Bisbee daily review., 1907-06-18
GOOD TABLE MANNERS
Art in Which the English claiT
 to Be Supreme.
SHEER AT OTHER NATIONS.

| Germany, France and America, Say the sritons, Cannot Compare With Them
 In Good Form at Meals-use of ths Knife, Fork, Spoon and Napkin. Let 1t be admitted that our army is a failure, has never won a victory and l never win; admitted that our navy would have difficulty in sweeping six 1 combined great powers off the sea; ad- mitted that we cannot act up to the i French standard or trade up to the German or hustle up to the American or cheat up to the Greek. But we chez ish our little pride and prejudice. The Englishrnan regards himself and is ] generally regarded as the best dressed man in the world. He also plumes ! himself cn having the best table man ners. To the Frenchman may be con eeded the supremacy in the prepara- tion of food. while the production of ii owing to the decay of our agricul- ture may be left to such outlying l 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 eatlng should be the triumphant pretense th1i one is not eating at all And here the En.lishman wins. He can eat his way through a seven course meal quite unobtrusively. It was not al ways so.
 Lord Chesterfield, as I have been re minded by Mir. Philip Wellby's edition i'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. If he is to carve. he never hits the joint, but in his vain efforts to cut through the bone scatters the sauce in everybody's face. He generally daubs himself with soup and grease though his napkin is com monly stuck through buttonhole." That napkin is Q 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 . chin "Do you want to be shaved:'' was the imperial question. England's supremacy-in the matter of soup-lies in the spoon. An Engllshman is taught to take soup from the side of the spoon. And he is the only man on earth who emerges from soup with the white shirt front of q blameless dinner and with out' the aid of tucked napkin. He lays the napkin across his knees and uses 1t when necessary without osten- tatiOn.
 That discreet conduct Of the knife is the Englishman's pride and prejudice at table. There is no nation which Gin It's upper middle classesJ reaches 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 lionaires-there is a beautiful uniform ity of department. Our insular instinct is to make the knife as iDconspicuous as possible, for there is some sugges- ton of brutality in the slicing of bits of corpses that are doomed to keep our vile bodies alive.
 No such feeling restraints the Ger man eater. and the French diner is scarcely less 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 a difficulty will cram 1t down with the handle, nor has he the least scru- pie about depositing the rejected resi- due upon the floor. Moreover, with the continental eater the knife enters into conversation. It Is retained in the gesticuIating hand, it is raised implor- ingIy to the ceiling, and-heaven!-it is brought into strange circles of argu- ment. It is used to point the conclu- sion 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 0'TrIgger says, nor do we argue with knives at table.
 The English knife. with all its blood thirsty suggestions. Is reduced to the lowest and least obtrusive office. It is not even dug into the saltcellar, for England has reached the dellcacy of salt spoons, and only in a Soho res taurant will she give you the real savor of the continent by providing saltcel- lars without spoons. You shove your knife into the salt and dream of Paris. Bohemia. the gypsy life in which you dip your fingers in the pot"
 England has suppressed the knife at table. The Engiishman does not use it for argument or menace or persuasion or even for the taking of salt. His table manners enjoin that the knife shall never be raised. The properly con ducted knife at table never reaches forty-five degrees above the horizontal.
 Unfortunately the American goes little too far in the desire to avoid the obtrrsive use of the knife and takes refuge in obtrusive conceaiment Many Americans will slice their meat with the knife, lay the knife by the side of the plate and put the pieces into the mouth with the fork held in the right hand. Now. this is injustice to the knife. which has it's modest function London Chronicle.
 He Went.