Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1877 — Table Manners. [ARTICLE]

Table Manners.

’yPewff miveourvarious views as to what it is that constitutes fit and becoming behavior at the table. Perhaps none have quite the whole body of the law at their command; but everybody has a little manual of the chief points, and in that life where is any material atto eat witntheir rorks, to Keep theiwhms “nutter meiroreaxT On the plate instead Jofths tjjiw *f .lyA liKea conjurers ribbon, to forbear the use of tooth-picks, to drink their tea from their cups, to keep the plate the hostess sends them —these and other similar small observances every body knows and practices. Yet further refinements, moreover, are in the possession of others; the knowledge of how much or how little it is proper to press a dish; the manner of speaking to a servabsolutely alone, and Keeping one’s fingers off of so much as a salt-cellar. But there are other points of behavior at table quite as valuable as these mere points of etiquette; for etiquette is, after all, but the result of a convention of pose preserved by any sheer of “ncffgreedy ovOTeachmg: these are aft-, flier* ot character, and conducive or otherwise to the comfort of those about us. Thus we have heard people who thought well of themselves, at a table where, owing to unfortunate circumstances, it was impossible to have other than plated silver, enter into a conversation upon plated ware, and the vulgarity of its use; and we remember havlngheard a person, at a neighbor’s from a cup of stone-ware, that it made no difference to her what kind of tea she drank, so long as she drank it from china. Of course that may be forgetfulness, and is Just as likely to happen in the parlor apropos of the furniture; but nring»about a fi&ther breach iof Mmwi cCTnmg or the fact that the supply is not unlimited; and consequently that individual obtains, through the very necessities of hospitality, the delicacy passed and pressed again and again, something much more than a proper share. Or else the very opposite course is maintained, to the ruin of any nimnlo nr fniffal tohlft <1 Thftnlr VOU I scan get tliat,” is a speech we have all of us heard repeatedly, and'sometimesmade without ever thinking what it entailed dlfr (■ JraJflmtint. .yjo fljjrlrqjra uuw because one Is ‘ T riot fond of it,” of course something else is equally * objectionother articles upon which one can satisfy such hunger as sits down at those

table's? antflo d£llne> th<mann&r tioned, or to 'State }&onv«kient preferences, |»n>mething tfe|t cantfit hetf talking sevejxl ofter people at the ttfle uncomfortable. Truly good manners would always take the undesired portion upon the ulate. if only to, trifle with ik w a» •ot to hwtthefeeiinUof those provide? It; and If the providing party were equally agpod-mannend, it would be M*a served that the artlole was ißw sented on other days, if a seasoning continue to be used, or a flaupring that is noh stating dislike and preference, a person second one, it would seem as if the dislike were too slight to justify its statement at all, and the person stating it were utterly inexcusable, and should have no notice taken of his objection. But perhaps the greatest indecorum of all is voluntary instruction administered as to the becoming conduct of host or c hostess by any one sitting at their table, been in the habit of seeing this at such and such a distinguished place,” implying a superiority on the questioner’s side, and an ignorance on the other side that, if one haa any respect for the questioner, might become unbearable. Of course, amqiUk. families where one todindual the others, this may bb not only all very they choffse at their own tables, and after ] gsswsss everywhere else, that tLp. obeyed to the letter is too ohiy. ®fc standard of behavior; itejwei* servant nor host wants any of your interference in his duties, and the rest remains with yourself.— Harper'e Bazar.