Excerpt from The Writing Table of the Twentieth Century: Being an Account of Heraldry, Art, Engraving Established Form for the Correspondent Diplomatic etiquette in Europe appoints French as the Court language; we have no Court, and we are under no obligation to conform to Court etiquette. In that regard, at least, our national manners are independent and exempt from criticism. I hardly think we can plead correct form and fashion in support of many details of a foreign flavor which enter into our social intercourse. Sooner or later we will absorb the last thing that is good in foreign form, and then with everything else it will be remodeled to fit American needs. Ultimately we shall adopt our own form and establish our own standard, and we might as well understand now, that the intelligent social forces at work in this great republic are not likely to be guided by a clique of four hundred, who have set themselves rigidly to the task of copying foreign conventionalities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.