Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-08-28

the knife and fork may be left on the plate
1t is then the duty of the attendant who
! carries the plate to the place of replenish-
ment to take care of the knife and fork,
putting them ON one side of the plate, so
as to be out of the way of the new supply
of food. But this leaving of the knife and
fork is quite optional. To cross, however,
the knife with the FORK Is to give extra
trouble. If, however, there is no one in
attendance it is wisest to retain the knife
and fork Volunteer assistants at table,
those other guests who pass along the
plates, may not be accustomed TO this
duty, and accidents detrimental to their
neighbors dresses or coats by the fall of
the knife or fork may occur. There
are several positions which the
person who retains his own knife
and fork can assume. He might
hold the knife in one hand and
the fork in the other, and apply the butts
of each of them on the table, grounding
arms, in fact, and thus assume most
awkward and stupid position. 1t is per-
fectly easy thing to hold the knife and
fork in the right hand on the table, or even
to place them there, though if they be
dripping from the food, which rarely
occurs. The tablecloth would he soiled. Ii
there be stands on, the table, of course, the
knife and fork can be stacked ON them
but such stands are rarely in use to-day,
save for the carver. The bother about this
matter is slight after all, because in we'll
regulated service plates, knives, and forksare
changed at every course, and besides it is
exceptional when guests ask for q second
helping of the same dish. 1t might as well
be said here of the marked improvement
generally as to the use OF the knife, il IS not
now as universally sheathed in mans or
woman's mouth, as If they were
sword-swallowers. Thirty years ago, in
France, the use of the knife at dinner was
almost tabooed. The custom was to divide
the food with the fork, rather an awkward
custom, as forks have generally no cutting
edge, and aid the act OF conveying food to
the mouth on the fork, by means OF bit of
bread. Long habit makes people amazing
" clever about this kind of thing, and to
see well-cuitured Charleston or Savannah
woman loading her fork with grains of rice,
without spilling kernel, is the acme of in
telligent manipulation Theolder one grows,
and the better he becomes acquainted with
the world and its habits, the less fastidi-
GUS one becomes in regard to the little con-
ventionalities of life. The pretty Japanese
girl, with the clean hands, who takes the
boiled rice with extended fingers out of the
well-scrubbed pail, and puts it in your
lacquer saucer, does itso well and gracefully
that you do not call for spoon. Muchfredi
Pasha, whohas sedulously washed his rather
coarse fingers before he tears off for me
the thigh of the pillaued chicken, acts ac-
cording to the rules of etiquette in his own
country, and it is an ill-mannered man
who finds fault with it. Certainly, the
Turk would have right to feel Mortified
if, at the conclusion OF a European repast,
he should see the conyives gurgling their
mouths in a most foul and disgusting way.
Baron Won Kalbheisch, attached to the
Prussian Legation, does hold his knife in a
most distressing way, and the position of
his cutting instrument is so awkward that
he rarely does succeed even in dismember-
ing sweetbread But then this gentle
man, though he has been in France with
the army OF Gravelotte he played dis
tinguished partl, has never acquired the
manners of that country. Still Miss Bwoun
showed her bad breeding and ignorance to
us when he dined last with her at her
fathers table, in having commented on his
German ways. Different men, different
manners. Now, Miss Bwoun did try in a
very silly way, some years ago, to foster
that absurd fashion of eating with her
gloves on. II she had not been laughed
out Of it she would have worn her mar
quise ring outside of her glove. To eat
with gloves on is female snobbery. Young
women who go out tc parties may be lavish
of gloves, and may be Indifferent to smear
ing them with lobster salad, or to have the
first finger and thumb darkened where the
spoon touches them. But nothing is pref
tier than the freshness of woman's hand,
and the best fitting glove is after all, but
an awkward thing. Gloved hands that
feed, to keep up the whole dignity of the
thing, should ind mouths which were hid
den behind wells