book on etiquette appeared a chapter purporting to
give advice to a "lady" traveling for an indefinite number of days with a
gentleman escort! That any lady could go traveling for days under the
protection of a gentleman is at least a novelty in etiquette. As said
elsewhere, in fashionable society an "escort" is unheard of, and in decent
society a lady doesn't go traveling around the country with a gentleman
unless she is outside the pale of society, in which case social
convention, at least, is not concerned with her.

Ladies are sometimes accompanied on short, direct trips by gentlemen of
their acquaintance, but not for longer than a few hours.

If a lady traveling alone on a long journey, such as a trip across the
continent, happens to find a gentleman on board whom she knows, she must
not allow him to sit with her in the dining-car more often than a casual
once or twice, nor must she allow him to sit with her or talk to her
enough to give a possible impression that they are together. In fact she
would be more prudent to take her meals by herself, as it is scarcely
worth running the risk of other passengers' criticism for the sake of
having companionship at a meal or two. If, on a short trip, a gentleman
asks a lady, whom he knows, to lunch with him in the dining-car, there is
no reason why she shouldn't.

=THE YOUNG WOMAN TRAVELING ALONE=

In America, a young woman can go across every one of our thousands upon
thousands of railed miles without the slightest risk of a disagreeable
occurrence if she is herself dignified and reserved. She should be
particularly careful if she is young and pretty not to allow strange men
to "scrape an acquaintance" with her. If a stranger happens to offer to
open a window for her, or get her a chair on the observation platform, it
does not give him the right to more than a civil "thank you" from her. If,
in spite of etiquette, she should on a long journey drift into
conversation with an obviously well-behaved youth, she should remember
that talking with him at all is contrary to the proprieties, and that she
must be doubly careful to keep him at a formal distance. There is little
harm in talking of utterly impersonal subjects--but she should avoid
giving him information that is personal.

Every guardian should also warn a young girl that if, when she alights at
her destination, her friends fail to meet her, she should on no account
accept a stranger's offer, whether man or woman,