The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-10-16
ANGlOMANlA IN EATING.
Some Plain Talk About the Finicky Wa
of Overly Dainty People.

Some Plain Talk About the Finicky Ways
of Overly Dainty People.
The Anglo-SaIors 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
I have seen-oh, barbarous and cruel spec
neutrality-suspicious. otherwise apparently
civilized, cut OFF the points of asparagus, ano
eat these points only with a fork, thus leav.
ing the best part of the vegetable on theiI
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 will not dirty
or grease the fingers may be eaten with the
fingers For my own part, prefer to cat
lettuce salad with my fingers rather thar
with a fork, and Queen Marie ATtoinette an6
other ladies of the Eighteenth century were
of my way Of thinking. Ii the ladies coul6
their diaphanous forefinSer and thumb grasp:
q leaf Of delicate green lettuce, and raises
that leaf from the porcelain plate to thell
rosy lips, they would all Immediately take te
eating salad Ia Marie Antoiuctte. Only
bear in mind, good ladies' that if you 10 wist
to eat lettuce salad with your fingers you mus
mix your salad with oil and vinegar, and moi
with that abouinable ready made white
salad dressing" to look upon which is nau
seating.
May heaven preserve US from excessive An
glolnauia in matters Of table service and eat
ing. The English tend to complicate 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 gooc
i'll their way, because they are not susceptible
to the action Of fruit acids, but 1t is vain anc
clumsy to attempt to make too exclusive uSt
of the knife and fork in eating fruit. Don't
initiate, for instance, certain ultra correct
English danlSels who cat cherries with a forE
and swallow the stones because they are tot
modest, or rather too asinine, TO spit them
out on to the plate. Eating is not thing tx
be ashamed Of To thoroughly enjoy a peach
YOU must bite It, and feel the juicy pertuuec
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, anc
reeling it while so impaled, as if it were ar
i'll favored and foul object.
A peach is as beautiful to the touch as it Is
to tho eye; peach held between human fin.
gers has its beauty enhanced by the beauty
Of the fingers. However dainty and ornate
the silver dessert knife and fork may be, il
always irritatcs me to see people cut up their
peaches, or pears, or apricots, or what not,
into cubes and paral!elopipeds, as if dessert
were O branch of comic sections. Initiate
Marie Antoinette, ladies; ase your fingers
more freely; eat decently, of course, but dc
not be the slave Of silly Anglomaaia or New.
port crazes. To eat pear or an apple con-
veniently, cut it into quarters, and peel each
quarter in turn as you eat it. The peach:
too, can be cut into quarters, If the eater Is
timid. Apricots do not need peeling, MOI
plums either. Would you be bold enough tc
peel fresh fig, or to touch such delicate
fruit even with the purest silver Instruments
Theodore Child in Hnrper's Bazar.