Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-02-23
By Alb ert China n

I ever saw any masculine actor" But of all
Southern novelties none delighted him more COM
pletely than the Italian fork.
To Coryate and his book belong the honor of
introducing the fork into England. The innova-
ton was not accomplished without strenuous OPP
position, however. Apt at times to wax furious
about trifes, society was pricked into rage OF
contemptuous indignation by the pronged tool
While the pulpit denounced and the stage derided
the new instrument the general public forgetting
that fingers were made before knives and spoons
well as forks, refused to accept the novelty
To the delight of his hearers an angry preacher
maintained that to touch meat with FORK was
to declare impiously that Gods comfortable crea-
lures" were not made to be touched by human
hands Pandering to the popular feeling Beaumont
and Fletcher seasoned one of their plays with
fling at the "fork-carvng traveller" whom Lawrence
Whitaker had named "Furfcer"-"only for using
a forke at feeding, and for no other cause, says
Coryate who had enough Latin TO know the pre-
else meaning of the opprobrlouS epltnet Inc HShC
between Furicer and his foes was at its hercest
when Fynes Morrison, in his itinerary, advised all
young travellers to avoid useless conflict urging
them to lay aside, returning home, all manner
of strange apparel the affected gestures OF France
and the fork of Italy
But though it delayed, such vehement intol-
erence could not prevent the adoption of simple
contrivance, that, in course of time, commended
itself to all cultured people 1t had no effect what
ever on Coryate, whose good-humor equalled his
daring. Denounced and rejected by the we'll
dressed mob, he had no sooner endured repulse
Eventually he had the pleasure OF seeing the FORK
in general use by the better classes of society.
In his Cosmography published in 1852, Heylin
alluded to "the use of silver forks which is by
some of our spruce gallants taken up OF late;
and at the same time gentlewomen were advised
to use the fork when carving By the close of
Charles Ills reign, forks were seen on all fairly
furnished English tables though still held as
subject of ridicule by the working classes.
large cabinet might be filled with single speci-
of the various varieties of forks in use since
the days of Queen Anne. At first there were forks
with any number of prongs, usually ranging be-
tween two and six They were, as a usual thing,
made of steel, with handles of different materials
and end to the variety of shapes. Forks with
vari-colored handles have disappeared and steel
forks are rarity in these days of silver-pated
ware, which affords an opportunity for the poorest
to have a showing of table silver. The few forks
of Heyns time were for the most part of silver.
Later the silver fork became rarity, and was
regarded undesirable until the beginning OF
the nineteenth century Then the Introduction
of silver met with quite as much opposition as at
first the forks had aroused. foxhuntng English
squire once said at hunt dinner waiter, take
away that thing and bring me fork" The
thing to which he contemptuously referred was
a silver fork
The fork did much for the simplfcation and
advancement of cookery by encouraging the taste
for solid viands and natural favors that had been
becoming more and more general since the days
of Queen Elizabeth, who, holding the ancient "gal-
limawfreys' in low esteem, liked roast above all
things. The delicate slice was a thing unknown
to medieval diners who fingered their "gobbets'
or spooned their "dices" of meat that, to be fully
appreciated, should be eaten in thin Slices
The fork also had effect upon table manners
in general. 1t is distressing to think of the an
cient Romans, and the feasts of Luculus. How
they must have slobbered their long boards and
togas when conveying food to the mouth with their
fingers, eating in reclining position, was the
custom This allowed the use OF but one hand so
I1o