Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1909 — Losing His Opportunity. [ARTICLE]

Losing His Opportunity.

More young men have lost the opportunity of winning the friendship of refined young women through their own negligence and lack of manners than almost any other cause, No woman of refinement cares to dine in public with a man who does not have good table mannefs, nor does she care to introduce a careless or ignorant person to her own family or acquaintances. Here are a fpw of the offending things that a girl does not like to observe in a man companion: Talking across from one table to another; keeping up an Incessant idle chatter with other parties. A spoon left in the tea or coffee cup is quickly noticed and almost despised by the young woman who observes. Tilting back a chair, scuffing the feet under the table, not sitting erect in a chair, misplacing knife and fork, over-reaching and uncomplimentary remarks about food, are all bad forme of etiquette. Talking with the mouth full is another fault as bad as using a toothpick in public, eating from a knife or spreading bread with a fork. If one happens to be thrown in with company of this kind the man will never be forgotten, gpuch less forgiven. It is not necessary for a man or woman to be too severe about these rules of etiquette, but it is a genuine relief to be with either and not feel ashamed of one’s companion. One woman made the remark, that she was not the least bit strict about the man she would marry, for she knew all men had faults, but she would never marry one who would make a fool oi himself in public, and she married one of the most refined, genteel men Imaginable, simply because he was her ideal of the right kind of a man.