The Book of Business Etiquette

bread with your thumb, to rub your greasy fingers on the bread you were about to eat, or to rise from the table with a toothpi

not all immigrants in the slum districts or Negroes in the poorer sections of the South-who do not know what a napkin is, who think the proper way to eat an egg is to hold it in the hand like a piece of candy, and bi

s. They had no training in how to handle a knife and fork and they probably never read a book of etiquette, but they had

those to which he has been accustomed, if he has a friend whom he can consult, not only about table manners but about matters of graver

was thrown into the company of a delightful youth who had already attained the minor graces of polite society. Very much in earnest about what he had set out to do, and blessed besides with a goodish bit of common sense, he explained his situation to Herbert, for that was the oth

ough I venture to prophesy tha

med to the ex-blacksmith's apprentice, and after a while began to t

idents-and that while the fork is reserved for that use it is not put further in than necessary. It is scarcely worth mentioning, only it's as well to do as other people do. Also, the spoon is not generally

Pip) in such a lively way, that we b

broke off to observe that "society as a body does not expect one to be so strictly consci

ess of attention to his recital. I thanked him, an

than that given by Herbert Pocket when he took the blacksmith's boy in hand and began his education in the art of being a

e boy, "that no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He s

at once nor to plaster cheese over the entire upper surface of a cracker, can by a dint of watching how other people do it find his way without embarrassment through even the most elaborate array of table implements. The easiest way to acquire good table manners (or good manners of any

ss like the mechanical part of reading or writing. It is only when he is trying to be a bit more formal

royal circles, and there was a time when the king resented the idea of a commoner being able to dine with grace and elegance. Since then it has become democratized, and now there are no restrictions exc

ase we find, as we do in a number of others, that what good manners declares should be done is heartily endorsed at the

roach among sw

a bit of

ent in a place entertains the one who is visiting, but there are infinite exceptions to this as well, especially in the case of traveling salesman. All courtesy is mutual, and it is almost obligatory upon the salesman who has been entertained to return the courte

most any other social affairs. Nearly always it is the wife of the man with the higher position who issues the first invitation, and

n of having three hours for lunch every day, but time enough to sit down and relax. Thousands of business men dash out to lunch-bad manners are at their worst in the middle of the day-as if they were stopping off at a railroad junction with twenty minut

s (which either go fluttering to the floor or else form themselves into damp wads on the table), where the patrons eat ravenously and untidily, and where the atmosphere is dense with the fumes of soup and cigarettes. But luxury in eating is expensive and most of us must, perforce, go to the white-tiled places. And the art of dining is not a question of what one has to eat-it may be

thout apology. We like to present ourselves in the best possible light (it is only human) and for this reason often carry our friends to places we cannot afford. This imposes upon them the necessity of returning the dinner in kind, and the vici

an) who objects to the smell of it he must wait until later. On the other hand if his guest likes to smoke and he does not h

sometimes fails to make the lunch hour the restful break in the middle of the day which it should be. It is generally much more fun and of much more benefit to swap fish stories and hunting yarns than to go over the details of the work in the publicity department or to formulate the plans for handling the Smith and Smith proposition. Momentous questions should be thrust aside until later, and the talk should be-well, talk, not argu

ng it is, too. Aside from the coziness and warmth which comes from breaking bread together one is free from the interruptions and noise of the office, and many a commercial acquaintance has ripened into a friend and many a business connection has been cemented into something stronger through the genial influence of something good to eat and drink. It is, of course, a mis

whole stalk, green leaves and all, he feels sure that he has before him a man of economy, common sense, and good judgment! The story does not say what happens when the young man refuses celery altogether. Another uses cherry pie as his standard and judges the young man by what he does with the pits. There are three ways to dispose of them.

h his customers. An excellent salesman may be able to convince a man of good breeding and wide social training if he tucks

c chapters in the history of American life is the one which tells of the millions and millions of men who became so immersed in business affairs that they lost sight of everything else. The four walls of the narrow house which in the end closes around us all could not more completely have cut them off from the light of

ead men wit

at are not s

*

odies ther

uls are stee

a good long way away from table manners), but the men who

o