The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-21
LACK OF
 TABLE MANNERS
PEOPLE OF TODAY NOT AS CARE
 FIJI AS OF OLD,
Restaurant Eater Easily Recognised by Habits-ChanEe for the Worse Noted in Society Dinner
 Functions.


 Restasrant Eater Easily Recognised by Habits-Chanke for the Worse Noted in Society Dinner Functions.
 Chicago Chronicle.
 There is much talk in these days of the decay of manners. and 1t Is prob
 ably more Justified than . great deal of the sentiment which expresses itself
 ent with tho past.
 Certainly the styles in table manners l have changed. It used to be one of
 the cardinal principles that 1t was bad manners for woman to put her elbows
 on the table. Now it Is a very smart
 posture at dinner party. especially if ! the girl has pretty hands. Pretty
 rings constitute even better excuse. | T would have been sent from the
 table if I had dared sit like that" said
 a matron. glancing at the girl opposite her at dinner party. "f was tOlG
 that I must never put my elbows on
 the table whatever. did. Now my own child would think I was crazy if l told her anything so much opposed to the | smart ways of girls today.
 T actually see women at formal din
 ne~s now pick up a cup of cold boilion and rest their elbows on the table while they sip 1t. l suppose that shows how unconventional and natural they are. but I must confess to an old fashioned prejudice in the matter of table man. ners."
 This woman's explanation of the pres
 ent degeneracy in table manners was
 the increased use of restaurants by young women who never used to go to them. It happens to be true of the
 great world of society now that its
 members dine in public much more fre-
 quently than they formerly did. Restaurant manners, she explain ed, "are a distinct type of the degen-
 crate fashions of the day. Some of the smartest men and women dine three or four times a week in restaurants. It is usually before they go to the theatre and most of them are In hurry.
 Faults of Restaurant Eater. The restaurant eater soon becames
 easily recognizable. There are unlnis ltakable attributes. One of these Is the national weakness for salt and pepper The minute dish Is placed before him the restaurant eater begins to sprinkle | it with salt or pepper. There is no preliminary tasting to see If 1t is all fright. It's discouraging to a hostess who knows that her cook is a good one when she sees carefully seasoned
 food submitted to this treatment The taste of the restaurant eater needs
 strong davoring after a while and it goes without saying that a good cook would never put In the ingredients lpIentifully enough. I feel rather con- plimented nowadays when my guests don't ask for tobasco sauce and sprin- kle that continent over all the dishes the way they do in restaurants. "rhen the restlessness of the habitual | or very frequent restaurant diner be- trays him. He has fallen into the habit | of filling up intervals in the meals ana can never sit quietly at the table with out aoing anything. He must either eat or drink every minute Of the time So he or she devours large quantities of bread which they do not really oe- sire before the courses are brought or durinr the dinner Just this same habit of keeping at 1t all the time leads the restaurant diners to drink more wine than they ought to or really want. All these demoralizing effects Of restaurant life as 1t exists today na-
 turally have their influence on the
 pme. Look at the form<l dinners that are given today. They used to be the
 most delightful entertainments of tn winter. There one had ample time TOT conversation and there was real lux urv in the repose and dignity or the
 evening.
 | Serve Dinner in Hurry. "But what is a dinner today, whether l 1t be here in the winter or al Newpor | In the summer? Thirty or IorS peo. nle are put at table and the dinner | ia handed out to them just as quickly as the servants can get 1t around 1T order that the evening may wlnd uI with a variety show. Then there VII he more to eat and drink. possibly dancing and then home.
 aIt may be a change for the worse | but there is little doubt that the pres, ent generation is much better satisfec witb its own ways of entertainment than with those popular twenty years ago. Men as well as women md the ways of entertaining now In vogue
 much more to their taste.
 | Of course. dining in restaurants IS l more popular now than 1t was years ago." came as the response of younger woman. when there were very 1 few restaurants and people did no' know enough to vary the monotony oi
 going to them. In those days a din- ner party was long -drawn-out af- 1 fair with course after course of dishes that everybody was too full to eat and half a dozen different kinds of wines
 beginning with sherry and winding UT | way down at the other end or the l menu with port NoWduays peoPie
 know too much about drinking to fill
 up their stomachs with a pousse cafe | made of half a dozen kinds of wines Who has forgotten the dinner of de-
 cade ago? Sherry with the oysters oi l hors de'ouvres. white wine with the 1 fish. cIaret with the entrees sprlnkleo
 in between, champagne with the salad and burgundy with the game-all this l to be topped off with port. People
 have learned enough about their health
 to keep away from such barbecue. "The food was just as deadly with | alternations of more or less tastelesS 1 timbales, puddngs and ices. until one
 rebels at the thought of them The
 present dinner Is much more suited to | inc needs of our day. when young people are active. not necessarily rest loss from restaurant eating. and want | to be up and doing. Difference in Table Manners. 1 That dinners are shorter is hy- rienic and not to he deplored. Possi- hlv we might be more healthful if most
 rcrsons ate more slowly. but as it is thcy eat nowadays great deal less
 Id E Hu.