The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-12

coming general and a fork was added to
the knife and spoon which most persons
carried with them for their use. The same
knife, fork and spoon served for the en-
tire meal. sometimes washed, and some
times only wiped. The large dinner forks.
now called table forks" were introduced
by the Duke de Montausier, and were first
used In France about 1915.
A fork bearing the Musgrave crest, with.
the mark of 1888, was dug up i'm the
grounds Of Eden Han, England 1t ranks
as the most ancient English four-pronged
table fork known, and was probably made
out of a spoon.
In the olden days all forks were perfect
~ straight and two tined, later on the
tines were slightly bent, soon three tines
became fashionable, and about the middle
of the last century four-pronged forks
came in use. The handles of forks follow
ed the fashion of spoons b.
Forks were not used in England when
the Pilgrims set sail. In 1920 travellers
spoke Of the use of forks, instead Of nap
klns, i'm Italy as q curious innovation.
Our ancestors of the Mayfiower held
their food in a napkin with the left hand,
while with the right they cut IL with a
knife and carried 1t to the mouth. Early
inventories show an entire absence of
forks. Gov. Winthrop is said to have
had the first table fork brought TO Amer
lea.
A lady travelling through New England
in 1904 spoke with much scorn of the peo-
pie of Connecticut, because they allowed
their negro slaves to sit and eat at the
same table with themselves, saying that
into the great dish goes the black hoof
as finely as the white hand" As late as
1850 this was unchanged.
The first mention of forks in New Eng
see -
ton becomes more frequent.
The handles were of various materials
silver, ivory, agate, tortoise shell, glass,
japanned work, bone, horn and iron.
Iron forks were used In the kitchens In
New England as early as 1888
In 1873 Peter Faneuil ordered one dozen
silver forks from England, with three
prongs, with my name cut on them, made
very neat and handsome"
Four-pronged forks are spoken Of In a
Boston inventory In 1919.
Alice Morse Earle, than who there is
probably no better authority on the man
ners and customs Of colonial days, tells uS
that the first mention of silver forks in
America she finds in a will made in 1869.
Four years later one Parson Oxenbridge,
who had the finest personnel of any one
in Boston, had silver forks.
Early Long Island inventories Of house
hold effects make no aluSlon TO silver
forks prior to the first quarter of this
century, and they did not come into gem
eral use until the second quarter.
Among the early settlers of New York
silver forks were not known before about
1880 save in rare instances. They were
either ordered to be brought from Eng
land or were purchased from the Indians,
who had obtained them in their raids on
New England villages.
William Walton, who built, in 1854, the
Walton house, was very hospitable, and
gave the most sumptuous entertainments
of any person of his day. His sideboard
groaued with the weight of massive silver,
and the silver plate used at his dinners
was equal IL not superior, to any noble
mans lie is said to have had two cases
Of forks, Knives and spoons, a possession
SO extraordinary as to require special
mention in the records Of the time in
which he lived.
Mrs. Hugh Wallace Of New York, whose
husband. prominent merchant, was com
mtted for having refused TO take the
oath of allegiance to congress in 1916, lost
in the latter part Of the revolutionary wal
a box Of plate valued at upward OF Il, 500