High birth and good breeding are the privileges of the few. Manners and habits of a gentleman may be acquired by all. In the Victorian days, people had been known and defined by their lineage. They weren't required to dress, or behave a certain way to prove who they were. Everyone knew!

When girls were ready for courtship, there was a definite change in their appearance. Their mothers would change their hairstyle and dress style. No longer would they be costumed like children. Girls eligible had to don the rigid corset that would mold the shape of their dress from adolescence to old age. The young girls had to have their hair pinned up and clothed in a conservative dress that conveyed the image of a proper young lady.

Young American men were cautioned not to marry before the age of 25 or they would weaken their bodies and age prematurely. Their nervous systems might become diseased and their brains might clog-all because they had found the woman of their dreams before the proper age.*s* Americans that were courting obeyed many books of social rules. They were not quite sure how to behave as couples.

The parents or chaperone were never away in a proper household. Though the young couples were permitted to be alone and the ritual of getting to know each other was quite formal. Country courters arranged for a sleigh ride, hay ride, or boating trip on a lake.

Eligible men and women communicated or made announcements through a complicated system of the calling cards, left in front foyers of homes. Courtship rituals of the Victorian era included the exchange of elaborate and sentimental greeting cards. The first commercial valentine cards appeared in the United States in the 1840's.

All the world loves a lover-but this does not keep the world from watching closely and criticizing severely any breach of good manners.....
Any public display of affection anywhere at any time is grossly unrefined. Love is sacred, and it should not be thrown open to the rude comments of strangers.