Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1890-07-25
SPOONS AND FORKS.
Their History from the Time Of Prim-
tive Man to the Present Day.

The implements of the table is the
subject of charming article in the
current number of the Reuue de
mile. Plates, tumblers, knives,
spoons, folks, and salt-cellars are called
upon to give an account of their crca-
ton, or rather of their evolution. The
plate comes first, and curious story
is told of the first china plates, which,
in the dark middle ages, arrived in
Europe from the east. AS soon as the
dainty ware with its curious hierO-
glyphics made its appearance rumol 5
became current that if a poisonous
substance was put upon them their
whiteness became Immediately cloud
ed, and, as the fear of being poisoned
was very great among the rulers, the
china plates were substituted for the
more ancient test Of dipping the tooth
OF a serpent or piece of horn of a
unicorn into the food. This fear of
poison prevailed to such an extent
that it became the custom TO bring
padlockcd boxes of the table, which
we're opened the moment dinner was
served, and which everybody kept his
own knife and spoon. Thus Saint
Simon writes: "Thc king of England
sat down with the queen on his right
and our king on his left. They all
had their padlocked boxes by theif
sidc." But long before the aristo-
cratic dinner ware of the Chinese and
Japanese came across the sea wooden
and metal plates had been in use,
which had slowly developed from a
perfect flatness into the shapely forms
now used. To prevent sauces
or gravies from running off the fiat
plates pieces of bread were provided
by which the fluids were sucked up,
and which, after the meal, were gra-
ciously distributed among the people
Of more common clay.
The sovereign or graniee of the
middle ages, seated in front OF his fiat
plate, cut his food with q knife begins
in the darkness of prehistoric day,
when the European savage made him.
self axes of stone. Each century,
almost each generation, tried to i'm.
prove the knife, and the medieval din.
ner. whose habits, like those of CASTOR
de Folk, were somewhat peculiar
could even indulge in using his own
pocket knife in preference to the ar.
ticle supplied by his host Latter the
knife-handles were adorned with fanci.
full carvings, the music and words ol
church hymns were cut into them
their size and shape varied almost in
finitely, and slowly they arrived al
their present state of perfection.
The palm of the hand was the
spoons OF primitive man. Then came
the reign of the shell from the sea
shore; but, while in ancient Rome
and Greece and on the banks of the
Nile came the full-blown spoon this side
of the Alps, in the fifteen century
Gradually the handle grew, became
fatter and more shapely, and behold,
when Louis XIV. reigned over France
the modern silver spoon, with dainty
decorations, had become de rigueur.
The vocabularies of ancient Greece
have no name equivalent. for the term
fork" nor do later dictionaries sup
ply the deficiency, consequently it
may be assumed that they used
f" Father Adams fork" only, notwith-
standing the fact that on number of
celebrated French paintings depicting
scenes from Greek history or my
thology, men and women are armed
with forks which might have come
from the shop of modern silversmith.
And so entirely was even France de-
voted to its manner OF eating by the
sole assistance of its fingers, where
spoon or knife would not suffice, that
the first forks brought across the
mountains at the end of the fifteenth
century were received with undisguised
Fruit only was eaten
with forks, and when, in 1911, Tom
Croyat brought some Of the tridents
from Italy the Britisher looked upon
him in utter stupefaction and dubbed
him "fursiver"-that is, the man OF
the fork.