twovictorianladies

Having been encompassed in Victorian etiquette for some months now, I was rather shocked at an episode I witnessed on the subway today. I did not see the woman with the cane get on but the woman  beside me did, and immediately made the conductor aware that there was someone sitting in a “premium” seat that should have been offered to the lame woman. The conductor pointed out that the car was too crowded for her to get there; it would have to wait till the next stop unless someone wanted to call down. The woman who was complaining then sat down in the empty seat beside me. Apparently it was all right for someone else to give up their seat, but not for her to give one up. I got off at the next stop and as I left the car, I could hear the same woman calling to the disabled lady, offering her my seat.

While I will grant that the person in the premium seat, which is marked specifically as one that you should give up for the disabled, should have done so, I couldn’t help but see the irony in my neighbor’s insistance that everyone else should give up their seats, while not making any effort to give up her own.