Sharp County record., 1880-08-19
Table Manners.

is the test of eating. There may pOssi-
ibly be persons of taste and delicacy
who are careless of the table and care
less at the table, but they are black
swans, exceptions which prove the rule.
This test is as applicable to brutes as to
men. There is as much difference in
the refinement of individuals of the
canine and equine and bovine and feline
species as in those of human species;
aud this difference is seen most plainly
in their personal habits and particular
ly in their habits of eating. Even in
that omniverous animal, the pig, we
find this statement verified. An aristo-
cratic pig is dainty at the trough and re-
fuses food if not up to grade or served
in 4 slovenly style.
There is no pain of the social sort more
exquisite than the pain endured by a
sensitive and refined nature when by
stress of circumstances it is compelled
80 feed on husks and with swine. This
was the crowning agony that brought
the prodigal son to himself and inhu-
,enced him to return to his father S
house, where the servant had good food
and to spare.
To some, good table manners come
by nature; to others only by training.
Those who are born with a delicate
sense of taste and smell, with fine or
CARNATIONS and limited powers of di-
gestion, are naturally particular about
their eating, and prefer starvation to
indulgence in anything common OF
unclean." Others in whom all the
senses are dull and whose bodies are
coarsely made, are easily pleased and
have no difficulty in eating whatever is
SIT beforethem, asking no questions for
conscience's or any other sake. This
latter class, unfortunately quite too
numerous for the comfort of the former
though not perhaps too many for the
rough fare and work of the world, are
proper subjects for culture in table man.
ners. 1t was doubtless in the interest
of this class our correspondent wrote,
at whose earnest request few hints
are here printed
ANY one who will from principle and
by habit keep the Ten Commandments
will have no doubts as to their worth to
Che world. and their divine origin. "If
any man will do His will, he shall know
of the doctrine" The formation of a
habit creates sentiment. 1t may take
q long time to form it, but the habit
once formed, settlement will grow up
and twine around it as the ivy graces
the oak. This is why mothers who
seek to develop good table manners in
their children will first provide good
table appointments, and carefully pre-
pared and daintily served food, and
will then insist upon good behavior.
These three things insisted on will in
time create sentiment in the minds of
children that will make correct table
manners second nature.
1. As to table appointments. The
cloth should be scrupulously clean,
though it be only coarse material; nice
ly starched and ironed, and put on
straight, its folds parallel with the side
of the table, and they with the side of
the room. The napkins, of however
coarse material, must also be clean,
carefully ironed and put on in place.
The arrangement of the dishes on the
table must be uniform regular and
tasteful, each dish, plate, spoon, glass,
being in its appointed place and kept
there Any one accustomed to orderly
appointments by habit soon learns to
feel the necessity of taste and exacti-
tude. These are fearfully neglected in
many families Table furniture of all
sorts is hustled on without regard to
appearance or order, the napery is dis
eusting, the carelesSness in disposing it
equally so, and the results are only such
as might be expected.
2. As to the food. Its impossible to
feel polite and well hammered over un-
palatable, coarse, ill-prepared food.
Every mouthful of it provokes ill-hu-
NOR, resentment, dissatisfaction. The
house mother who insists on good table
manners must give her family good
food. There is no need of sour bread
muddy coffee, soggy potatoes, heavy
pie-crust, leathery batter cakes. Ches-
terfieid himself would forget his man.
ners if compelled for any length Of time
TO subSist on such diet.
3. As to methods of eating. With
the assistance of the knife and fork the
food may be so divided as to relieve the
incisors OF the nedvI05T par IMAM
work and make small mouthfuls pleas
ure. The grinders indicate that grind
ing in the mouth is a part of the process
of nutrition. Animals destitute OF
grinders bolt their food. 1t is not fit
ting that human beings should eat as
dogs do, since they have each a "mili '
ready for use-which dogs have not.
The lips are so constructed that the
noise Of the grinding, which is intoler-
able to ears polite, may be etfectually
disguised. This is point that cannot
be too urgently insisted on. Food,
whether liquid or solid, must be convey
ed into the mouth and from the mouth
downward silently.
The noSitiOn at table should be un-