The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-08-18
CULT OF THE FORK,
MARION HARLANo WRITES ENTER.
TAlNINGLY ON TABLE MANNERS.
To Say of Man "He Fats With His
Knife" Is Either to Brand Him
with Vulgarity or Asperse the Gen.
tility of His Antecedents.

ttlity of His Antecedents,
When the poor seamstress In "rim.
otlty Quest lameuts that she has been
SO poorly that she could hardly get
her knife to her mouth" we smile in.
duleent amusement
When Mrs. ShOidy, seated in state
among her congenegS in Il Bar HarboI
drawing room, animadverts upon the
barbarlty Of the original denzens OF
the region, who used to give summer
boarders steel knives TO eat fish with
Wien everybody who knows anything
knows that steel gives disagreeaule
taste to iish-l pledge you my word
my dear, | couldn't bear to put those
horrld knives into my mOuth!'-tht
smile is broad laugh.
When we recognize in a fashionable
Boston restaurant a former Governor
who is also former Congressman and
an eminent jurist. and. while our ad
mIring gaze is upon him, see him, in
an absent minded sort of way. shovel
peas into his mouth with the blade OF
his knite-we shudder, and straight.
way fall into glsve thoughtfulness
says Marion Hariand, in the New York
Herald.
Not ours to reason why" the use OF
the fork as vehicle for transferring
solid foods from the plate to lips
should have become stingent law
among well bred people The rule is
as binding as that cujoining that every
man who knows the rudiments of good
manners should lift his hat in salutins
lady in the street and uncover his
head when he finds himself with ladies
Ill hotel elevator
10 say of a man, "He eats with his
knife is to brand him with vulgar
lily, or, as is oftencr just, to aSperse the
Sentility of his antecedents. His orr
gin must have been mean, we assume
and his breeding defective. The adage
that the cult of the fork like correct
Spr Hing. must be mastered before the
boy or girl gains the age of fifteen
or never-is grounded In truth and sup
ported by daily observation.
We are nowise surprised to learn in
reading the report of our former Gov
errors next professional triumph. that
he was born of peasant stock. Until
he was seventeen he ploughed The
fields by day and cultivated his mind
by night. BY the time he entered col
lege the knife-Swallowin habit was
established. Association with men and
women who were born to the fork
has so far modified his behavior that
in looming his dress suit and import
ed manners he is on his guard against
objectionable SoleciSm. launching at
his ease. and alone. in the Parker
House. unconscious OF the presence of
any one who knew him by sight. his
thoughts absorbed by political or legal
questions. his right hand forgcts its
borrowed cunning. Early practices
prevail over artificial civilization. out
of land I'M his own mouth he is con
vcted as a clownish rustic
The phrase is none too strong. No
man has a right to outrage the scnsi-
bilities OF others by the uncloan trick
Of thrusting the laden blade between
his jaws and Withdrawing it, reeking,
for another onslaught upon the proVis'
ions set before him The nimble fork
approaches the lips-the knife plunges
into the mouth. The cOucensus OF re.
fined judges of social manners and Gus
toms on this head makes for decency
as well as for propriety. So well es-
with constitutional sections.
As. for instance, when woman,
neither charitable nor hypocritical,
based her private doubts as to the so.
cal aut"cedents Of another upon the
circumstance that the suspect cut
up her fish before bringing tie fork 10
bear upon il. "There was something
amiss with her home education" was
the shrewd and reluctant conclusion.
The importance of this home educa-
ton cannot be exaggerated. While
seven out of every ten business men
lunch in restaurants, and five out Of
ten seek promiscuous sustenHnce three
times a day in chop houses, hash
halls" and business hotels, table Ell.
quette must be one of the least con,
sidered of trhes. Hardly one out of a
score of prosperous citizens can eat his
soup without audible suction. and the
discussion of the breakfast orange com
mends to the squeamish spectator the
wisdom of the dear old maids in Gran
ford, who always took their oranges in
their own rooms. there to eat them
without danger of annoyance to others
have seen a millionaire pare his care
fully, divide it into quarters and con
vey each quarter to his mouth upon
the point of his silver fruit knife The
act may have been filially reminiscent
of his early life The effect upon I'M
sympathetic beholders was peculiar
and not appetizing.
Few live" American men learn to
eat slowly until the national dyspepsia
has struck its fangs into their vtals
College boys in mess halls, clerks and
statesmen and bookkeepers, however
carefully trained at home, fall into
slipShod table tricks that would horrify
their mothers. But the cult Of the forE
Is tenacious in its hold upon the most
reckless. The collegian may gulp his
coffee and bolt his steak and smack his
lips over his soup. He would ms soon
double up his negatives and follow a
plural noun by singular verb as to
carry his food to his mouth with his
knife if taught in childhood that il is
not decent to do It. Our young fell
low-laZy or diligent, drunk or sober,
prosperous or a dead beat''-neyer
violates the principle drilled into him
by the time he could feed himself of
absolute divorce between his lips and
his knife. AS a sign manual of polite
ducation-taking polite at its just
meaning-the use (or misusel of the
table fork is faitl full test, and an in.
variable one.
For the Turn of the Stairs.