Knife Etiquette is Contrary to Mission

“I have seen, I say, the Hereditary Princess of Potzausend - Donnerwetter (that serenely beautiful woman), use her knife in lieu of a fork or spoon; I have seen her almost swallow it, by Jove! Like Ramon Samee, the Indian juggler. And I did not blench. Did my estimation of the Princess diminish? No, lovely Amelia! It is not snobbish of persons of rank or of any other nation to employ their knives in the manner alluded to.” 

The Table Knife’s Mission... 

or 

First Aid to Hungry Men

After recounting his sad estrangement from Mrs. Marrowfat, following the “atrocious’’ consumption of a dish of peas with his knife, the great historian of the snobs goes on to explain as follows, that snobbery is a purely relative thing that, in short, what is beastly bad manners in a mere English gentleman is quite proper, not to say commendable, in persons of rank and riches, particularly of other nationalities: 

“I have seen, I say, the Hereditary Princess of Potzausend - Donnerwetter (that serenely beautiful woman), use her knife in lieu of a fork or spoon; I have seen her almost swallow it, by Jove! Like Ramon Samee, the Indian juggler. And I did not blench. Did my estimation of the Princess diminish? No, lovely Amelia! It is not snobbish of persons of rank or of any other nation to employ their knives in the manner alluded to.” 

The recalling of this dramatic episode in the history of table manners is suggested by the crusade started by a metropolitan paper of the Effete East in favor of a return to knife-eating. The practice is, it declares, harmless; shows personal bravery and steadiness of hand; gives the onlooker a saluibrious thrill, and offends no one but the “social purist.” Wherefore, then, should it be condemned; and banished from the table of the well-to-do? 

Obviously there is no reason for the rule now, but custom and habit born of an empiric mandate laid down by some past archon of the table. It may have arisen in days when but one knife was provided for each diner, and this was dipped, as occasion demanded, in the single butter plate at the center of the table. Under such conditions, there was something to be said from a sanitary point of view against using one’s knife as a shovel. 

But nowadays, when a separate set of tools is provided for every particular gustatory operation; when the soup, fish, meats, vegetables, salads, pie, and other edibles are ladled, spitted and anatomized by a case of instruments almost as varied and numerous as those used by a surgeon in short, the tools of individual feeding not only never touch the food consumed by others, but are carefully kept from contact with the preceding and succeeding courses, the taboo on knife eating seems absurd. It appears to us that individual preference and convenience should be allowed to determine the question. 

Persons dexterous enough safely to eat with their knives and finding this method of loading more expeditious than that prescribed by custom, should be at liberty to do so without any implication of vulgarity or ill-breeding. The question is one of expedience and convenience—nothing more. Most of us have seen knife eating in all its unique processes in the restaurants about town, and while most of us have always tried to adhere to the correct table manners our mothers so carefully taught us, really it is a source of no little interest and amusement to watch some industrious individual at the other table over yonder shamelessly working away with his knife, while the fork rests idly in the other hand. However, let that individual always be seen over yonder at the other table.— Sacramento Union, 1908

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia