The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-07-28
CULT OF THE FORK,
MARION HARLANo WRITES ENTER.
TAlNlNGLY ON TABLE MANNERS.
10 say of Man che Eats With His
hnife" Is Either to Brand Him
with Vulgarity or Asperse the Gen.
tility of His Antecedents-


tility of His Antecedents.
When the poor seamstress In Tim.
otny quest laments that she has been
80 poorly that she could hardly get
ner knife to her mouth" we smile in.
uulgent amusement.
Wnen Mrs. ShOddy, seated in state
among her congenerS in q Bar HarboI
uraWlnE room, animadvertS upon the
DarDarlty of the original denizens of
tlle region, who used to give summer
Doarders steel knives to eat fish with
When everybody who knows anything
KNOWS that steel gives u disagreeable
TASTE TO fish, pledge you my word
my dear, l couldn't bear to put those
norrld knives into my mouth!'-the
smile is broad laugh.
When we recognize in fashionable
Boston restaurant former Governor
who Is also former Congressman and
an eminent jurist, and, while our ad
mlrlng gaze is upon him, see him, in
an absent minded sort of way shovel
peas into his mouth with the blade of
his knife-we shudder, and straight.
way fall into grave thoughtfulness,
says Marion Harland, In the New York
Herald.
mot ours to reason why" the use of
the fork as vehicle for transferring
Sond foods from the plate to lips
should have become stingent law
among well bred people The rule is
as binding as that enioining that every
man who knows the rudments of good
manners should lift his hat in saluting
a lady in the street, and uncover his
head when he finds himself with ladies
iii 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 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
ernor'S 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-swallOwing habit was
established. Association with men and
women who were born to the fork
has so far modified his behavior that,
in donning 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 forgetS its
borrowed cunning. Early practices
| prevail over artificial civilization. out
of land I'M his own mouth he is con-
victed as a clownish rustic.
The phrase is none too strong No
man has right to outrage the sensi-
bilities/of others by the uncloan trick
! of thrusting the laden blade between
! his jaws and Withdrawing it, reeking.
for another onslaught upon the provs
ions set before him The nimble fork
| approaches the lips-the knife punges
! into the mouth. The consensus of re.
! fined judges Of social manners and Gus
! toms on this head makes for dcCency
as well as for propriety. SO well es
| tablished is the bylaw that it ranks
with constitutional sections
As, for instance, when Il woman,
neither charitable nor hypocritical,
based her private doubts as to the so.
cial antecedents of another upon the
circumstance that the suspect" cut
up her fish before bringing the fork to
| bear upon it, "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 suStcnance three
times q day in chop houses. hash
halls" and business hotels, table ETH
quctte must he one of the least CON
sidered of trifies Hardly one out of
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 q millionaire pare his care
fully, divide it INFO 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 bookkeepcrs, however
carefully trained at home, fall into
slipshod table tricks that would horrify
their mothers. Rut the cult of the fork
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 as soon
double up his mega tives and follow
plural noun by a singular verb as to
carry his food to his mouth with his
knife if taught in childhood that it is
not decent to do it. Our young fell
low-lazy or diligent drunk or sober,
prosperous or dead beat''-never
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
misunderstanding polite" at it's just
meaning-the use Cor misuse) of the
80, q, 10, eo;4 eel