Here’s a refresher course on etiquette, brought to you by Lillian Eichler’s Book of Etiquette. Enjoy!
1923: Etiquette’s Reward
Etiquette is like the binding of a book ~ just as the binding reveals the name of the book, and protects the valuable pages that are inside, so does etiquette reveal the breeding and culture of an individual, and protects him from the disrespect, ridicule and snobs of the world.
Etiquette will make you dignified. It will make your actions and speech refined, polished, impressive. It will make you a leader instead of a follower, a participant instead of a looker-on. It will open the doors of the highest society to you, make you immune to all embarrassment, enable you to conduct yourself with ease and confidence at all times, under all circumstances.
The rewards of etiquette are too numerous to recount. If you follow the laws of good conduct, if you do only what is right and in good form, you will find yourself an acknowledged leader, an acknowledged success, no matter in what station of life you may be. The world is quick to perceive good manners, just as it is quick to perceive the blunders in etiquette. If you study the rules of good conduct, and follow good form in everything you do and say, you will become courteous and kind and well-mannered. Etiquette will attract people to you, make you and your home a center of social activity. But most of all, it will make you respect yourself. And that is more important than riches or fame ~ for self-respect is the only thing that brings true happiness.
Remember the words of the prophet, ‘He who respects himself will earn the respect of all the world.’
Source: Eichler, Lillian . Book of Etiquette, Volume I. Garden City, New York: Nelson Doubleday, Inc.,1923.
~ pp. 18-19 ~