Not So Revolutionary Etiquette

Rules of etiquette change from generation to generation, and this is particularly true of table manners. – Image source, Pinterest.
⭐️🧨⭐️🇺🇸 ⭐️🧨⭐️🇺🇸 ⭐️🧨⭐️🇺🇸 ⭐️🧨⭐️

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 

 

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

The History of Etiquette

As the civilized race now stands, either man or woman can be refined, regardless of shape of hat he or she wears. This was true in any century, but 200 years ago and back of that period a gentleman and lady could, according to approved etiquette, gobble food with their hands from a common dish...

Morality, Ethics and Table Manners 

All Tie in Together to Guide Us 

Etiquette is a form of fashion more important than style in dress, for the reason that the varying codes of manners have influenced morals, something changing the cut of a coat cannot be said to have done. When etiquette demanded that a gentleman accept a challenge or acknowledge himself a coward in the minds of his fellow citizens, it encroached sharply upon ethics. Now that it has gone out of fashion to kill, gentlemen find small difficulty in keeping the sixth commandment. The less formal etiquette becomes, the less wanton taking of life there is among those who consider good breeding of consequence. 

As the civilized race now stands, either man or woman can be refined, regardless of shape of hat he or she wears. This was true in any century, but 200 years ago and back of that period a gentleman and lady could, according to approved etiquette, gobble food with their hands from a common dish set in the center of the dining table and filled with the entire fashionable bill of fare, prepared for the occasion. Gratefully, we now acknowledge such proceedings to be “bad form” and in so doing, pronounce ourselves two centuries removed from the table manners of swine and one point away from that brute, no matter how similar to him our turn of mind may remain in some other respects. — National Magazine, 1901

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