Children can also acquire knowledge more easily if it is imparted
to them in the form of verse or easy rhymes, and many valuable
facts about the dinner table can be embodied in children’s
verses. A few of these which I can remember from my own happy
childhood are as follows:
Oh, wouldn’t it be jolly
To be a nice _hors d’œuvre_
And just bring joy to people
Whom fondest you were of.
Soup is eaten with a spoon
But not to any haunting tune.
Oysters live down in the sea
In zones both temp. and torrid,
And when they are good they are very good indeed,
And when they are bad they are horrid.
My papa makes a lovely Bronx
With gin so rare and old,
And two of them will set you right
But four will knock you cold.
The boys with Polly will not frolic
Because she’s eaten too much garlic.
Mama said the other day,
“A little goes a long, long way.”
A wind came up out of the sea
And said, “Those dams are not for me.”
Uncle Frank choked on a bone
From eating shad _au gratin_
Aunt Ethel said it served him right
And went back to her flat in
NEWARK (spoken)
Poor Uncle Frank! (chanted)
I love my little finger bowl
So full of late filet of sole.
Cousin George at lunch one day
Remarked, “That apple looks quite tasty.
Now George a dentist’s bill must pay
Because he was so very hasty.
The proverb’s teachings we must hold
“All that glitters is not gold.”
And mama said to George, “Oh, shoot,
You’ve gone and ruined my glass fruit.”
Jim broke bread into his soup,
Jim knocked Mrs. Vanderbilt for a loop.
Kate drank from her finger bowl,
Kate knocked Mrs. Vanderbilt for a goal.
Children who perform such tricks
Are socially in Class G-6.