Finally, if you remain to the end of a performance, remain indeed to the end--remain in your seat and remain quiet until the last word has been spoken, or the last note has been sung. Be not one of those unbred persons that when the end approaches begin to make ready to go, or perhaps get up and push past others, disturbing everybody in the house, players as well as auditors, in their selfish haste to reach the door. I repeat: You have no more right to disturb others at a place of amusement than you have to pick their pockets, for when you disturb others you rob them of a part of that for which they have paid their money.
If you pass through a door that is closed, leave it closed.
If you pass through a door that has a spring on it, see that it does not slam.
If your feet are muddy, find some means of cleaning them before you pass through anybody’s door.
If you pretend to wash your hands, wash them; do not simply wet them, and then wipe the dirt off on the towel.
If you visit beer-saloons or oyster-saloons, do not copy the phraseology of the waiters; the men that do it are never men of refined instincts. Never cry out “eins,” after the fashion of the waiters in beer-saloons, nor “one,” or “a stew,” or “a fry,” as the waiters do in oyster-saloons.
If you would be worthy to live among well-bred, right-thinking people you will always consider the interest, respect the rights, and study the comfort of others. For example, if you visit a reading-room where the aim is so to keep the newspapers that any particular one can be easily found, you will always be careful to put those you read back in their proper places; you will never scratch a match on anybody’s wall or woodwork; you will never spit on anybody’s floor, whether carpeted or not; you will never walk over the upholstered seats of a place of amusement, and so on. The doing or the leaving undone of little things is a sure index of a man’s breeding or of his lack of it.
If you would preserve your health, never drink anything but water between meals.
If you would preserve your good name, keep away from bar-rooms.
If you would preserve your self-respect, keep away from bar-rooms.
If you would preserve your good manners, keep away from bar-rooms.