New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-08-06
BAD TABLE MANNERS
SOme CariOus Sights Cbserred at a
Fashionable Hotel.

a woman who has been spending six weeks at q
se'niner hotel-no common hotel. but fashionable
one Where the board comes high-returned to New
forK IN state OF extreme disgust at some OF the
table manners she saw there 'When r nottcei hovy
some OF those people sat the table handled their
knives ana forks and absorbed their food" she
saId' feIt very thankful that although hadn't
a yacht down at the pier nor an automobile in the
garage. had had a mother whose training saved
me from making exhibition OF myself nv slrgfn
my soup from the tip of my spoon and clutcfins my
fork to the hilt I've coma 10 the conclusion that
the majority OF men and women never correct
ed IN their childhoodwsre allowed 10 eat lust any
way they ehose-and that they have grown up
unobserving or perhaps they don't care Hoy
can any one who is eating noiEily and ungrace-
fully look around and others taking their food
as we'll bred people should and feel the lesson?
Hurry is responsible foc good many table mis-
denleanors. but isn't IL strange that at a summer
resort where there is plenty time for everything
so many people Will rush through their meals as
though their lives depended getting 70 the end
I've seen men who came to the resort 10 rest IN
such tragic haste at table that before the waiter
had adjusted their chairs they we're reaching out
for the water bottle or speaTng butter with their
forks. II they had 10 walt Il minute between
courses they were impatient. Apparently they came
10 the table Just 70 put down food-of the true
pleasures OF the table they had conception
You have seen people whom you admired until
they opened their mouths and talked have you not
There was q at the hotel whom quite wanted
10 know until I saw him eat lettuce. He would
take large leaf in his hard and start at one
ner and actually chew IL In like a rabbit There
beautiful woman whose gowns 1 adored-
h!my, trailing. poetic goyns-and that exquisite
looking creature used 20 talk necessarily at meals
with her mouth too fun for utterance
Lettuce. by the way. is thing few people seem
10 know how 10 manage Near the nice man who
his lettuce like a rabbit who cut his
up into unnecessarily fine shreds-sawing away az
It with his knife and fork until IT seemed as II he
going cut the plate up.
1t seemed 70 that half the people I used
their knives and forks awkwsrdly. and used knives.
too much more than they were needed A crOquette
or piece OF tender chicken doesn't call for the
welding OF the knife.
TITS curious hut some OF the guests who were
quite snobbish. evidently feeling they had right
20 be because their names are in the social regis
ter had the worst table manners. One handsome.
athletic girl OF the social register class had seat
near my table. She always had two eggs for her
breakfast. and the chopping and stirring OF those
eggs was the noisiest thing 1 ever heard New
guests would look mp in astonishnent but the girls
family didn't 10 notice 81
Then there were the people who buttered large
slices Of bread and BIT into them. the people who
snacked VIXEN they ate: the people who hung over
know a prlm attitude at table Is absurd. but too
much latitude in the other direction IS Il
seems 20 me.
II hope l am not hypercritIcaL didn't try 70
see these things. they obvious. wouldn't
criucise elderly people whose might perhap.
make them careless. These guests OF whom speak
were young or middle aged. They had money and
leisure they had had the advantages OF travel
Why were their table manners 80 bad?