The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-25
FINGERS AND FORKS.
THE STRUGGLE OF THE LATTER TO
OBTAIN RECOGNITION.

Everybody Used to Eat with Their Fin
gers. but Strict Rule. Of Etiquette Were
Observed by the Reaned-Ths Fork
Originated in Italy and Spread Slowly.
Did you know>that Queen Elizabeth ate
with her fingers, You may have known
that she loved show and style, that she was
so fond of fine Clothes that when abe died
she left s, 900 dresses and any quantity of
jewels; but did you ever imagine that such
great lady cculd be 50 inelegant as to eat
with her fingers, But she did, and so did
Shakespeare, and Chaacex, and William
the Consueror, and King Alfred, and
everybody else who lived before her time
These last were more ezcuSable than she
they had no forks; but even she was not
without excuse, for though she had sew
eral, they had been given her rs curiosities,
which, l suppose, nobody expected her to
use. Theme was one q crystal garntshed
with gold and sparks OF gscnet, another of
gold with two little rubies Ind two pend
emit pearls, and still another of coral
Why didn she use them, you ask. Well,
because she had never seen or known any
body that used one, and they were some
thing new; and, besides, there was q pre-
judice against this invention Just from
Italy. But you must not think because
there were no forks that the old fashioned
dinner made no pretensions to elegance or
refinement.
The guests had knives and they had
fingers, and with these two implements
they managed nicely. From their old
books Of etiquette we learn how they did
it. In the first place, the fingers must be
publicly washed before beginning the meal;
even If this had Just been done privately,
it must be repeated at the table, that no
one might feel uneasy in eating after his
neighbons' fingers had been in the dish
To aid further, the meat was prepared as
far IS possible before it was brought on the
table. II in a stew, as was usually the
case, it was in bits; if roasted, it was cut
by a carver, and passed in large plates
with knife.
AS to the way of helping himself, each
guest must choose aud keep a particular
part of the dish for his own. He must help
himself daintily from this place, using only
three fingers; afterward, in carrying the
food to the mouth, which, of course, was
done with the hand, these same three must
be used, taking care, however, not TO touch
the nose with them, to do which was ex-
tremely inelegant, and showed a lack Of
good breeding.
OF course all this soiled the hands. and
In RI 9ned households at various intervals
bowls of perfumed water and different nap
kins were passed, and no one must refuse
to wash. This old fashion of handing
round silver bowl or dish Of rose water il
still sometimes seen in Europe.
After n while man found ont that he
needed forks, or, rather, woman did, for it
was she who first used them. Great danes
kept them in their rooms to eat comfits
with and to toast bread; and, IN course Of
time, they brought them to the table.
AS have said, there was a prejudice
against them, and the first few persons
who were brave enough to use them were
laughed at and called effeminate; preacher
even went SO far as to say that for any one
to refuse to touch his meat with his fingers
was an insult to Providence.
Nevertheless they spread in England
slowly, even after Italy, the home of their
birth, was full of them. Those who knew
their value, however, found them 50 con-
venient that up to $50 years ago-since
which it has been 40 longer necessary
gentlemen travelling from place to place,
and knowing how poorly supplied were the
inns, carried one with them in a case with
knife. Since that time the old two
pronged fork or fourchette Qittle pitch
fork, as the Preach called it-and really
they were only tiny pitchforks-has given
way to the more convenient three and four
pronged forks in Use in our own homes
Mary NJ. Winston in Harper's Young Peo-
pie