The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [773]
A lady should rarely take the arms of two gentlemen, one being upon either side; nor should a gentleman usually carry a lady upon each arm. The latter of these iniquities is practiced only in Vermont, the former, perhaps, in Kamtschatka. There are, to be sure, some cases in which it is necessary, for the protection of the ladies, that they should both take our arm — as in coming home from a concert, or in passing on any occasion through a crowd.
If you have bad squinting eyes, which have lost their lashes and are bordered with red, you should wear spectacles; if the defect be great, your glasses should be colored. In such cases, emulate the sky rather than the sea. Green spectacles are an abomination, fitted only for students of divinity; blue ones are respectable and even distingué. Almost every defect of face may be concealed by a judicious use and arrangement of hair. Take care, however, that your hair be not of one color and your whiskers of another; and let your wig, if you wear one, be large enough to cover the whole of your real hair. On Sunday, never wear white trousers, light vest, white stockings or light-colored gloves, and studiously avoid on that day anything like display.
In a ball-room, lead your partner through the dance very gently, only touching her fingers, not grasping her hand. Dance quietly but gracefully, moving only your legs and feet, not your body to and fro like a pendulum. If you have no ear for music, or a false ear, never dance at all.
Fashion is so completely distinguished from good-breeding that it is often opposed to it. It is, in fact, a system of refined vulgarity. What, for example, can be more vulgar than incessantly talking about forms and customs? — about silver forks and French soups? A gentleman follows these conventional habits, but follows them as matters of course. If he sees a person who eats with his knife, he concludes that that person is ignorant of the usages of the world, but he does not shriek and faint away like a perfumed dandy. If he dines at a table where there are no silver forks, he eats his dinner in perfect propriety with steel, and exhibits neither by manner or by speech that he perceives any error. To be sure, he forms his and own opinion about the condition of his entertainer, but he never presumes to harangue about such delinquencies.
By attending to these trifling regulations, young men on entering the world will be able to acquire the health of the true gentleman and a considerable insight into the knowledge of the anatomy of refinement.
HARPER'S FERRY
THE scenery at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, is perhaps the most picturesque in America. The view given in the accompanying engraving is taken from the Blue Ridge, from whence the tourist enjoys the finest prospect of this delightful spot. Lofty as the summit is, and difficult as the ascent proves to the uninitiated, the magnificence of the view from the top of the ridge amply compensates the adventurer for his trouble. Immediately beneath your feet are seen the Potomac and Shenandoah enveloping the beautiful village of Harper's Ferry in their folds, and then joining, their waters flow on in silent beauty, until lost behind the gorges of the mountains. Far away in the distance stretch a succession of woody plains, diversified with farm-houses and villages, and gradually growing more and more indistinct, until they fade away into the summits of the Alleghanies. But we cannot do better than give President Jefferson's unrivalled description of this scene. "The passage," he says, "of the Potomac, through the Blue Ridge, is, perhaps, one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land; on your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountains a hundred miles to seek a vent, on your left approaches the Potomac, in quest of a passage also: in the moment of their junction, they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder and pass