Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1899-08-05
CULT OF THE FORK
MARION HARLAf,o WRITES ENTER
TkININSLY OK TABLE MANNERS.

To say of a Man Gle Eats With His
I<uifc'' Is Either to Brand Him
With VuISarisy or Asperse the Gen
tiiity OF His Antecedents.
When the poor seamstress in Tim.
othy Quest" lamcnts that she has been
SO poorly that she could hardly get
her knife to her mouth" we smile in
dul@ent amusement
When Mrs. Shoddy. seated in state
among her cOngeners in Bar HarboI
drawing room. animadverts upon the
barbarity of the original denizens OF
the region. who used to give summer
boarders steel knives 20 eat fish with
when everybody who knows anything
knows that steel gives a disagreeable
taste to fish, pledge you my word
my dear, i couldn't bear to put those
hOrrid knives into my mOuthv-the
smile is u broad laugh.
When we recognize in fashionable
Boston restaurant former Governor
who is also former Congressman ano
an eminent jurist. and. while our ad.
miripg gaze is upon him, see him, IL
an absent minded sort of way, shove
peas into his mouth with the blade OF
his knife-we shudder, and straight
way fall into grave thOughtfulness
says Marion Uarland, in the New York
Herald.
Not ours to reason why the use OF
the fork as a vehicle for transferring
solid foods from the plate to lips
should have become a stingent law
among well bred people. The rule is
as binding as that enjoining that every
man who knows the rudiments of good
manners should lift his hat in saluting
a lady in the street and uncover his
head when he finds himself with ladies
in a hotel elevator.
TO say Of a man. "He eats with his
| knife" is to brand him with vulgar
| ity, or, as is oftener just. to asperse the
| gentility 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
spelling must he 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
ernOrs next professional triumph. tina
he was born of peasant stock. Unit
he was seventeen he ploughed the
fields by day and cultivated his minC
by night. BY the time he entered col
lege the knife-swallowing habit wa:
women who were born to the forl
has so far modified his behavior that
in donning his dress suit and import
ed manners he is on his guard agains
objectionable Solecism. launching a
his ease. and alone, in the Parke
House, unconscious OF the presence o
any one who knew him by sight, hi
thoughts absorbed by political or lega
questions, his right hand forgets it
f<Nrs oil
prevail over artificial civilization. Gu
of land in) his own mouth he is cor
Victed as a clownish rustic.
The phrase is none too strong. n
man has a right TO outrage the sens
bilities OF others by the unclean trio
OF thrusting the laden blade betwee
his jaws and withdrawing it, reekint
for another onslaught upon the provi;
8 ions set before him The nimble for
approaches the lips-the knife plunge
into the mouth. The concenSus of n
fined judges of social manners and GU
I toms on this head makes for decenc
as well as for propriety. SO well e.
tablished is the bylaw that il rank
with constitutional sections.
As, for instance, when woman
a neither charitable nor hypOCritica
based her private doubts as to the s.
. ciaI antecedents of another upon IL
circumstance that the suspect c.
: up her fish before bringing the fork
bear upon it. There was somethir
= afniSs with her home education" WI
the shrewd and reluctant conclusion.
The importance OF this home educ
ton cannot be exaggerated. Viii
y seven out of every ten business ms
lunch in restaurants, and five out
l. ten seek promiscuous sustenance thr'
times a day in chop houses, "ha:
"a balls" and business hotels, table e.
quette must be one of the least co
sidered of trifies. Hardly one out of
score OF prosperous citizens can eat h
soup without audible suction. and Il
discussion Of the breakfast orange COZ
mends to the sQucamis spectator Il
wisdom of the dear old maids in era
ford, who always took their oranges
their own rooms. there TO eat the
without danger of annoyance to other
have seen millionaire pare his car
fully, divide it into quarters and co
vey each quarter to his mouth up,
the point of his silver fruit knife. r.
act may have been filially reminisce
d of his early life The effect upon II
sympathetic beholders was peculi
and not appetizing.
Few Give" American men learn
eat slowly until the national 3yspeps
has struck its fangs into their vita
College boys in mess halls. clerks al
statesmen and bookkeepers, howev
carefully trained at home, fall in
slipshod table tricks that would horri
their mothers. But the cult of the 70
is tenacious in it's hold upon the me
reckless. The collegian may gulp I
coffee and bolt his steak and smack I
lips over his soup. He would as so
double up his negatives and follow
.. plural noun by singular verb as
carry his food TO his mouth with !
knife If taught in childhood that it
not decent to do it. Our young (
low-lazy or diligent, drunk or sob
prosperous or a dead beat'-neN
60 violates the principle drilled into h
by the time he could feed himself
absolute divorce between his lips a
his knife. AS q sign manual of mol