The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Complete Bachelor, by Walter Germain

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Title: The Complete Bachelor
Manners for Men

Author: Walter Germain

Release Date: July 2, 2008 [EBook #25950]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Complete Bachelor

Manners for Men

By the Author of the
"As Seen by Him" Papers

With Index

[Illustration: Publisher's logo]

New York
D. Appleton and Company

1896

COPYRIGHT, 1896,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

PREFACE.

I suppose a book of this character needs some excuse. The world is full
of volumes written on etiquette, and, in adding another to the number,
my plea for filling the want long felt may seem ridiculous. But I have
an excellent reason, and that is, that in all treatises of this
character I have found the bachelor sadly neglected.

For many years, while conducting the query or "agony department" in
Vogue, I received letters from all parts of the United States asking for
information on certain details of etiquette which seem to have been
overlooked by the compilers or writers of etiquette manuals. My
correspondents always wanted these questions answered from the New York
standpoint. All this I have endeavored to do in this volume. I have
devoted a chapter to sports. In this I have made no attempt to give the
rules of the various pastimes therein enumerated. I have simply jotted
down some points which I hope may be of use to the outsider.

In the chapter on dancing I have taken the Patriarchs' Ball in New York
as my standard of subscription entertainments of this character. I have
also written about cotillons as they are conducted in New York. I have
endeavored to be plain and lucid. I only desired that this book should
be a help to my reader in any dilemma of social import, and if I shall
have proved of assistance, I shall feel that my mission has been
accomplished, and that I have reached the goal of my ambition.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER