not forgotten something at the last minute,
and whose bags are all packed and down at the hour for the start. Those
who fuss and flurry about being ready, or those whose disposition is
easily upset or who are inclined to be gloomy, should not travel--unless
they go alone. Nothing can spoil a journey more than some one who is
easily put out of temper and who always wants to do something the others
do not. Whether traveling with your family or with comparative strangers,
you must realize that your personal likes and dislikes have at least on
occasion to be subordinated to the likes and dislikes of others; nor can
you always be comfortable, or have good weather, or make perfect
connections, or find everything to your personal satisfaction; and you
only add to your own discomfort and chagrin, as well as to the discomfort
of every one else, by refusing to be philosophical. Those who are bad
sailors should not go on yachting parties; they are always abjectly
wretched, and are of no use to themselves or any one else. Those who hate
walking should not start out on a tramp that is much too far for them and
expect others to turn back when they get tired. They need not "start" to
begin with, but having once started, they must see it through.
There is no greater test of a man's (or a woman's) "wearing" qualities
than traveling with him. He who is always keen and ready for anything,
delighted with every amusing incident, willing to overlook shortcomings,
and apparently oblivious of discomfort, is, needless to say, the one first
included on the next trip.