Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1886 — Butch Etiquette. [ARTICLE]

Butch Etiquette.

I have no idea of attempting to tell anything new about Holland and the Dutch, but there are some things about domestic etiquette aud the like that only a woman would notice, of which 1 may write, and which are just what “Our Dutch” practiced. The man is “lord of all” in Holland; the woman is almost a shadow of estimation. The typical Dutchman hasn’t a particle ol the chivalrous about him, and abounds in the arts of slighting and impertinence. He is a sort of a bear, tame and good-natured, but still full of the bruin element. His countrywomen are actually afraid of him, especially when outside their own door. The Dutchwoman lives in constant fear of insult; and when she is out on the street she acts as if she was afraid that her ursine brothers were going to bite, paw, ot hug her. Not that the men are dangerous, for rarely is it heard that the bears have bitten. Look out on the street, and you will see that the ladies Avalk in the road and the gentlemen on the sidewalk. Always so, no matter lioav muddy or dusty the road is, or how many teams are passing. Watch them, and you cannot help but notice that jthe gentlemen and ladies never speak to each other on tho street. That would be a breach of etiquette that society would hardly pardon. Even when a man meets his wife he is not permitted to ask what he shall bring home for dinner! The gentleman bows first, the same as in France, and a lady may have boAvs from any number of men whose names she does not even know. And tho bowing is a marvel! The forehead almost touches the knees in the act, and there is no half-Avay work about it—no nodding or a SAveeping touch of the hat, but an entire removal of the hat to supplement that intense bow. Everybody bows, then they take off their hats to one another and profoundly bow. Your friend’s coachman or lackey does the same toward you as his master does, and the servants are just as polite to each other. A lady is bowed to by all the friends cf her father, husband or brother; and your housemaid’s friends as well. Every man bows to the house of His lady acquaintances when ho passes; hows, smiles and raises his hat, no matter whether the ladies are visible or not. If they are visible they return the bow with an over-polite bend of the whole body. The women seem to think that where there are several men congregated they will take especial delight in insulting them, and a lady is never known to pass a club-house or a knot of men on the street. If she is obliged to pass up a street Avhere there is a club, she does not dare to brave the dreaded windows, but will cross the street until she is past the house, and then cross back again. I have seen a lady of my acquaintance make the round of several streets to avoid a club-house, being at the time in a great hurry to reach an apothecary, whose shop Avas next beyond the club. If a Inly, alone oi accompanied by other ladies, must needs enter a confectionery, library or other place where men will naturally go and finds a gentleman or two there, she will retire as precipitately as if she had seen a case of small-pox. The men knoAv this, but unless my lord the man has quite finished his business he will not retire. The lady retreats in a most undignified manner, and the human bear finishes his book or his chocolate, even though the lady is waiting at the door for him to leave.— Home Journal.