The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-01-26
Table Etiquette in Holland.

Social etiquette in Holland is not to DO
compared to that of the table If the
one is curious, the other is supremacy
droll 1t is amusing to see the Dutch
eat They take their plateful as soon
rs they are helped and cut it up into
morsels. Then they lay the knife in
front of the plate, and leaning on the
table with the left hand, proceed to eat
all with the fork. | never saw food
eaten otherwise, except that some des-
serts are shoveled with the spoon instead
of the fork, two spoons lying with knife
and fork at each plate All this is
etiquette Beside the plate hand-rest
il sometimes placed, for it is necessary
that one should half recline on the table!
There is no such thing as changing COW
ers, and be the courses two or twenty,
they are served on the same plate, and
the same knife, fork, and spoon are
used. The napkins are kept in service
until the washerwoman has to meet
big bill for soap! The meals are break
fast, lunch (kotliD, dinner. and supper.
The first meal is at any time from six
to nine, and among the better class of
people the guests can take it in.bed if
they prefer. Lunch is at twelve o'clock;
dinner is from four to half past five;
supper is at any time-Eeven, nine, or
eleven o'clock in the evening. Break
fast and lunch are exactly alike, except
that there is tea at the former and cot
fee at lunch. Supper consists of tea,
biscuit, and pastry, and is served in the
parlor quite as often as in the dining
room.
One supper at which | was a guest |
shall always remember. At nine o'clock
the hostess left the card board, spread
thestable-eloth, and placed the dishes.
Then she brought out spirit lamp,
which she lighted with match from the
matchbox on the table. and having
groundssomescottee in little hand-mill,
she set the cafetiere over the lamp,
where it boiled merrily during the meal.
The bread came on in loaf in the long
basket, and was cut into thick slices
and so passed around. The butter was
in little round earthen pot, each per-
son scraping out with his own knife as
much as is wanted for each piece of
bread. The cheese came to table in a
similar pot, and was also scraped and
eaten spread on the bread over the but
ter. Near the bread basket, on a round
tray, was a partly cut loaf of brown
bread, and slices of three or four kinds
of cake, including the acknowledgements
cake. Preserves were placed ON the
cloth in a shallow dish, and it was passed
round, The milk, fresh from the
dairy, was drawn for the coffee from a
jug that in the absence of a sideboard
naturally reposed on mat by my ladys
side. After the meal a china wash bowl
was brought out, and the dishes washed
on the tea-table by the mistress, who
used the snowitst of Serriettcs. and
neither split a drop nor wet her fingers.
While the dish washing was going on,
the family and guests remained sitting,
the merronu performing her task stand
ing where her chair had been, and the
master idly putting his reina. All Chs
may seem romantic. but | was ANNOYED,
not only at the basket of bread, the
sloppy scraping of butter. and the CON
tinual kissing Of the coffee over the
spirit lamp, but as well TO have dish
water used on the table. and to have the
mistress preside over it. But it was
the fashion" | might add, that the
table was that of Prof, Nanderkamer of
the Hague. ~ Cor. Springfield Mass RE
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