The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1888-11-03
AT TIE TABLE.
LITTLE PEOPLE SHOULD FEED LIKE
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
Effects of Disortlerly Conduct at tho Din
ncr Table-Tcaching Good Manners TO
Hungry Children A Task for the
AIothcr-Sad Results,


Hungry Children A Task for the
NIothcr-Sad Results.
How often it is the case that when guests
aro ut table to whom some Difference and
ceremony may bc due, We SEQ the children
made the center of observation and convcr
salion allowcdto camor for what they want
to reach and grasp and take and put back,
and indeed sometimes to make Il pandemo.
mum of the whole occasion. They talk their
own talk, and they make other talk nearly if
not quite impossible; they join in tho gen
eral conversation unrcproved, obsruct it or
silence it altogether; they delay the waitress
and tho dish, they express their wants with
vehemcnce, they leave their seats, they climb
back INTO them, they quarrel, they cry, they
nave to be appcascd, they retard tho helping
OF others, they spill and smear and make
their neghborhood dangerous, and Their
daubeu fingers and faces and tears, and theil
trlcks and their manners generally are
enough to cause such qualms i'll the observer
us VIII prevent n repetition of the attempt tc
dlne i'll their company; for tho guests are
driven to leave that table with feeling that
pulse and water arc better with peace than
tho stalled OK is to this accompaniment of
children ruined by indulgence
Yet none of this should bc or need bc. 1t
Is not, to be sure, an entirely easy matter to
have it otherwise; it requires constant over
sight and effort to prevent it, to countcrict
1t; for healthy, happy, hearty children have
all something of the early barbarian in them,
and this little barbarian will come to tho tor
II it is left to itself, Just as tho cultivated
garden flower, when neglected, will waste it.
seed summer after summer, and at last return
To the wild stock from which it was brought
to its educated blossom
And it is certainly far from an agreeable
task, this teaching of table manners To chit
drch of go1d appetiteS, especially if there lie
among them any awkwarlncss, left handed
ness, absent mindc,.ness or forgetfulrcss, or
worse still, any diSobcicnce or resentment:
so disaGrecablo a task indeed is it that it
sometimes seems rs ii it might bc best To
hav"a person stand bchind each little CHAIR
for no other purpose at all than to attend to
every movement of tho chid's hand and
arm and mouth till habits are established
That shall DO irrcproachablc. To sce that
thc iood IS taken II? with tho fort; and not
with the knife; that the Enilo and fork are
both held as they ought To be; that the mouth
Is not allowed to display its content at c.urv
revolution; that the norscls arc not spilled
and cloth; that the fingers arc 10, used a;
clopsticks; that tho drink is not swallowed
III resounlns Sulps, on tho soup slipped with
relslling gurgles; that glasses AFRO not over
Set; that hands do not reach forward and
grab for the contents of II dish, or hover and
lianllo before selection when IL dish is,i.
fered; that tho left hand shall net replace
tho right; that tho movements shall not I,,
n ,f "a,
sweep; that the tongue shall he silent
member.
Few things more early manifest the good
SENSE and tasto and diligence of Il mother
than the behavior of her child Mt the table
y child who, unreprovctl, stufrs food into
tho mouth as if tho spoonfuls were To he
slm'chcd away otherwise and vanish into
TIM air, who bends over tho Table rs II pig
docs over II trough, and makes scarcely less
noise about it, whose hair bangles into tho
plato, whose elbows rest on the table or make
acute angles with the ceiling, whose knife
anu fork stand erect at intervals, who lolls
along tho board, whose fingers are greasy,
whose faco no less So, whose mouthfuls arc
held high in air for tho general survey be-
lofe plunglnl5 them to their doom, whose
glass is III sl"p-all of whose actions in the
Eratlllcatlon OF appetite or tho satisfaction
oil hunger aro moro those Of a young savage
not to say young animal, than of an intclli-
gent child-such II child bctrays that it,,
mother has pad no attention to decorum or
dccency i'll bringing it up but has eaten and
drunken and amused herself, and never
taken tho trouble to turn her head To sce
whether the child behaved like Il civilius
being, satisfied that, if only tho food ha,
disappeared from its plate, it had then been
properly fed.
This neglect on tho part of n mother i, II
great pity, for it makes IL sad difference with
II cllild's happiness whether it finds itself
sought for and beloved. or avoided and con-
tcmncd and laughed; at and the latter fate
can hardly bo Kindred if II childs manners mt
table arc bad to nauscation. 1t will see othcl.
children preferred before itself, kindly
cntrcatcl and carcsscd, and it will havo tho
injurious sense of bcinga young Orsom-ii-
furious because calculated to make it wild
and reckless i'll many others ways, and there
fore again unlovcd. And certainly "a child is
happier for the consciousness that it is quito
the equal of other children in all those things
which arc within its volition and capacity;
and all children, it is notorious, love to bc
praised for their gcntlcnanly or lady like
department. 1t seems blrd then that, owing
to tho dleness or Indifference Of the parent
or the proper care taker, n child should be
denied the pleasure which it might havo of
being noticeably gcntlo hammered at the
tablc.-lIarpcr's Buzar.