=THE GRADUATING TESTS IN TABLE MANNERS=

A young person may be supposed to have graduated from the school of table etiquette when she, or he, would be able to sit at a formal lunch or dinner table and find no difficulty in eating properly any of the comestibles which are supposed to be “hurdles” to the inexpert.

=CORN ON THE COB=

Corn on the cob could be eliminated so far as ever having to eat it in formal company is concerned, since it is never served at a luncheon or a dinner; but, if you insist on eating it at home or in a restaurant, to attack it with as little ferocity as possible, is perhaps the only direction to be given, since at best it is an ungraceful performance and to eat it greedily a horrible sight!

=ASPARAGUS=

Although asparagus may be taken in the fingers, don’t take a long drooping stalk, hold it up in the air and catch the end of it in your mouth like a fish.  When the stalks are thin, it is best to cut them in half with the fork, eating the tips like all fork food; the ends may then be taken in the fingers and eaten without a dropping fountain effect!  Don’t squeeze the stalks, or hold your hand below the end and let the juice run down your arm.

=ARTICHOKES=

Artichokes are always eaten with the fingers; a leaf at a time is pulled off and the edible end dipped in the sauce, and then bitten off.

=BREAD AND BUTTER=

Bread should always be broken into small pieces with the fingers before being eaten.  If it is to be buttered (at lunch, breakfast or supper, but not at dinner) a piece is held on the edge of the bread and butter plate, or the place plate, and enough butter spread on it for a mouthful or two at a time, with a small silver “butter knife.”  Bread must never be held flat on the palm of the hand and buttered in the air.  If the regular steel knife is used, care must be taken not to smear food from the knife’s side on the butter.  Any food that is smeared about is loathsome.  People who have beautiful table manners always keep their places at table neat.  People with disgusting manners get everything in a horrible mess.

=THE MANAGEMENT OF BONES AND PITS=

Terrapin bones, fish bones and grape seed must be eaten quite bare and clean in the mouth, and removed one at a time between finger and thumb.  All spitting out of bones and pits into the plate is disgusting.

If food is too hot, quickly take a swallow of water.  On no account spit it out!  If food has been taken into your mouth, no matter how you hate it, you have got to swallow it.  It is unforgivable to take anything out of your mouth that has been put in it, except dry bones, and stones.  To spit anything whatever into the corner of your napkin, is too nauseating to comment on.  It is horrid to see any one spit skins or pits on a fork or into the plate.  The only way to take anything out of your mouth is between first-finger and thumb.  Dry grape seeds or cherry pits can be dropped from the lips into the cupped hand.  Peaches or other very juicy fruits are peeled and then eaten with knife and fork, but dry fruits, such as apples, may be cut and then eaten in the fingers. Never wipe hands that have fruit juice on them on a napkin without first using a finger bowl, because fruit juices make indelible stains.