="PLAYING THE GAME"=

If you would be thought to play the game, meaning if you aspire to be a true sportsman, you must follow the rules of sportsmanship the world over: 

Never lose your temper.

Play for the sake of playing rather than to win.

Never stop in the middle of a tennis or golf match and complain of a lame ankle, especially if you are losing.  Unless it is literally impossible for you to go on, you must stick it out.

If you are a novice, don’t ask an expert to play with you, especially as your partner.  If he should ask you in spite of your shortcomings, maintain the humility proper to a beginner.

If you are a woman, don’t ape the ways and clothing of men.  If you are a man, don’t take advantage of your superior strength to set a pace beyond the endurance of a woman opponent.

And always give the opponent the benefit of the doubt!  Nothing is more important to your standing as a sportsman, though it costs you the particular point in question.

A true sportsman is always a cheerful loser, a quiet winner, with a very frank appreciation of the admirable traits in others, which he seeks to emulate, and his own shortcomings, which he tries to improve.

CHAPTER XXXII

ETIQUETTE IN BUSINESS AND POLITICS

A certain rich man whose appointment to a foreign post of importance was about to be ratified, came into the corridor of a Washington hotel and stopped to speak with a lady for a few moments.  During the whole conversation he kept his hat on his head and a cigar in the corner of his mouth.  It happened that the lady was the wife of a prominent senator, and she lost no time in reporting the incident to her husband, who in turn brought the matter to the attention of certain of his colleagues with the result that the appointment did not go through.

It is not unlikely that this man thinks “politics played against him,” whereas the only factor against him was his exhibition of ill-breeding which proved him unsuitable to represent the dignity of his country.

Etiquette would not seem to play an important part in business, and yet no man can ever tell when its knowledge may be of advantage, or its lack may turn the scale against him.  The man who remains “planted” in his chair when a lady (or an older man) speaks to him, who receives customers in his shirt sleeves, who does not take off his hat when talking with a lady and take his cigar out of his mouth when bowing or when addressing her, can never be sure that he is not preparing a witness for the prosecution.

=ETIQUETTE IN SMOKING=

The above does not mean that a gentleman may never smoke in the presence of ladies—­especially in the presence of those who smoke themselves—­but a gentleman should not smoke under the following circumstances: 

When walking on the street with a lady.