DOMESTIC ECONOMY, HYGIENE, DIETETICS. 



387 



hours to digest, even in a perfectly healthy 

 stomach, and the digestive organs afterwards 

 require a period of rest. To take in more food 

 while the process of digestion is in full opera- 

 tion cannot but be injurious, and the conse- 

 quences, in the shape of dyspepsia and sleep- 

 lessness, are not slow in manifesting them- 

 selves. When dinner is taken at midday, the 

 tea may consist of any of the dishes suggested 

 for breakfast and lunch. (See Breakfast and 

 Lunch.) For late suppers, the lighter the 

 food the better. Fresh fish, sardines, well- 

 ripened fruit, a cream, light pudding, blanc- 

 mange, a little iced fruit, fruit jelly, prunes, 

 etc., are appropriate. Strong tea or coffee 

 should not be drunk ; nor wine, unless it be a 

 very light one. 



SMALL POINTS ON TABLE ETI- 

 QUETTE. 



Delicacy of manner at table stamps both 

 man and woman, for one can, at a glance, 

 discern whether a person has been trained to 

 eat well i. e., to hold the knife and fork 

 properly, to eat without the slightest sound of 

 the lips, to drink quietly, to use the napkin 

 rightly, to make no noise with any of the im- 

 plements of the table, and last, but not least, 

 to eat slowly and masticate the food thor- 

 oughly. All these points should be most care- 

 fully taught to children, and then they will 

 always feel at their ease at the grandest tables 

 in the land. There is no position where the 

 innate refinement of a person is more fully ex- 

 hibited than at the table, and nowhere that 

 those who have not been trained in table eti- 

 quette feel more keenly their deficiencies. The 

 knife should never be used to carry food to 

 the mouth, but only to cut it up into small 

 mouthfuls ; then place it upon the plate at one 

 side, and take the fork in the right hand, and 

 eat all the food with it. When both have been 

 used finally, they should be laid diagonally 

 across the plate, with both handles toward the 

 right hand ; this is understood by well-trained 

 waiters to be the signal for removing them, to- 

 gether with the plate. 



Be careful to keep the mouth shut closely 

 while masticating the food. It is the opening 

 of the lips which causes the smacking which 

 seems very disgusting. Chew your food well, 

 but do it silently, and be careful to take small 

 mouthfuls. The knife can be used to cut the 

 meat finely, as large pieces of meat are not 

 healthful, and appear very indelicate. At 

 many tables, two, three, or more knives and 

 forks are placed on the table, the knives at the 

 right hand of the plate, the forks at the left, 

 a knife and a fork for each course, so that 

 there need be no replacing of them after the 



breakfast and dinner is served. The smaller 

 ones, which are for game, dessert, or for hot 

 cakes at breakfast, can be tucked under the 

 edges of the plate, and the large ones, for the 

 meat and vegetables, are placed outside of them. 

 Be very careful not to clatter your knives and 

 forks upon your plates, but use them without 

 noise. When passing the plate for a second 

 helping, lay them together at one side of the 

 plate, with handles to the right. When you 

 are helped to anything, do not wait until the 

 rest of the company are provided, it is not con- 

 sidered good breeding. Soup is always served 

 | for the first course, and it should be eaten with 

 dessert spoons, and taken from the sides, not 

 the tips of them, without any sound of the 

 lips, and not sucked into the mouth audibly 

 from the ends of the spoon. Bread should 

 not be broken into soup or gravy. Never ask 

 to be helped to soup a second time. The 

 hostess may ask you to take a second plate, 

 but you wifl politely decline. Fish chowder, 

 which is served in soup plates, is said to be an 

 exception which proves this rule, and when 

 eating of that it is correct to take a second 

 plateful if desired. 



Another generally neglected obligation is 

 that of spreading butter on one's bread as it 

 lies on one's plate, or but slightly lifted at one 

 end of the plate ; it is very frequently buttered 

 in the air, bitten in gouges, and still held in 

 the face and eyes of the table with the marks 

 of the teeth on it. This certainly is not alto- 

 gether pleasant, and it is better to cut it, a bit 

 at a time, after buttering it, and put piece by 

 piece in the mouth with one's finger and thumb. 

 Never help yourself to butter, or any other 

 food with your own knife or fork. It is not 

 considered good taste to mix food on the same 

 plate. Salt must be left on the side of the 

 plate, and never on the tablecloth. 



Let us mention a few things concerning the 

 eating of which there is sometimes doubt. A 

 cream cake and anything of similar nature 

 should be eaten with knife and fork, never 

 bitten. Asparagus which should be always 

 served on bread or toast so as to absorb super- 

 fluous moisture may be taken from the 

 finger and thumb ; if it is fit to be set before 

 you, the whole of it may be eaten. Pastry 

 should be broken and eaten with a fork, never 

 cut with a knife. Raw oysters should be eaten 

 with a fork, also fish. Pease and beans, as we 

 all know, require the fork only ; however, food 

 that cannot be held with a fork should be eaten 

 with a spoon. Potatoes, if mashed, should 

 be mashed with the fork. Green corn should be 

 eaten from the cob ; but it must be held with 

 a single hand. 



Celery, cresses, olives, radishes, and relishes 



