Calls, Introductions and Visits
Proper Type for the Visiting Card—What to Put On It—Presenting the Card—Length of the Call—How Things Have Changed Since "Daisy Miller's" Time—Dress—Customs Governing the Making of Introductions—As to Shaking Hands—Relations of Hostess and Guest.
A very high authority, both in this country and abroad, says that the fashion in visiting cards has changed very little in a century or more. In ordering her new cards, the bride should select the best quality of white, unglazed bristol board, in a size about two and one-eighth inches by two and seven—eighths. She should have them printed from a plate carefully engraved in small script, Old English or German text, whatever the fancy of the moment may be, but she can always use script if she prefers it. A married lady uses her husband’s full name, thus: "Mrs. John Sidney Payne". And in the lower right-hand corner of her card she has her street address and her receiving day. Her husband’s card, which she leaves with her own, in paying calls, (for American men are so busy that many of their social duties are attended to by proxy) is a much smaller oblong, in the same style, but nothing on it besides his full name. Middle initials are no longer used.
A minister, a doctor, a judge, or a military or naval officer, may use his title on his card, but his wife may not. "Mrs. Dr." is absurd. Even the wife of our President is simply Mrs. Woodrow Wilson or · Mrs. Grover Cleveland. A widow may continue to use her husband’s Christian name, as does Mrs. Potter Palmer, or she may return to About the Use of Titles her maiden name, Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer, or she may drop all prefixes and call herself Mrs. Astor, as a late leader of New York society did. The wife of a son who is named for his father, is Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr., as long as her mother-in-law lives and uses the name. The eldest daughter in a family is Miss Blair. The younger daughters, when they come out, are Miss Margaret Blair and Miss Marie Louise Blair.
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