The Dickinson press., 1884-07-05
Culture at the Table.
from the st. Louis Republican

SOLCdlACNs
Culture at the Table.
From the st Louis Republican.
The best thing about a plate of good
soup is to know how to drink it. As the
first course is only intended to prepare
the stomach for the dinner which is to
follow, it is never permissible to call
for it the second time, nor is it neces-
sary to consume more than q third of
the amount served to you. To break
bread i'll ycur soup is an insult to your
hostess, who would have spared YOU
that trouble had she not preferred q
thin soup. No nation under the sun
uses oyster crackers in a soup but
Americans of the most shoddv
class. In taking the soup donotfll the
spoon more than half full, and dip up
the liquid by passing the spoon from
you. The manner in which the spoon
shall reach the mouth is an open quesA
ton, ladies insisting that the proper
thing IS to drink from the side of the
bowl, while gentlemen maintain that
the correct way is from the tip of the
spoon. This certainly appears plausi-
bic to many, who hold that, if o blunt
side was preferred, modern poems
would not be made pointed. Every
man with a heavy mustache knows from
experience that it is much easier and
much neater for him to take soup from
the end Of the spoon than it is from the
side.
In this course bread is served. Lay
the cut on the table at the left of the
plate, without lifting it from the cloth,
using the fingers Of the left hand.
Right here it might be pertinent to
mention that no bread Of any
description should be eaten in any
other fashion. Even hot bis
cults, mullins, buns and rolls are to be
torn OF broken off in small pieces and
hnttered just before being eaten. Fish
should be eaten with a silver knife and
fork provided for that purpose. In
managing the fillets and roasts there is
no regulation further than to carry
small pieces to your mouth with your
fork, using the inward curve of the uten-
sill in doing so, and above all things avoid
making q muss.
In France there are 80 many dress.
ings and rich gravies on the substan-
tails that monsieur finds it necessary to
cut his bread with his knife and fork,
aud then uses the fork and cube of
bread to eat up the rich sauce. This
practice is frowned down in English So
ciety, although Her Majesty, the Queen,
is known to mop her plate with diamond
cuts of bread.
Albeit Americans do not like it, it is
the proper thing to leave the celery for
the crackers and cheese. Break the
celery in small pieces and strip it be-
fore eating. In eating cheese small
morsels of the dairy product should be
placed on small morsels of cracker or
bread and the two morsels carried to the
mouth between the thumb and fore
finger. The cheese should not be per-
mitted to touch the finger; neither is it
permissible to eat the cheese from the
point Of the knife.
All made dishes. such as quenelles,
rissoles, patties, ETC., should be eaten
with q fork only, and, as the knife is
unnecessary, it would be q vulgarism to
use one. With outlets, game, poultry
and sweetbreads fried, q knife is re-
qulred. Cucumbers are eaten from the
dinner-plate and not from the side dish
es, which are fast disappearing from
the fashionable table. When peas are
served they should be conveyed to the
mouth on a fork and not taken from Il
spoon. 1t is needless to say that to put
thu 1-rifo into fhc D,nrkb o+ ~ y +;~,o
during the meal would be an unpar-
donable offense against good breeding
and a mark of vulgarity. In eating as
paragus a knife and fork should be
used, as the proper way is to cut offthe
points and eat them as sea-kale, egg
plant, or any other vegetable. Tt is q
solecism to take asparagus in the fin
gers.
1t is also indicative of the gourmand
to overload the fork with q bit of meat.
some vegetable, and a piece of pickle
all Of which should be eaten separately
and not arranged beforehand in q COM
pact form. Gentlemen are sometimes
guilty Of this unpleasant manner, but
ladies' are less %rapacious. The hand
and mouth should be in sympathy
that is to say, the mouth should not be
kept open in expectation of the we'll Ia
den forks arrival. Open the mouth to
receive the food at the moment it has
reached the lips, and let the morsels be
small rather than large, i'll order that
conversation may not he ignored. To
place the fork directly opposite the
mouth is a most uugraceful way of eat
ing; nor should the wrist ever be bent
or curved to accomplish this feat. In
eating from the wing or leg of poultry
cut the meat, but never touch it with
the fingers, nor be guilty of the extreme
vulgarity of picking the bones.
Pastry is always eaten with o fork,
but in case ola fruit tart Or cream puff a
dessert spoon is used. Small stones.
such rs are found in cherry, plum, dam
son, or date pudding should be received
from the mouth on the fork or spoon
and placedin the plate and not on the
table cloth; when the fruit stones are
largethey should he separated from the
fruit with the fork and left on the
plste. Whenever it is possible to sepa-
rate the stones from the fruit it is best
to do so. Jellies, blanc ranges, iced
buildings etc, are eaten with q fork,
and not with q spoon as are all sweets
sufficiently firm to admit of being car
rled in what the Irshman calls the
split spoon.
The Albany N. " Presbytery has de.
| rnSa1 Dow II v.11... r-- =.