The Dilatory Woman

1901

When women have an appointment to meet down town at a certain place, each lingers in her own apartment until the hour set for the meeting so that she won't have to wait an unconscionable time for the other at the rendezvous. Femininity is almost invariably late, even for business engagements, and any excuse it offers, however trivial, it thinks should be accepted as valid.

At catching trains and boats the dilatory sex is nevertheless unusually adept. It is said by those who are fond of gathering such statistics that one woman misses a train to about ten men. Madam, however oblivious she may be of time in other matters, if she is going away is sure to be at the station bright and early and with 20 minutes to spare. Whether this proves that the sex is selfish or merely that it is, in the language of the times, "long headed" is a question for consideration.

Too Late — People Who Are Never On Time

1874

Some people are always too late, and therefore accomplish through life nothing worth naming. If they promise to meet you at such an hour, they are never present until thirty minutes after. No matter how important the business is to either yourself or to him, he is just as tardy. If he takes a passage in the steamboat, he arrives just as the boat has left the wharf, and the train has started a few minutes before he arrives. His dinner has been waiting for him so long that the cook is out of patience. This course the character we have described always pursues. He is never in season at a church, at a place of business, at his meals, or in his bed. Persons of such habits we cannot but despise. Always speak in season, and be ready at the appointed hour. We would not give a fig for a man who is not punctual to his engagements, and who never makes up his mind to a certain course till the time is lost. Those who hang back, hesitate and tremble — who are never at hand for a journey, a trading, a sweetheart or anything else — are poor sloths, and are ill-calculated to get a living in this stirring world.

Comment (2007): Yes, that is exactly true. It's not that I "despise" people who are always late, like the article says, but I don't care for the habit. A few minutes, maybe. But if you have an appointment, try to make it. I was in school and there was a classmate who was always late. Then it was his responsibility to take a few of us to a class outing. Since I'm a clock watcher and usually early, I probably would've been the first one there. But this nitwit, late as always, doesn't show up until way past the time he was supposed to be there to pick us up. So naturally we get to the class outing, a field trip kind of thing where people were actually going to meet us for a tour, way late. It's embarrassing. I actually knew then something of this guy's post graduate life and work, but only by hearsay. And what was it that I heard the people he worked with complaining about? Always late!