The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1881-07-16
In getting rid of the skins of grapes,

In getting rid of the skins OF grapes,
or the pits Of fruit, much delicacy should
b. cultivated. The hand is the proper
medium from the mouth to the plate.
Some people eat instinctively with great
elegance, some never achieve elegance
in these minor matters, but all should
strive for it. There is no more repulslve
object than a person who eats noisiiy,
grossly, Or inelcgantly. DR.. johnson is
remembered for his brutal way of eating
almost as much as for his great learning
and genius. With him it. was selfish
prescription.
Table manners should begin before
going to table, in making ones self fit
for the table. If no further toilette is
possible, one should attend to the clean
Illness of his hands and face, and the
smoothing of hair. In ordinary house.
holds one can make modest toilette for
dinner. In any event, students and
clerks, or women who are artists or
authors, or shop-girls, or in any walk of
life, can at least make themselves clean.
And then the business of mutual respect
and mutual good breeding begins. The
humblest meal may show the highest
manners, and the real lady or gentleman
shines at the clearinghouse table as at
the queens banquet.
Abuse of ones food is in bad taste
everywhere. Travelling in America is
yet rather severe trial to those who
have cultivated the gustatory powers,
and the cook is not abroad. There are
often reasons for complaining. But the
person who spends the dinner hour in
complaining of the food makes one more
dish at a bad dinner; ten to one he has
not been accustomed to better meals at
home. Every one can appreciate the
mutual misfortune of a bad dinner;
therefore let each one bear his burden
smilingly and we'll.
There are a thousand little laws which
our'fOrerathcrs regarded as important
which we have forgotten. One was that
an egg should be eaten out of the shell
instead of out of the glass; that pepper
and salt should be handed from left to
right; that no one should help another
to salt, for fear of quarreling; that there
should be toasts drank at dinner (now
fortunately gone oat of fashion,; that
the host or hostess, or, worse still, that
some guest, should carve-all of which
brought about an awkwardness. 60.
T Table manners include that beautiful
custom that the men should rise when
ladies leave the table. If it is only the
mother or the sister who leaves, or who
arrives after the gentlemen are seated at
the domestic breakfast or dinner, every
man should rise until the ladies have
either seated themselves or have left the
room. If ia. " ' l, =
- A part of table manners should be the
conversation. BY mutual consent every
one should bring only the best that is in
him to the table. There should be the
greatest care taken in the family circle
to talk of only agreeable topics at meals.
The mutual forbearance which prompts
the neat dress. the respectful bearing,
the delicate habit of eating, the attention
to table etiquette, should also make the
mind put on its best dress, and the ef-
fort of any one at q meal should be to
make himself or herself as agreeable as
possible. No one should show any haste
in being helped, any displeasure at be-
ing left until the last. 1t is always
proper at an informal meal to ask for a
second cut, to say that rare or under
done beef is more to your taste than the
more cooked portions. But one never
asks twice for soup or fish; one is rarely
helped twice at dessert. These dishes,
also salad, are supposed to admit of but
one helping: ts,,sg!
In rising from the table, put the nap
kin by the side ofthe plate, unless you
see that the custom of the house de-
mands that you fold it. If SO, do as the
rest of the company do. In most mod
ern houses, however, napkins are used
but once.-Harper's Bazar.