New Ulm review., 1907-05-15
GOOD TABLE MANNERS
Art In Which the English Claim
to Be Supreme.
SHEER AT OTHER NATIONS.

0NEEn Al UIT1En VAIION0.
Germany, France and America, Say the
Britons, Cannot Compare With Them
| In Good Form at Meals-Use Of the
Knife, Fork, Spoon and Napkin.
| Let it be admitted that our army is /
n failure, has never won victory and
lever will; admitted that our navy
would have difficulty in sweeping six
combined great powers off 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
i 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-
ton 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 it 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 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. It was not al
ways SO.
Lord Chesterfield, as l 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,
t which has been in his throat twenty
times, into the dishes again. If he is to
> carve, he never hits the joint, but In
! his vain efforts to cut through the bone
t scatters the sauce in everybody's face.
/. He generally daubs himself with soup
and grease, though his napkin is COM
monty stuck through buttonhole."
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 j
n chin do you want to be shaved?'
:. was the imperial question. Englands
O supremacy-in the matter Of soup-lies
s. in the spoon An Englishman is taught
d to take soup from the side of the spoon
l. And he is the only man on earth who
e emerges from soup with the white shirt
It front of a blameless dinner and with
s. out the aid of a tucked napkin. He
i. laws the napkin across his knees ant
n uses it when necessary without osten
s, tation.
k That discreet conduct Of the knife i
1t the Englishman's pride and prejudice
at table, There is no nation which III
Is it's upper middle classes) reaches tn
il English standard of the nice conduc
at Of the knife, though we are assures
Of that in the highest circles-amon
ameers, shahs, sultans, dukes and mi
IN lionaires-there is a beautiful uniform
ity Of department. Our insular instlnc
le is to make the knife as inconsplcuou
en- as possible for there is some sugges
N ton Of brutality in the slicing Of bit
of cOrpses that are doomed to keep Ou
vile bodies alive.
No such feeling restraints the Gel
man eater, and the French diner
N. scarcely less sensitive. The Germa
who feeds in the average restaurar
will shovel his food into his mout
N. with the blade of his knife and Whe
wit
OF the handle, nor has he the least scr1
IT. pie about depositing the rejected res
ng due upon the floor. Moreover, wit
IA the continental eater the knife enter
mt into conversation. 1t is retained in tt
ell gesticulating hand, it is raised implo
ers ingly to the ceiling, and-heaven!-1t
nj brought into strange circles of arg
ment. 1t is used to point the concl
lily sion at the very breast of the fello
tai diner.
to When you see man waving d
)O,- knife at table, you may be sure he
M an alien 'sWe wear no swords here
di- as Sir Lucius O'Trigger says, nor
Int we argue with knives at table.
es, The English knife, with all its bloc
in thirsty suggestions, is reduced to tt
he lowest and least obtrusive Office. 1t
25,. not even dug into the saltcellar, f
England has reached the delicacy
salt spoons, and only in Soho re
IN taurant will she give you the real say
Of the continent by providing saltc'
ion lars without spoons. You shove 20
knife into the salt and dream Of Par
Bohemia, the gypsy life in which ~
e a dip your fingers in the pot
ON England has suppressed the knife
srs. table The Englishman does not use
ley for argument or menace or persuasi
Fri. or even for the taking of salt. His tai
OF manners enjoin that the knife sh
ing never be raised. The properly &C
rye Quoted knife at table never reach
ing forty-fv degrees above the horizont