Wichita eagle., 1889-10-12
ANGLOMANIA IN EATING.
Some Plain Talk About the Finicky Ways
of Overly Dainty People.

The Anglo-SaxonS are afraid to use their
fingers to eat with, especially the English.
Thanks to this hesitation, have seen in the
course of my travels in the old world many
distressing sights. l have seen lady at
tempt to eat crawfish ecrevisse) with knife
and fork, and abandon the attempt in de-
spair. have also seen men in the same fix
| have seen-oh, barbarous end cruel spec
tacle,-Anglo-Saxon otherwise apparently
civilized, cut off the points of asparagus and
eat these points only with fork, thus leav-
ing the best part of the vegetable on their
plates. AS for artichokes, they generally
utterly defeat the attacks of those who trust
only to the knife and fork.
Fingers must be used for eating certain
things, notably asparagus, artichokes. fruit,
olives, radisheS, pastry, and even small fried
fish; in short, everything which viii not dirty
or grease the fingers may be eaten with the
fingers For my own part, l prefer to eat
lettuce salad with my fingers rather than
with fork, and Queen Marie Antoinette and
other ladies of the Eighteenth century were
of my way of thinking. If the ladies could
only see how pretty is their gesture when
their diaphanous forefnger and thumb grasps
a leaf of delicate green lettuce and raises
that leaf from the porcelain plate TO their
rosy lips, they would all Immediately take TO
eating salad la Marie Antoinette Only
bear in mind, good ladies, that if you do wish
TO eat lettuce salad with your fingers you must
mix your salad with oil and vinegar. and not
with that abominable ready made white
salad dressing" to look upon which is nau-
seating
May heaven preserve Us from excessive An
glomanla IN matters of table service and eat
ing. The English tend to comphcate the eat
ing tools far too much. They have too many
forks for comfort, and the forms of them are
too quaint for practical utility. Certainly
silver dessert knives and forks are very good
IN their way, because they are not susceptible
TO the action of fruit acids. but il is vain and
clumsy to attempt to make too exclusive use
OF the knife and fork In eating fruit Don't
Initiate, for instance, certain ultra correct
English darnseis who eat cherries with fork
and swallow the stones because they are toe
modest, or rather too aSnine. to spit them
OFT on to the plate. Eating is not thing to
be ashamed Of. To thoroughly enjoy peach
You must bite it, and feel the juicy perfumed
flesh melt In your mouth. But let the Anglo
maniacs say what they please, there is no ne
cessity of sticking fork into the peach. and
peehng it while SO impaled, as if it were al
i'll favored and foul object
A peach Is as beautiful to the touch as it is
10 the eye; peach held between human fin
gers has its beauty enhanced pv the beauty
of the fingers. However dainty and ornate
the silver dessert knife and fork nav be. il
always lrritates me to see people cut up their
peaches, or pears, or apTicots, or what not,
into cubes and psralelop!peds, as if dessert
were branch OF COME sections. Initiate
Marie Antoinetse, ladies: use your fingers
more freely; eat decentIy, of course. but do
not be the slave Of silly Anglouania or New
port crazes. To eat pear or an apple con-
veniently, cut 1t into quarters, and peel each
quarter in turn as you eat it. The.paach.
too, can be cut into quarters, il the eater is
timid Apricots do not need peeling, nor
pluus either. Would you be bold enough TO
peel fresh fig, or TO touch such delicate
fruit even with the pu-est silver Instruments
-Theodore Child In Rarpers Bazaar,