Page:The Ladies' and Gentlemen's Etiquette.djvu/12

We have so long borrowed our manners, like our literature, from the Old World, that we have become thoroughly imbued with the feeling that what is not European—what is not at least English—cannot be proper and right in the conduct of life. But now, in the hundredth year of our national existence, it is time we began to realize the fact that we are perfectly capable of depending upon ourselves in matters pertaining to both behavior and dress. Our civilization is American; our progress is American; and, all unaware of it as we are, our development of the finer and gentler traits of character is just as truly American. We should understand that the American gentleman, though he may be lacking in the exceedingly polished, almost subservient, outward forms of politeness of the Frenchman—though he may not be so self-asserting and condescending as the Englishman—is just as true a gentleman; and