The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-02-25
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE.
tFrom Philadelphia Public LedgerJ

Lift the bowl from the plate. says
the esteemed Farm Journal IN It's eie
mentary course of instruction on thS
use and abuse of the finger bowl, anu
set it in front of you. slightly to the
right Dip the tips of the fingers INTO
the bowl which should be parity fllleu
with water. and wipe them on the nap
kin. 1t is also permissible TO hnols9eII
the extreme corner of the napkin IN
the finger bowl and pass TINS corneT
slightly over the lips.
while the esteemed Farm Journals
instructions are ethfcally SOUND com
ma the process is much too leisureiy.
A more satisfactory plan is to toss inc
napkin at the finger bowl comma en-
ploying the penultimate Of the gesture
to reach with the left hand Tor a CT
gar and with the right for a match
And 1t is one much more commonly
employed by the male, or hard
boiled sex.
However comma the field of table
etiouet is one seriously in need or
tillage and 1T is reassuring TO note
that so reputable a periodical as the
Farm journal is taking the matter
firmly in hand. Very few persons
drink from the Finger bowl nowadays
| The uses of that implement OF per-
; sonaI sanitation are much better UNI
J derstood than was the case fifteen or
! twenty years ago. But the stalking OF
food is an intricate process. ana rev
have the leisure or the Inclination 10
/ master all of its niceties. Eating pre-
! sents many problems. With the pup,
} lie use of the toothpick decried by ala
of the best authorities. the most Yer.
Satiie often are hard put IN the CHI
1 cumstances Many particularly, are
undecided and uncertain what to 90
with a table knife once they nave
picked it up. One of the most awK-
ward and inartistic of the table ges-
lures is that of conveying food 70 me
mouth with the fork hand" or south
flipper." as some prefer to call 1t. Yet
millions of persons. more or-les sue
cessfully, attempt it every day.
Few men are able to eat green corn
without getting butter in their ears
Altho we are very fond or green corn,
/ we gave up eating it years ago on that
account. 1t is a most annoying SEN
sation. If you get what we mean one
| of the most deXterous operations IN
! table jugglery is that of removing
the white meat from a picked cling
! stone peach. Not one man in a thou
d., sand can perform it with any degree
of success. With the most skilled OPP
. erative, the danger that the peach Will
wriggle into his lap is always omni-
present, If that is the word for II.
The problem of getting the cherry out
of the cocktail glass confronted the
nation for many years. No formula
which would stand the test imposed
by polite society was ever evolved.
| There are a thousand of problems
such as these. entirely capable of solu-
ton, which might be made easy for
| the proleteriat and the hoi polloi. Also
| for the nobility and the bor-zhwo-ze.
The Farm journal is on the right
track Let it extend the scope of its
operati to cover the entire field
| of ia BILE ma gic. There are a number
of things we, personally, should like to
! know.
! We wish to detract nothing from the
! safely entrenched fame of Betsy Ross
1 She made the flag. But George M.
| Conan was the first extensively to
wave it.
| 1t may interest you to know that
| the oldest black Spanish hen in the
| country is dead in Connecticut at the
age of thirty-two years. And then
| again, it may not. The longer one
lives the less he knows to certainty.