Oh, Behave!

A while back I purchased "The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility (1856)," a tiny photocopied book from The Huntington Library in Pasadena. The instructions for living a polite, restrained life perversely make me want to slouch, swear, and wear pants (and all at once, for that matter) but it also makes me laugh. So, for the next few weeks, I'll try and publish an excerpt from the book every Monday. (The best part--the letters--are last).

"THE ART OF CONVERSING WITH FLUENCY AND PROPRIETY."

A practical view of the subject--the power excercised by ladies in conversation--how wives should speak of their husbands, and husbands of their wives--conversing with gentlemen--things, words, and sayings to be avoided in conversation.

A PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT
A lady's influence in conversation.--Every woman whose heart and mind have been properly regulated, is capable of exerting a most salutary influence over the gentlemen with whom she associates; and this fact has been acknowledged by the best and wisest of men, and seldom disputed, except by those whose capacities for observation have been perverted by adverse circumstances.