A source of offense (in the East) are calls formal in character.
One can ruin his social standing by going to make this call in a
wrong style of conveyance. A friend of mine had bought a Chinese
sedan-chair with shorter handles than those of an ordinary
sedan. It was loaned to a millionaire from New York to bring him
up from the river, and it caused the greatest excitement that
the city had ever known. People were laughing for years over it.
Why? Because those shorter handles made of that sedan a spirit
chair, in which the ghost is carried at funeral processions.
It was just as appropriate as if Dr. Anderson, of the First
Presbyterian Church up here, should receive a visiting clergyman
in a hearse down at the station and bring him uptown in it. It
is safe to say that the sight of his guest looking out through
the glass sides would not be forgotten. You have reached your
place, and you desire to make a good impression; but you are in
such haste that you leap down from your cart, or gharry. Well,
if a lady should do this in China or India, she might just as
well in America if she desired to make a good impression upon
a new friend, approach this friend’s house skipping, or on the
run; or a gentleman might just as appropriately vault a fence to
get over into the yard, instead of entering by the gate where
he was going to make a call.--H. P. BEACH, “Student
Volunteer Movement,” 1906.
(305)
=Calmness=--See CONFIDENCE.