Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 121, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1916 — Social Usage Course in New York University [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Social Usage Course in New York University

NEW YORK —At last a college is meeting the real needs of the age. The classics may be forgotten, but New York university has a course in social usage and etiquette. Arthur H. Nason, assistant professor of English, is the instructor. He is a tall, courteous per-

son, with a very neat Van Dyke beard, and evidently well qualified to give such a course. He assured a reporter that the course is not official. But it may become such in time. He said a group of medical preparatory students wanted it for purely professional purposes. A doctor must know how to get along with his patients, you know. “How B many students have you?” was asked.

“Fifteen or twenty, depending ox the weather and the ball game,” was the smiling response. “And just what do you study?” “We’re very practical. The first time we studied ‘Usages in Public.’ Last time it was ‘The Bachelor as Guest.’ Next time we will take up ‘The Bachelor as Host.’ ” The professor was very uncommunicative as to just what topics came under these heads. “Usages in Public,” it was explained, covered “how to act on the street or in the theater.” Possibly it includes a careful study of the various methods of removing one’s hat when meeting a woman on the street. Should It be lifted, or should it be lowered with a graceful sweep? Then there Is that Vexed question of just when it is proper to take a girl’s arm, and how much of it one should take. * The subject of “The Bachelor as Guest” would naturally.Jnvolve such topics as: What to say when you have spilled soup on the table; how to manage spaghetti when your hostess is watching you; the propriety of gnawing a chop while holding it in your fingers; how to eat grapefruit without squirting the juice, and “The Proper Remarks to Make When Viewing the Infant Child of a Relative." \