The classes among whom the habit most prevails--the classes with whom the walking-stick is associated in popular apprehension--are the men of the leisure class proper, sporting men, and the lower-class delinquents.

To these might perhaps be added the men engaged in the pecuniary employments.

The same is not true of the common run of men engaged in industry and it may be noted by the way that women do not carry a stick except in case of infirmity, where it has a use of a different kind.

The practice is of course in great measure a matter of polite usage; but the basis of polite usage is, in turn, the proclivities of the class which sets the pace in polite usage.

The walking-stick serves the purpose of an advertisement that the bearer's hands are employed otherwise than in useful effort, and it therefore has utility as an evidence of leisure.