Not So Revolutionary Etiquette

Rules of etiquette change from generation to generation, and this is particularly true of table manners. – Image source, Pinterest.
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What unusual rules of table etiquette prevailed during the early years of our nation's history?

Rules of etiquette change from generation to generation, and this is particularly true of table manners. This writer well remembers when the toothpick holder had a regular place on the table and after the desserts were finished, the final part of the meal hour was the passing of the toothpicks.

In perusing the hundreds of publications on the life and time of George Washington, in the Huntington Library, this writer ran across a little book entitled, “Rules of Civility.” Evidently this book was of *French origin and had been translated into English, and during the youthful days of Washington a copy of it fell into his hands. 

Clearly this book intrigued the youth, for he copied the 110 rules into a neatly kept copy book. Selected from these rules are unusual ones pertaining to table manners. Doubtless Washington practiced these rules while at table.

1-“Being set at meat, do not scratch, cough, or blow your nose, except there’s necessity for it.

2-Take no salt or cut your bread with a greasy knife.

3-If you soak bread in the sauce, let it be no more than you can put in your mouth at a time; blow not your broth at table, stay until it cools itself.

4-Put not your meat to your mouth with your knife in your hand, neither spit forth any stones of any fruit pye upon a dish, nor cast anything under the table.

5-Put not another bite into your mouth until the former is swallowed; let not your morsels be too big for the jowls.

6-Cleanse not your teeth with the table cloth, napkin, fork or knife, but if others do it, let it be done with a toothpick.

7-Kill no vermin as fleas, ticks, lice, etc..., at table in sight of others.

8-Drink not too leisurely nor yet too hasty. Before and after drinking wipe your lips, breathe not then or ever with too great a noise.”

Table manners have evidently changed somewhat since the time of George Washington, but even in our enlightened days we occasionally find those who inhale their soup and dunk their toast. (By the way, this writer still persists in this latter habit when unobserved by his wife.) – By Guy Allison, 1949

*The book, “Rules of Civility” was not French. It was written by the Dutch scholar, Erasmus 

 

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