Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1893 — An Awkward Question. [ARTICLE]

An Awkward Question.

How a man shall salute his women servants when he meets them in publio is an awkward little question of etiquette. An English magazine suggests that the way out of the difficulty is for the master to take off his hat to the maid, just as he would do to a duchess. Old-fashioned persons may murmur at the notion of carrying equality a 3 far as that, and it must be remembered that the girls’ mistresses might have something to say about it. On the whole, it is more probable that our present shame-faced method will endure than that “capping” will come in. Many men are almost as much embarrassed when they accidentally meet their wives in the street as when they meet the house-maia. They do not quite know whether they ought to take off their hats or to presume upon their close relationship to make no salutation beyond “hallo!” and at once fall upon conversation. “Hats off” whenever man meets woman, whatever hqr relation toward him may be, is a safe rule for all men to follow.