Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-05-05
GOOD TADL. EXAMINERS
Art In Which the English Claim
to Be Supreme.

to Be Supreme.
SHEER AT OTHER NATIONS.
Germany, France ard America, Say the
Britons, Cannot Compare With Them
In Good Form at Meals--use of the
Knife, Fork, Spoon and Napkin
Let 1t be admitted that our army Is
a failure, has never won a victory and
never will; admitted that our navy
would have difficulty in sweeping six
combined great powers of the sea; adj
mitted that we cannot 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 cher
ish our little pride and prejudice. The
Englishman regards himself and is
generally regarded as the best dressed
man in the world. He also plumes
himself on having the best table man
ners. To the Frenchman may be con-
ceded the supremacy in the prepara-
tion Of food, while the production Of
1t owing to the decay of our agricul
ture may be left to such outlying
places as Siberia and Chicago.
But when 1t comes to the eating Of
food the Englishman asserts his suprem
acy, for If the highest art be to con-
ceal art the highest etiquette Of eating
should be the triumphant pretAnse that
one is not eating at all. And here the
Englishman wins. He can eat his
way through a seven course meal
quite unobtrusively. It was not al
ways so. s#8ss Z
Lord Chesterfield, asI have been re-
minded by Mr.. Philip Wellby's edition
Of the Advice to His Son. sketches
the awkward man who .'holds his
knife, fork and spoon differently from
other people, eats with his knife to the
great danger 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 bone
scatters the sauce In every ody's face.
He generally daubs himself with soup
and grease, though his napkin Is COM
monty stuck through a buttonhole.''
4 That napkin Is a test of, table man
ners, and the nice conduct OF the nap
kin caught the attention recently Of the
German emperor, who saw one Of his
guests tucking the napkin under a
chin. DO you want to be shaved 2"
was the imperial question. England's
supremacy--in the matter of souplies
In the spoon. sAn Englishman Is taught
to take soup from the side Of the spoon.
And he Is the only man on earth who
energies from soup with the white shirt
front of a b1ameless dinner and with
out the aid Of tucked napkin. He
lays the napkin across Eds knees and
uses it when necessary without 0sten-
tation. 5s Az
That discreet conduct. &C the knife is
the Englishman's pride and prejudice
at table There is no nation, which I'm
Its upper middle classes) rsachas the
English standard Of the nice conduct
Of the knife, though we are assured
that In the highest circles among
ameers, shahs, sultans, dukes, and mil
Honaires there is a beautiful unit form
fly OF department. Our insulari Instinct
is to make the knife as inconspic u0uss
as possible, for there is some sugges-
tfon Of brutality In the slicing of' bits
Of corpses that are doomed to keep our,
vile bodies alive.
No such feeling restrains the, Ger.
man eater, and the French diner is;
scarcely less sensitive. The German
who feeds In the average restaurant
viii shovel his food into his mouth
with the blade Of his knife and when
In q difficulty will cram 1t down with!
the handle, nor has he the least scrn.,
pie about depositing the rejected resi-,
due upon the floor. Moreover, with!
the continental eater the knife enters
into conversation. It L. retained Id the
gestfculating hand, it is raised implor.
fngiy to the ceiling, and heayen-fttis
brought into strange circles Of argus
ment. It Is used to point the conciuA
sion at the very breast Of the fellow
diner.
When you see man waving bis
knife at table. you may be sure he Is
an alien. Eve wear no swords here, =
as Sir Lucius O'Trigger says, nor db
we argue with knives atstable.
The English knife, with all its blood
thirsty suggestions, Is reduced to, the
lowest: and least obtrusive Office lit ID
not even dug into the saltceilar;; for
England has reached the dalicacy OF
salt spoons, and only In q Soho res
taurant will she give you the reallsavof
Of the continent By providing, saitcea-
lars without spoons. You shove. your
knife into the salt and dream Of Paris
Bohemia, the gypsy life I'M which syou
dip your fingers In the pot, =
England has suppressed the knife at
table. The Englishman does not nse Il
for argument or menace or persuasion
or even for the taking Of salt, His table
manners enJoin- that the knife shall
never hi. raised The rrOnerly con.