Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-24
GOOD TABLE MANNERS
ART IN WHICH 1HE ENGLISH
CLAIM TO BE SUPREME.
How the Knife, Fork and Spoon Are
Used in Britain-Handling
the Napkin.


From the London Chronicle
Let 1t be admitted that our army Is q
failure, has never won a victory and never
Will; admitted that our navy would have
olfnculty in sweeping six combined great
powers off the sea; admitted that we can
not act up to the French standard, or trade
up to the German, or hustle up to the
American, or cheat up to the Greek But
we cherish our little pride and prejudice
Inc Englishman regards himself-and is
generally regarded-as the best dressed man
IN the world. He also plumes himself on
having the best table manners To the
frenchman may be conceded the supremacy
IN the preparation of food, while the pro-
duction of it lowing to the decay of our
agricultural may be left to such outlying
places as Siberia and Chicago.
But when 1t comes to the eating of food.
the Englishman asserts his SUPREMACY
t ror II me highest art be to conceal art,
the highest etiquette of eating should he
the triumphant pretense that one is not
eating at all And here the Englishman
wins He can eat his way through a seven
course meal-quite unobtrusively 1t was
not always So
The Orange Difficulty.
Lord Chesterfield as 1 have been re-
minded by Mr.. Philip Wellby's new edi-
ton OF the advice to His Son." sketches
the awkward man who holds his knife.
fork and spoon differently from other peo-
pie; eats with his knife to the great dam
ger OF his mouth. picks his teeth with his
FORK, and puts his spoon, which has been
In his throat twenty times, into the dishes
again. II he is to carve, he never hits the
JOINT but in his vain efforts to cut through
the oone scatters the sauce in everybody s
race. He generally daubs himself with
soup and grease, though his napkin is
commonly stuck through buttonhole."
Ihat napkin is test o. table manners
and the nice conduct of the napkin caught
the attention recently of the German en-
peror, who saw one of his guests tucking
the napkin under a chin. DO you want
to be shaved?' was the imperial question
Englands supremacy-in the matter of soup
lies in the spoon An Englishman Is
taught to take soup from the side of the
spoon. And he is the only man on earth
VINO energies from soup with the white
shirt front of blameless dinner and with
out the aid of tucked napkin. He lays
the napkin across his knees, and uses it
when necessary without ostentation
Perhaps the acme of this concealment of
art was reached by the two sweet ladies of
Crawford who thought it improper to
suck oranges with an eye and an ear at
hand. They used to rise up possess them
selves each of an orange in silence and
v withdraw to the privacy of their own
rooms to indulge in sucking oranges
The orange is still a problem in decent
eating. and 1 have seen many people send
It away at dessert because they do not
know the proper slicing that will lead, to
the suction that will not impede conyersa-
ton: people who will eat an orange only
In solitude, or over the leeward side of a
ship. Those Crawford days were the
forks. and the ladies went to dinner with
the old bachelor and had to face the
problem Of peas. The host shoveled his
peas into his capacious mouth with his
nd 6a1 bate
GaSkell saw. initiated, survived. The other
ladies remembered their table MANNERS and
missed the peas with the two-pronged forks
Use Of the Knife.
That discreet conduct of the knife Is the
Englishman's pride and prejudice at table.
There is no nation which Gin its upper
middle classes) reaches the English stand
ard of the nice conduct of the knife.
though we are assured that in the highest
circies..among cmirs. shahs. sultans, dukes
and miliionaires-there is beautiful uni
fOrmlty OF department. Our insular in
stinct is to make the knife as inconspicuous
as possible; for there is some suggestion of
brutality in the slicing of the bits of cornses
that are doomed to keep our vile bodies
alive.
No such feeling restraints the German
eater-and the French diner is scarcely
more sensitive. The German who feeds In
the average restaurant will shovel his food
into his mouth with the blade Of his knife.
and. when in difficulty will cram it down
with the handle. nor has he the least
scruple about depos!ting the rejected residue
upon me floor. Moreover, with the CONT
mental eater the knife enters into CONVEX
sation. 1t Is retained In the gesticulatin9
hand. it is raised imploringly to the cell
ing-and. heaven!-it is brought into strange
circles Of argument. 1t is used to point the
conclusion at the very breast Of the fellow
diner.
When you see a man waving his knife at
table you may be sure he is an alien
We wear no swords here" as Sir Lucius
O'Trigger says, no do we argue with knives
at table.
The English knife. with all its blood
thirsty suggestions Is reduced to the low
est and least obtrusive ONCE. It IL not even
dug into the salt cellar. For England has
reached the deiicacy of saitspoons. and
only in Soho restaurant will she give
YOU the real SAVIOR of the continent by pro-
viding salt Cellars without spoons. You