The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-07-19
NUMBER Al.

meat into small pieces for the lady who
sat next him, and then cut for himself,
while the lady put her morsels into her.
mouth with her fingers. rc,ct
Nor is the use of the fork by any
means universal at the present day. In
the secluded hamlets of Spain, Switzer-
land and Hungary people still use their
own knives, and transfer their food to
their mouths without the assistance of
forks. ars ss.,s; a.i.
Sailors, until very recently, adhered
to the primitive method of the High
landers; sitting in a group on the fore
castle, drawing their knife from its
leathern sheath, and using it both for
cutting their meat and for conveying it
to their mouths. s9rD 8, - s 80,
Some young readers have, perhaps,
wondered why they were required to
take to boarding school their own fork
and spoon. It is relic of the old Gus
tom of eaUh Individual carrying 70 The
table his own implements of eating, Just
as the Scotch Highlanders did down to
the last century. There are probably a
few men In New England old enough to
remember when students going to col
lege took their own knife and fork with
them. Colonel Pickering mentions in
his Memoirs that, at Harvard College a
hundred years ago, as soon as the bell
rang for dinner, each student brought
from his room his own knife and fork;
and when the meal was over, wiped
them on the table-cloth, and carried
them back to his room.
We learn from the same work that,
at tea-time the table was not set at all,
and no tea or coffee was provided.
When the time came for the evening
repast, every student went to the
kitchen, and drew his allowance, which
was pint of milk and a great chunk Of
bread. These he took away with him
and consumed wherever he liked. If
any student wanted butter tea, coffee
or sugar, he went into the basement of
the college, where the butler kept such
articles for sale. Many students
brought their groceries from home; in
cluding such trifes as barrels of apples,
jugs of maple syrup and sides of bacon.
Life being carried on in this picnic
fashion, there was very little need for
the use of so dainty an article as q
fork.
The absence of the fork explains the
ancient custom of reclining at ban
quets; mode of taking sustenance
which we still employ-and for the
same reason-at seaside picnics. Opu-
lent Romans kept a carver, who was
usually slave accomplished in the art
OF carving. He was provided with q
times had an ivory handle inlaid with
silver. This was the only knife placed
on the table, and, so far as known, il
was the only implement designed to
facilitate the eating of meat. This
carver, or scissor, as he was sometimes
called, appears to have cut the food for
all the guests, who put it into their
mouths with their fingers as they lay
along the couches in the banqueting
room.
You will ask, with shudder, Did the
noble Romans have table-napkinsp They
did. They had them IN great variety.
There was even a town famous for the
manufacture of table-napkins, some of
which were of exquisite fineness They
had napkins of asbestos, as we learn
from Pliny the elder. Pliny gives this
account of them:
"There has been invented also kind
of linen which is incombustible by flame.
1t is generally known as live linen, and
have seen before now napkins that
were made of it thrown into blazing
fire, in the room where the guests were
at table, ana alter the STAINS were Durnt
out, come forth from the flames whittier
and cleaner than they could possibly
have been rendered by the aid of water"
We are now living in the age of the
silver fork, an implement which has be-
come almost as universal in the United
States as the chopstick is in China,
where they regard our use of so sharp
an instrument with horror and amaze
ment. The Chinese cannot imagine
why we do not continually prick our
selves with these terrible weapons.
In some parts of Colorado, the use of
the fork is objected to on another ground.
A friend relates that, at a stage dinner
one day, he observed a man seated op-
posite scowling at him with the most
ferocious expression of countenance-
At last, the man threw down his knife,
pushed back his chair, and said between
his teeth, as he left the table:
"This is too much. l have stood q
good deal, but this is more than I cdn
stand! Blame me, if he isn't eating his
pie with forkr'-YolSth's Companion.