Who's Out There?

« A gentleman does not boast about his junk. » — Emily Post*

Good manners… where have they gone, along with the other social niceties?

To prepare some of you for this satire, you need to be aware of who 19th century débutante and eventual étiquette authority Emily Post (1872-1960) was. The author of Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home (1922… and updated to this day) was among the earliest American self-proclaimed experts on good manners. « Today, of course, you can barely dig up a débutante, let alone a ladies’ maid. And yet from the great beyond Emily Post continues to offer counsel. “Etiquette,” revised and edited by her great-granddaughter-in-law, a former flight attendant, is now in its seventeenth edition. » [ source ]

Well, that should suffice. Here’s a fun little parody from the early Silver Age. Both writer and artist are unknown, appropriately enough — it would be gauche to draw attention to oneself, don’t you know?

Don’t Be a Stumbling Spook! originally appeared — well concealed — in the back pages of Dark Shadows no. 2 (Jan. 1958, Farrell). An obscure story from an obscure title from an obscure publisher — the trifecta!

I leave the esteemed Ms. Post to deliver the closing words, as I presume a gentleman should: « The only occasion when the traditions of courtesy permit a hostess to help herself before a woman guest is when she has reason to believe the food is poisoned. »

-RG

* That purported quote was too cute to pass up, apocryphal as it may be. Or is it a case of meaning drift? MIght ‘junk’ actually refer to bric-a-brac or — miraculously — a Chinese ship?