1. Help ladies with a due appreciation; do not overload the plate of
any person you serve. Never pour gravy on a plate without permission.
It spoils the meat for some persons.
2. Never put anything by force upon any one's plate. It is extremely
ill-bred, though extremely common, to press one to eat of anything.
3. If at dinner you are requested to help any one to sauce or gravy,
do not pour it over the meat or vegetables, but on one side of them.
Never load down a person's plate with anything.
4. As soon as you are helped, begin to eat, or at least begin to
occupy yourself with what you have before you. Do not wait till your
neighbors are served--a custom that was long ago abandoned.
5. Should you, however, find yourself at a table where they have the
old-fashioned steel forks, eat with your knife, as the others do, and
do not let it be seen that you have any objection to doing so.
6. Bread should be broken. To butter a large piece of bread and then
bite it, as children do, is something the knowing never do.
7. In eating game or poultry do not touch the bones with your fingers.
To take a bone in the fingers for the purpose of picking it, is looked
upon as being very inelegant.
8. Never use your own knife or fork to help another. Use rather the
knife or fork of the person you help.
9. Never send your knife or fork, or either of them, on your plate
when you send for second supply.
10. Never turn your elbows out when you use your knife and fork. Keep
them close to your sides.
11. Whenever you use your fingers to convey anything to your mouth or
to remove anything from the mouth, let it be the fingers of the left
hand.
12. Tea, coffee, chocolate and the like are drank from the cup and
never from the saucer.
13. In masticating your food, keep your mouth shut; otherwise you will
make a noise that will be very offensive to those around you.
14. Don't attempt to talk with a full mouth. One thing at a time is as
much as any man can do well.
15. Should you find a worm or insect in your food, say nothing about
it.