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  Never:

  _A Hand-Book for the Uninitiated
  and Inexperienced
  Aspirants to Refined Society’s
  Giddy Heights
  and Glittering Attainments._




  MRS. MARY J. HOLME’S NOVELS

  Over a MILLION Sold

  THE NEW BOOK
  Queenie Hetherton
  _JUST OUT_.

  For Sale Everywhere

  Price, $1.50.




  NEVER




  Never:

  _A Hand-Book for the Uninitiated
  and Inexperienced
  Aspirants to Refined Society’s
  Giddy Heights
  and Glittering Attainments._

              “Shoot Folly as it flies,
  And catch the manners living as they rise.”
                                      _Pope._

  BY MENTOR.

  [Illustration: colophon]

  NEW YORK: COPYRIGHT, 1883,

  BY _G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers_.




  Stereotyped by
  SAMUEL STODDER,
  42 DEY STREET, N. Y.




[Illustration]


_Prelude_.

[Illustration]


_This little book is cordially recommended to all parties just
hesitating on the plush-padded, gilt-edged threshold of our highest
social circles._

_In purely business affairs, it may not be as useful as_ Hoyle’s Games,
_or_ Locke on the Human Understanding, _but a careful study of its
contents cannot but prove the “Open Sesame” to that jealously-guarded
realm,--good society,--in which you aspire to circulate freely and
shine with becoming luster_.

_“It is easier for a needle to pass through a camel’s eye,” says Poor
Richard, or some one else, “than for a poor young man to enter the
mansions of the rich.” And I, the author of this code of warnings, as
truly say unto you, that a contemptuous disregard of the same will be
likely to lead you into mortification and embarrassment, if not into
being incontinently kicked out of doors._

_While intended chiefly for the young, not the less may the old, the
decrepit, and the infirm like-wise rejoice in the possession of the
rules and prohibitions herein contained, and hasten to commit them to
memory._

_But the memory is treacherous._

_It would, therefore, be well for such persons to carry the Hand Book
constantly with them, to be referred to on short notice wherever they
may chance to be--in the street-car, in the drawing-room, on the
promenade, on the ball-room floor, at table, while visiting, and so on._

_In this way the Hand Book will be like the magic ring that pricked
the wearer’s finger warningly whenever about to yield to an unworthy
impulse. Its instructively reiterated “Never” will become, indeed, a
blessing--not in disguise, but rather in guardian angel’s habiliments._

_It will be, in truth, a bosom companion in the happiest sense of the
term, a mutely eloquent monitor of deportment, a still, small voice as
to what is in good form and what is not._

[Illustration]

[Illustration]




_Contents._

[Illustration]


        PAGE

  Making and Receiving Calls      11

  At Breakfast                    23

  At Luncheon                     31

  At Dinner                       36

  While Walking                   49

  In the Use of Language          57

  Dress and Personal Habits       73

  At Public Entertainments        86

[Illustration]

[Illustration]




Never.


[Illustration]




I.

Making and Receiving Calls.


Never, however formal your visit, neglect to wipe your feet on the
door-mat, in lieu of the hall or stair-carpet. A private hall-way is
not a stable entrance.

Never bound into the drawing-room unannounced, with your hat, overcoat
and overshoes on, nor with your umbrella in your hand, especially if it
has been raining hard.

Never, particularly if a comparative stranger, hail