Part 1: In General

    1. Don’t cheer excessively, unless it is extra good.
    2. Don’t skate, play ball, football, or slide or soil or toboggan on Sundays, but you may take a walk.
    3. Don’t conduct correspondence on postal cards. A brief business message on a postal card is not out of the way, but a private communication on an open card is almost insulting to your correspondent. It is questionable whether a note on a postal card is entitle to the courtesy of a response.
    4. Don’t cultivate an ornamental style of handwriting. Don’t imitate the flourishes of a writing-master; keep as far away from a writing-master’s style as possible. A lady’s or gentleman’s handwriting should be perfectly plain and wholly free from affectation of all kinds.
    5. Don’t, as master or mistress, give your orders in an authoritative manner. The feelings of those under you should be considered. You will obtain more willing obedience if your directions have as little as possible of command.
    6. Don’t be that intolerable torment–a tease. The disposition to worry children, cats, and dogs simply displays the restlessness of an empty-mind. Don’t chaff.
    7. Don’t scoff or speak ill of a rival in your profession or trade. This is the worst possible taste and shows a paltry spirit. Have the pride and self-respect to overstate the merits of a rival rather than merely understate them. We Norwegians are jealous.
    8. Don’t be selfish. Don’t be exacting; don’t storm if things go wrong; don’t be grim and sullen; don’t fret–one fretful person in a house is ruin to its peace.
    9. Don’t borrow books unless you return them promptly. If you do borrow books, don’t wear them in any way; don’t bend or break the backs, don’t fold down the leaves, don’t write on the margins, don’t stain them with grease spots. Read them, but treat them as friends that must not be abused.
    10. Don’t write anything that you will be ashamed of. You might become a great man.
    11. Don’t use rough and bad language. A gentleman never swears, and of course no Christian.

    Ole Voices No. 2: Etiquette 101

    Chapters:

    Foreword
    St. Olaf College: A Selected Chronology

    Section I: Etiquette 101
    Introduction
    In General
    In the Drawing Room
    In Public
    Dress and Personal Habits
    Table Manners
    Rules for Boys
    Rules for Girls

    Section II: Transgressions
    Keeping the Rules
    Transgressions

    Sources