The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1881-09-15
TABLE ETIQUETTE.
nm Nye's delicate hint. Upon Table

= = TN AeADAC
Manners.
From the Boomerang
There are great many people who
behave well otherwise, but at the table
they do things that if not absolutely
outre and ensensible, are at least pianis-
simo and sine die.
1t is with view TO elevate the popu-
lar taste and elherealize, so 20 speak,
the manners and customs of our read
ers, that we give below a few hints
upon table etiquette. If, by writing an
article of this kind, We can induce one
man who now wipes his hands on the
table-eiuth to come up and take higher
ground and wipe them on his pants, we
shall feel amply repaid.
If you cannot except an invitation to
dinner, do not write your regrets on the
back of pool-check with blue pen
Gil. This is not regarded as ricOcheI
y simple note TO your host, informing
HIM that yoar washer woman refuses TO
relent, is sufficient.
On seating yourself at the table draw
off your gloves and put them In your
lap under your napkin. Do not put
them into the gravy, as 1t would ruin
the gloves and cast a gloom over the
gravy. If you have just cleaned your
gloves with benZine, you viii leave
tnem out IN the front yard
If You happen to drop gravy On your
knife blade back near the handle, do
not run the blade down your throat tS
remove the gravy, as it might injure
your cpiglottis, and il is not eInbon-
point, any way.
When you are at dinner do not take
up raw oyster on your fork and play
fully ask your host if it is dead Re
marks about death are in very poor
taste.
Pears should be held by the stems and
peeled gently, but firmly, not as though
you We're skinning dead horse. 1t is
not bon ton.
Oranges are held on a fork while
being pulled, and the facetious style
of squirting the juice into the eyes of
the hostess is now au revoir.
Stones in cherries or other fruit
should not be placed on the table
cloth, but Sid quietly and unostenia-
tiously into the pocket of your neigh
Dor or nOiselessly tossed under the
table.
If you strike worm in your fruit
do not call attention 10 1t by smashing
il with the nutcracker. This is not only
uncouth, but it is regarded in the best
society as blase and exceedingly vice
versa.
Macaroni should be cut into short
pieces and should be eaten with an
even, graceful motion, and absorbed by
the yard.
In drinking wine when you get to
the bottom of your glass do not throw
yonr head back and draw in your breath
like the exhaust of bathtub in order
to get the last drop, as it engenders
feeling of the most depressing melan-
choly among the guests.
After eating a considerable amount,
do not rise and unbuckle your vest
strap in order to get more room, as it is
not exactly au fat and dishabille.
If, by mistake, you drink out of your
finger:bowl, laugh heartily, and make
some facetious remark which will
change the course of conversation and
renew the friendly feeling among the
members of the party.
Ladies should take but one glass of
wine at dinner; otherwise there might
be difficulty in steering the male por-
ton of the procession home.
Do not make remarks about the
mount your companion has eaten. If
the lady who is your company at table,
whether she be your wife or the wife
of some one else, should eat quite hear
tily, do not offer to pay your host for
his loss, or say to her "Great Scott! l
hope you will not kill yourself because
you have the opportunity" but be po-
lite and gentlemanly, even though the
food supply be cut off for week.
If one of the gentlemen should drop
a raw oyster into his BOSOM, and he
should have trouble in fishing it out, do
not make facetiouS remarks about it,
but assist him TO find it, laughing heart
lily all the time.