It is rude in the extreme to seize hats and rush for the door as soon as the last word is said, or to engage at once in idle chatter and laughter. There should be a reverent pause, and then we should pass slowly and quietly down the aisle. It is ill-bred to seem in haste to be gone. Unless we can sit through the service with patience, we should not attend it. Looking at the clock or taking out one's watch during service comes under the same condemnation as leaving with unbecoming haste at the close.
_Punctuality._ _Finding seats._ _Waiting with quietness._ _Gazing about and making criticisms._ _Talking and laughing,--story._ _Looking at watches and clocks._ _Applause._ _Doing fancy work._ _Courtesy to others._ _Time and manner of leaving._
WHEN we attend a lecture, concert, or other entertainment, we should go in season: to enter after the performance begins is a discourtesy to the performers and an annoyance to every person in the audience. If we are obliged to be late, we should wait for a favorable time, and then be seated quickly and quietly.
When there is a choice of seats we have a right to take the best that remain when we arrive; but this right offers no excuse for us to push and elbow other people, or to obtain such seats by crowding others aside. It is better to have the poorest seat in the house or none at all than to sacrifice good manners and self-respect. We often see disgraceful exhibitions of selfishness at entertainments on the part of people who pride themselves at home and in company on their politeness.
If we are too early, or if there is delay in commencing, we should wait with well-bred quietness. Nothing marks more surely the ill-bred person than noisy demonstrations of impatience at waiting. This is one of the occasions to practise the graceful sitting still which has been spoken of in the lesson on manners in society.
It is not polite to gaze at those around us, still less to make remarks about them or their dress.
Loud talking and laughing, and all conduct calculated to make ourselves conspicuous, should be avoided. The people who attract attention in these ways will be likely to eat candy, nuts, and popped corn while the exercises are going on, and to violate propriety in other ways.