circumstances, lies his chief
ascendancy over others who impulsively betray every emotion which animates
them. Exhibitions of anger, fear, hatred, embarrassment, ardor or
hilarity, are all bad form in public. And bad form is merely an action
which "jars" the sensibilities of others. A gentleman does not show a
letter written by a lady, unless perhaps to a very intimate friend if the
letter is entirely impersonal and written by some one who is equally the
friend of the one to whom it is shown. But the occasions when the letter
of a woman may be shown properly by a man are so few that it is safest to
make it a rule never to mention a woman's letter.

A gentleman does not bow to a lady from a club window; nor according to
good form should ladies ever be discussed in a man's club!

A man whose social position is self-made is apt to be detected by his
continual cataloguing of prominent names. Mr. Parvenu invariably
interlards his conversation with, "When I was dining at the Bobo
Gilding's"; or even "at Lucy Gilding's," and quite often accentuates, in
his ignorance, those of rather second-rate, though conspicuous position.
"I was spending last week-end with the Richan Vulgars," or "My great
friends, the Gotta Crusts." When a so-called gentleman insists on
imparting information, interesting only to the Social Register, _shun
him_!

The born gentleman avoids the mention of names exactly as he avoids the
mention of what things cost; both are an abomination to his soul.

A gentleman's manners are an integral part of him and are the same whether
in his dressing-room or in a ballroom, whether in talking to Mrs. Worldly
or to the laundress bringing in his clothes. He whose manners are only put
on in company is a veneered gentleman, not a real one.

A man of breeding does not slap strangers on the back nor so much as lay
his finger-tips on a lady. Nor does he punctuate his conversation by
pushing or nudging or patting people, nor take his conversation out of the
drawing-room! Notwithstanding the advertisements in the most dignified
magazines, a discussion of underwear and toilet articles and their merit
or their use, is unpleasant in polite conversation.

All thoroughbred people are considerate of the feelings of others no
matter what the station of the others may be. Thackeray's climber who
"licks the boots of those above him and kicks the faces of those below him
on the social ladder," is a, very good illustration of what a ge