The Complete Bachelor Part 10

As a rule, the commodore of a yacht club wears on his cap an anchor one inch and a half in diameter, placed horizontally, embroidered in gold, with a silver star of half an inch diameter at each end of and above the anchor. A vice commodore wears only a single star; captains two crossed foul anchors. The dress uniform of most yacht clubs is a plain blue or black dress coat, a white dress waistcoat, each with the club b.u.t.ton in gilt; blue or white trousers with cravat black or white. The undress consists of a double-breasted sack coat of blue cloth, serge, or flannel, blue or white waistcoat, each with the black club b.u.t.ton; trousers of same material, or of white drill. The commodore has five black silk stripes on his cuff, the vice commodore four, the rear commodore three, the captain and other officers two, and the members one.

Your crew should wear shirts of blue flannel or white linen with wide blue cuffs and collars, st.i.tched with blue or white thread.

Handkerchiefs should be of black silk, caps of blue cloth without visor; straw hats with black ribbon can be used for summer. The name of the yacht must be worked on the breast of the shirt, or printed upon the band of the cap or the ribbon of the hat. The trousers should be of blue flannel or white linen duck. No braces are worn.

GOLF.

The etiquette of golf is incorporated, more or less, with the technicalities of the rules governing the game. I do not intend to go into these, but to give a few hints to the novice, to prevent him, if possible, committing solecisms.

Golf has a vocabulary of its own. The "grounds" on which the game is played is a stretch of rather rough country, abounding in hills, hillocks, and sandy downs, and is known by no other name but the "links."

The game is usually played by two persons, but it can be by more. It consists in driving a ball, small and black, or painted red for the winter snows, along a route laid out by a series of holes to a goal, with a selection of clubs with metal ends. A small boy carries these clubs around for the players. He is called the "caddie."

The clubs have various names and various uses. They are for propelling or driving the ball, according to the rules of the game. They are the driver, long spoon, short spoon, putter, iron putter, cleek, iron, niblick, bra.s.sey, lofting iron, and mashie.

A "tee" is a small mound of sand or earth upon which the ball rests. As before explained, the ball is propelled or driven from the tee into one of the holes. The term "putting" is applied to the locality in which this operation of driving the ball into the hole takes place.

The etiquette of the spectator is embraced in the common-sense essential of being an onlooker and nothing more. Silence is golden. Advice and comment, should you profess to know anything about the game, are brazen.

Be considerate; do not interfere with the comfort of the players. As at billiards, the stroke should be made in utter silence. The golf "links"

is not a place for criticism, and if you are allowed to follow the players around, you must control your feelings alike when enthusiastic or when contemptuous. Besides being a breach of good manners, remember that golf is more or less an outdoor game of whist.

Golf is the easiest game at which to cheat, but as it is a sport in the _repertoire_ of a gentleman, it would seem almost an insult to hint at such a contingency. However, apart from the moral effect of cheating at any game, if a man is dead to all sense of honor, he should be alive to the fear of being found out. Such discovery means social ostracism.

The proper golf costume is based on common sense. The man who rigs himself up for this or any other sport in what he considers the most approved style is either a very bad player or a novice. The championships have been won by men wearing their ordinary street costumes or business lounge suits. The English and Scotch golf dress, however, is sack coat, knickers without leather extensions, and a plain tweed shooting cap. The shirt is white madras, soft, unstarched bosom, with a golf stock or Ascot. Golf shoes or boots are of heavy russet or black leather. The hose has a long ribbed top, which is turned over, forming a sort of heavy band on the calf of the leg. It is made of heavy worsted, plain or ribbed. This costume will do for winter in the English climate, when you can not employ too heavy tweeds in the north and west.

The American costume, however, is made of lighter tweeds for the spring and autumn, and of brown linen or holland for the summer. As yet, except in one or two localities, golf is not generally played in winter, except by enthusiasts.

At a match, golfers wear their club uniform coats, which are made of hunting pink with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons. The club dress uniform is full and proper dress for all golf functions, such as dinners and dances and receptions. For golf club evening functions, black silk or lisle thread stockings and pumps and black knickers would be appropriate dress. This will be regulated by the rules of the club.

BOATING AND BATHING, TENNIS AND RACING.

But a word, and this on costume. The proper dress in England, where boating is a social amus.e.m.e.nt, is the blazer madras shirt with white linen all-around collars and madras cuffs, same material as shirt, white duck trousers, and straw hat with colored ribbons.

For bathing, the present ocean costume is all plain, one dark-color two-piece suits, short trousers coming to the knees, and jersey with very short sleeves.

For tennis, which I have omitted in the category of sports, as there is no peculiar etiquette attached, you should wear white duck trousers, a white madras shirt, white flannel coat, plain or finely striped, and straw hat or flannel cap to match coat. The straw hat was in vogue last summer.

In England many men wear gray vicuna frock coats to the races. About this costume, however, in America, where races are but seldom social functions, you must be guided by the season, circ.u.mstances, and place.

Of course, a top hat must be worn with any species of frock coat, but the gray top hat has gone out of fashion.

_Gymkhana_ races are burlesque affairs imported from India. The partic.i.p.ants are dressed in grotesque fancy costumes, and are obliged to race holding umbrellas, toy balloons, or some other absurdity. They are in great favor at summer watering places.

BILLIARDS.

The etiquette of this popular pastime is possibly embraced in the general maxim of "the extending of the utmost consideration for others."

Billiards const.i.tutes quite an important factor in club life, and should have been included in the chapter on that subject but for the fact that so many private houses have billiard rooms, and the game is better cla.s.sified with the different sports of a bachelor.

At the club it is allowable to play the game _sans_ one's coat, or in shirt sleeves. The billiard room is a place where one can be unconventional. Order, however, in a match game especially, should be strictly maintained. The severe English rule at clubs, under such circ.u.mstances, requires the man who has played his stroke "to retire to a reasonable distance, and keep out of the line of sight" (_vide_ the Badminton treatise on the game). Orders for drinks to the waiter, loud talking, criticism of the play, lighting pipes and cigars--the latter being only generally allowed in New York club billiard rooms--are all offenses against etiquette.

In private houses it is certainly a breach of good manners to bolt into a billiard room while a game is in progress, except between the strokes, and this period can be easily ascertained by listening at the door. The ideal game is conducted with strict observance of the etiquette of the room. It is, according to the same Badminton authority, a game during the progress of which neither player smokes nor interrupts the other, and spectators are generally courteous, silent, and impartial. In a private house where ladies are apt to be present and to be players, shirt sleeves are certainly not tolerated. The dinner coat is useful on these occasions. Smoking is permissible if the hostess consents.

The etiquette of cards calls for but a word. Whist means silence. No gentleman quarrels with a billiard marker or a golf caddie; still less should he dispute a point at cards. Better lose, especially when women are present, than enter a controversy.

CHAPTER XVII.

A BACHELOR'S TRAVELS AT HOME AND ABROAD.

To seem entirely at one's ease is the best maxim I can give for traveling. You can not actually pretend to experience that which may be totally lacking, but by making yourself comfortable you will increase the pleasure of others. There is, in these days of luxurious traveling, but little occasion to be flurried, and no excuse whatever for not being as well dressed as you are calm and self-possessed. Dress means a great deal, and if you have not a servant with you it will simply require a little care at the commencement to insure your entire freedom from all annoyance.

As I have already observed in a previous chapter, in a long journey it would be better to take more than one trunk, but even if you have but the one you should carry also a bag with your toilet articles. A dressing bag is most requisite, and if you can not afford this you could have an ordinary bag, or even a "dress suit" case, fitted up with the necessary appliances of the toilet. These, it is almost absurd to state, consist of your razors, tooth and nail brushes, combs and hairbrushes, individual soap, and a few small vials of very useful physic, such as Jamaica ginger, Pond's extract, liver pills, cologne, and, if you do not carry it in your pocket, a brandy flask. There are times when this is absolutely necessary. In my dressing bag, if possible, I would take my pyjamas, so as to be perfectly equipped for the night, in case, at the end of my journey, I could not get at my trunk. Overcoats, waterproof coat, umbrellas, walking sticks, etc., should be carried in a shawl strap, where you could also have a novel or so, or a budget of interesting newspapers or magazines. For short railway or steamer journeys, the best dress is the ordinary lounge or morning sack suit, with a soft felt or Hombourg hat. Gloves are necessary. Tan or gray suede is the most correct. In winter an ulster should be worn. Select for sea or for ocean voyages the warmest lounge suit you have, or, if you feel more disposed, a warm tweed knickerbocker suit, such as you wear for golf. I think it is a good principle to put on your old clothes at sea. Only very vulgar people dress for this occasion. For late dinner on the ship I would have a black cutaway coat and a light tie. I believe men must change their clothes before dinner at all places and under all circ.u.mstances. Russet shoes are worn.

Do not hurry. Have your tickets purchased in time, and arrive at a train so that you will have fully five minutes in which to check your luggage.

On an ocean voyage, if the ship is going to leave at an early hour in the morning, go on board the night before. Farewell suppers are like greetings in tugboats and other vulgar celebrations, the meed of the second-cla.s.s politician. Arrange with your banker for letters of credit, and take with you just sufficient small change to carry you comfortably and pay your little expenses, with one note of a larger denomination in case of accident. Do not get your money changed on the ship. It is effected at a very high rate of discount. Thus on English ships--the Cunard, White Star, Anchor, and Allan lines--English currency is used.

The Hamburg and the North German Lloyd employ German, and the Transatlantique, French. Your steamer trunk and your bag and shawl strap should be placed in the cabin with you. Steamer chairs, in these days, can be hired. Do not carry one around with you. It is a nuisance. On the ocean steamers the steward will attend to your little wants, and prepare your bath for you in the morning, for which there is a fee, I think, of twenty-five cents a day. It is customary on leaving a ship to give gratuities to servants. To the cabin steward on English ships, ten shillings, the head steward ten shillings, and your waiter ten shillings. On others, for a six days' voyage, a fee equal to two dollars should be given to your waiter and your cabin steward and to the head steward. Servants abroad are feed on a regular tariff, which you will find in the guidebooks. In this country the drawing-car fiend expects twenty-five cents for a day's journey; fifty cents to a dollar for longer and more extended service. At American hotels the waiters are tipped when you leave, and a small gratuity given to chambermaids.

Courtesy, especially to women, is the one thing expected from every gentleman who travels, and if you can a.s.sist any one in distress by advice or by help of any kind do so, particularly if it is an unprotected woman. But be very guarded in making new acquaintances. Such as are picked up on the steamer, for instance, can be dropped as soon as you land. Beware of the cardroom and the poker sharps who travel on the great liners. Make it a rule, if you will play for money, never to do so with strangers.

When traveling with a lady, always carry her bag and a.s.sist her in and out of the trains. Your behavior is on its mettle under these circ.u.mstances, and traveling is very apt to be like a mustard plaster, bringing out both the good and evil attributes of a man.

The subject of foreign travel also needs a few words as well as a bit of general advice. English customs and our own are so much alike that it would be strange, indeed, if an American could not get along in the land where his own tongue is spoken. One of the first difficulties which once beset traveling Americans in London was the regulation in theaters that the audience, or that part of it occupying the best stalls, should be in evening dress. As evening dress is now also the rule in New York, this quandary is a thing of the past. Programmes at many of the English theaters are now free, where some years ago it was customary to sell bills of the play for sixpence.

The feeing of servants at hotels, however, continues, and we yet have the charge on hotel bills for service. You are expected to give something to the hall porter, to your waiter, to the boots, and to the chambermaid. The amount of these fees differs according to the length of your stay. I should say a half crown to the porter and less sums to the others.

In London a shilling a mile is the accepted price for cabs within a certain metropolitan radius called the "circle." "Thrupence" or sixpence extra is the tip "to drink your health."

Afternoon dress is the correct attire for the park after midday, and cabs and hansoms are not seen on the Row during riding and driving hours.

In Paris you may wear a blue blouse and make the turn of the Bois in a _fiacre_. The tariff there is two francs an hour, or two francs fifty per course, from one place to another. The _pourboire_ is fifty centimes.

In France the _pourboire_ is a veritable tax, as it is in Italy and in the Latin countries. In Germany the mark is equal to about twenty-five cents of our money, and it will go a long way. Ten marks will fee a houseful of servants.

At the station in Paris fifty centimes is given to the porter. The "commissionnaire" at the hotel expects fifty centimes. Waiters'

_pourboires_ are eighty-five centimes at breakfast, and at dinner a franc. In a _cafe_ they are twenty-five centimes.

The woman at the theater who puts a footstool under your feet expects one franc, and at many of the playhouses she must be feed for a reserved seat.

In Paris the orchestra stalls are occupied only by men. At the opera during the season evening dress in the boxes and stalls is, of course, _de rigueur_. At the Comedie Francaise on Tuesdays and at the Odeon on Thursdays you must be in evening dress in order to gain admittance.

Chairs are sold in Paris at the Catholic churches, and in both the London and Paris parks seats can be hired for a few pennies or sous.

In Paris omnibuses only the seating capacity is allowed. When the omnibus is full, a sign, "_Complet_," is fastened on the outside.