Gilded Age Elevated Simple Celery

Anytime I find an old patented item in patent archives, which has something to do with food, dining, or serving foods, I get excited. Especially if it’s something I’ve never seen brought to life via old Antiques listed online or in shops. This is one. I don’t believe I’ve seen before. I don’t think it was made or put into production of any kind.

This one is from the Gilded Age and the Gilded Age was a period in which some of today’s simplest sounding foods, could be considered exotic or very important to one’s dining peers. Celery was one such food. That is because celery was perishable, meaning only the truly wealthy could have it at a variety of times in the year they could afford to preserve it in ice and any other manner that was modern in the late 1800s. The poor and lower classes could not afford such a luxury item.

As I’ve shown before in posts here, Celery was rather special. It was elevated at the table in special receptacles, called celery vases. We think of vases as being for holding flowers or purely decorative. Hostesses in the late 19 century displayed celery in them. The simple green stalks with leaves had their own fabulous vessels at the table? Of course! How else was a host supposed to show them off? 

Celery vases came in silver, plate, and sterling, crystal and even delicate china. What was paired with celery stalks? Salt. Another food which most modern dinner guests consider a very humble addition to the table, with no knowledge of how important salt has been throughout history, and to life itself. Below is a portion of an article A Glimpse of Victorian, Middle-Class Dining from 2021. Below that is an explanation of the patented vase and salt holder.

“The impact of new technologies-such as in food processing, meatpacking, refrigeration and rapid transportation-and their relation to food, menu planning and serving implements was also explored. As more foods became available, their status was often reflected by the utensils designed for their service and display. If you look at the implements, you can make some assumptions about the value people placed on certain types of foods.

A blown and engraved footed glass vase for serving celery for example, and a glass and silverplate sardine box and sterling silver sardine server decorated with fish motifs, gives an indication of the regard held for foods now common place, that were once considered rare and unique. “When celery was a high status food, it was displayed high on the table; as it became widely available, it was relegated to low, flat dishes.” Ms. Williams said.

Similarly, a silver-plate cup on a pivotal base was designed with a spiral hook inside, on which an orange could be twisted and firmly held in place as it was rotated, and then eaten with a special knife and spoon. The objects in the show were selected to illustrate a range of styles from simple to ornate. One interesting thing about the exhibition was that it took an object and then showed how elaborate its presentation might have been. Sterling silver and cut glass were used by the upper class while items in pressed glass and silver-plate were used by the middle-class. — Portions of this are from an article published in the New York Times, April 3, 1988

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

FRANK C. WINSHIP, OF BRIDGEPORT, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO LA BELLE GLASS COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE

DESIGN FOR COMBINED GLASS VESSELS

Specific invention forming part of Design No. 10,954, dated December 10, 1878; application filed November 22, 1878.  [Term of patent 37 years.] 

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK C. WINSHIP, of Bridgeport, in the county of Belmont and State of Ohio, have invented a new Design for Combined Glass Vessel; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which—

Figure 1 is a perspective view, and Fig. 2 a bottom plan. Similar letters of reference in the several figures denote the same parts.
The vessel for which my design is specially adapted is a combination of a small “individual" salt-holder with a larger holder adapted to contain celery, or to hold a napkin, or, by reducing its size, to be used as an egg-glass, or for other similar table use; and my design consists in the arrangement of an elongated flat bar, e, with an upwardly-projecting annular flange, constituting the salt-holder, and by an upwardly-projecting stem supporting a bowl or goblet shaped vessel, constituting the celery holder, or its equivalent, said salt-holder and celery-holder being independent of each other, except as connected by the base-plate. This necessarily gives the whole combination a peculiar configuration, which is the subject of this invention, independently of any particular ornamentation of the combined vessel.

In the drawings, B is the base; S, the salt-holder, and C the celery-holder, arranged as above described. The edges of the base may be fluted, as shown at a, and the sides of the salt-holder may be fluted as shown at e. mm are crossed marks or indentations on the under side of the base, that show through it and add to the beauty of the device.

I claim as my invention- The design for a combined vessel for table use, herein described, consisting, essentially, in the elongated flat glass base-plate B, supporting the annular salt-vesselS, and the stem and bowl C, arranged with relation to each other in the form substantially as described.

FRANK C. WINSHIP.

Witnesses:
J. A. HARRIS, 

T. C. ROWLES

Contributor Maura Graber has been teaching etiquette to children, teens and adults, and training new etiquette instructors, since 1990, as founder and director of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette.  She is also a writer, has been featured in countless newspapers, magazines and television shows and was an on-air contributor to PBS in Southern California for 15 years. Along with teaching etiquette to all ages and giving talks on old flatware, she was an etiquette consultant for 2 seasons of the HBO – Julian Fellowes’ series, “The Gilded Age” and continues to consult on historical dining and social etiquette.

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Gilded Age Finger Foods

Saratoga Chips or ‘chipped potatoes’ were a favorite dish in the gilded age. Shown above is a gilded and sterling Saratoga Chip server” in the Hope” pattern by Mount Vernon Silver, circa 1899“Chipped potatoes are generally eaten with the fingers by epicures. There must be no particle of fat adhering to the chipped potatoes and they must be crisp.” —Delineator, 1903

Finger Food Etiquette is Particular 

There are a number of things that the most- fastidious and well-behaved persons now eat at the dinner table without the aid of either knife, fork or spoon. The following are a few examples:

• Olives, to which a fork should never be applied. whether hot or cold, when served whole, as it should be. 
• Lettuce, which should be dipped in the dressing or a little salt. 
• Celery, which may properly be placed on the tablecloth beside the plate. 
• Strawberries, when served with the stems on, as they usually are. 
• Bread, toast, tarts, small cakes, etc… 
• Fruits of all kinds, except preserves and melons, which are eaten with a spoon. 
• Cheese, which is almost invariably eaten with the fingers by the most particular. 
• Either the leg or small pieces of a bird. 
• Ladies at most of the fashionable lunches pick small pieces of chicken without using knife and fork.
• Chipped potatoes are generally eaten with the fingers by epicures. There must be no particle of fat adhering to the chipped potatoes and they must be crisp.—The Delineator, 1903

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

Learn Manners No One Criticizes

Don’t laugh because Dot stuffs iced cake into her mouth with her fingers. She's to be pitied!

Learn Table Manners No One Can Criticize

Don't laugh at Dot– the girl who stuffs iced cake into her mouth with her fingers. She's to be pitied. For, until she learns better manners, the people she longs to know will just ignore her. What hostess wants to take a chance on a girl who doesn't know layer cake should be eaten with a fork even at simple buffet parties?

If you invited her to dinner she’d probably drink her soup from the tip instead of from the side of her spoon. She'd put the salt for her celery on the table-cloth instead of on her plate. As for tricky foods! Dot would never know that you eat artichokes by pulling off a leaf at a time. And canapés would bewilder her! It's so easy to be correct once you know.– Santa Ana Journal, 1937

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

Bad Table Etiquette Cuts Off Friendships

  

Firmly, Nancy places a large piece of bread on the table cloth, plasters it thick with butter.

They wont dine out again! 

Bob stares at Nancy’s hands in fascinated horror. Firmly she places a large piece of bread on the table cloth, plasters it thick with butter. Then she lifts the whole piece to her mouth, leaves teeth marks in its buttery surface whenever she takes a bite. Surely Nancy knows that the only correct way to eat bread is to break off and butter a small piece at a time, just enough for a mouthful. 

Careless table manners —so easy to avoid —offend others most. Are YOU ever guilty of: 

• Pouring salt for celery or radishes on table cloth instead of plate?

• Dropping olive pits into ash trays? 

• Hanging knife and fork off edge of dinner plate so they tumble onto table when plate is removed?

            –The Santa Ana Journal, Home Service, 1937

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

Food and Etiquette in the Gilded Age

“A silver-plate cup on a pivotal base was designed with a spiral hook inside, on which an orange could be twisted and firmly held in place as it was rotated, and then eaten with a special knife and spoon. The objects in the show were selected to illustrate a range of styles from simple to ornate. One interesting thing about the exhibition was that it took an object and then showed how elaborate its presentation might have been. Sterling silver and cut glass were used by the upper class while items in pressed glass and silver-plate were used by the middle-class.”
— Photo source Etiquipedia private library 

A Glimpse of Victorian, Middle-Class Dining

In 1873, “The New Cyclopaedia of Domestic Economy and Practical Housekeeper,” a book “adapted to all classes of society,” recommended that a household's inventory of table linen should include three dozen napkins, two-and-a-half-dozen tablecloths of various sizes, six servants’ tablecloths, three dozen towels, six round towels, two dozen napkins “for fish, vegetables and fruit,” six pudding cloths, two dozen damask “d'oylies” and one dozen Berlin wool “d'oylies.”

The list of household necessities was part of “Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America, 1850 to 1900,” an exhibition that was held at the Hudson River museum in 1988, that offered a view of middle-class dining during the second half of the 19th century.

“By the 1850s, the middle-class was rising in numbers, wealth and power and with that came a whole new birth of people with the ability to entertain and to buy more elaborate things,” said Robert Workman, then the curator of 19th century art at the Hudson River Museum. The exhibition showed the whole process of eating and the kind of objects that were used to point out the elaborateness of the ritual.

The exhibition of more than 200 items covered a variety of themes beginning with the rules of etiquette, its importance to the middle-class and how, in response to these rules, different objects for dining and serving evolved. “The Correct Thing in Good Society” an etiquette book published in Boston in 1888, states for example, that “It is the Correct Thing” to “place miniature, ornamental pepper pots, usually of silver, at the four corners of the table, or at each place. While it is not the Correct Thing to place a plate of bread on the table for dinner.”

“Etiquette was very important to middle-class America as a way of anchoring themselves in middle-class society. They needed codes of behavior to know how to behave in all social situations and etiquette provided a sort of reassuring framework.” according to Susan Williams, then curator of Household Accessories and Tablewares at the Strong Museum.

“The impact of new technologies-such as in food processing, meatpacking, refrigeration and rapid transportation-and their relation to food, menu planning and serving implements was also explored. As more foods became available, their status was often reflected by the utensils designed for their service and display. If you look at the implements, you can make some assumptions about the value people placed on certain types of foods.

A blown and engraved footed glass vase for serving celery for example, and a glass and silverplate sardine box and sterling silver sardine server decorated with fish motifs, gives an indication of the regard held for foods now common place, that were once considered rare and unique. “When celery was a high status food, it was displayed high on the table; as it became widely available, it was relegated to low, flat dishes.” Ms. Williams said.

Similarly, a silver-plate cup on a pivotal base was designed with a spiral hook inside, on which an orange could be twisted and firmly held in place as it was rotated, and then eaten with a special knife and spoon. The objects in the show were selected to illustrate a range of styles from simple to ornate. One interesting thing about the exhibition was that it took an object and then showed how elaborate its presentation might have been. Sterling silver and cut glass were used by the upper class while items in pressed glass and silver-plate were used by the middle-class.  — Portions of this are from an article published in the New York Times, April 3, 1988

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

Gilded Age Finger Foods

 

For olives, the forks, spears and spoons are for serving only.

There are a number of things that the most fashionable and well-bred people now eat at dinner table with their fingers. They are: 

• Olives, to which a fork should never be applied. 
• Asparagus, whether hot or cold, when served whole, as it should be. 
• Lettuce, which should be dipped in the dressing or in a little salt. 
• Celery, which may properly be placed on the table-cloth beside the plate. 
• Strawberries when served with the stems on, as they often are. 
• Bread, toast and all tarts and small cakes. 
• Fruits, of all kinds, except melons and preserves, which are eaten with a spoon. 
• Cheese, which is almost invariably eaten with the fingers by the most particular people. 
• Even the leg or other small piece of a bird is taken in the fingers at fashionable dinners, and at most of the luncheons ladies pick small pieces of chicken without using a fork. — Exchange, 1888

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

19th C. Glass– Etiquette, Beauty, More

A high-status food among middle-class Americans of the mid to late 1800’s, three filled ‘celery vases’ await their turn to be placed on the dining table — “Celery was expensive a century ago, since it was a seasonal vegetable, labor-intensive to grow and perishable... Presented at the table in a special vase, fresh, uncooked celery stalks became a high-status food among middle-class Americans... A ‘refined’ table set with appropriate pieces was within the reach of many households.”
—  Photo, Etiquipedia’s private library

Pressed glass tableware tells stories of etiquette, beauty and ingenuity in Victorian America

About once a month, 20 or so friends gather for a covered-dish buffet at a house in the Washington area. The conversation centers not on politics or current affairs or even the casseroles or desserts they each bring. Instead, the lively discussions focus on the Opalescent Hobnail, Holly Amber or Carnival glass tableware used to serve the goodies.

“We’ll use any excuse to get talking about glass,” says Francis Allen, a collector and president of the National Early American Glass Club. “We talk about the weight and texture of the tableware, along with the manufacturers, designs and rarity of the plates, bowls and other items.”

There are some 1,300 club members in 23 chapters across the country, Allen adds. They include collectors, dealers, museum people, researchers, students, retirees— just about anyone with an interest in glass.

They are in good company. Only coins and stamps are more popular collectibles, according to some experts. Glass collecting covers a wide range— from beer bottles to paperweights--but tableware seems to have captured the enthusiasm of many people.

“Most people drawn to this late 19th-Century pressed glass tableware are attracted by some element of its appearance,” says Sheila Machlis Alexander, the collections manager in the division of ceramics and glass at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History “They may also be attracted to it because it is in some way familiar or perhaps just because it is ‘old,’ ” she says.

The museum features 200 examples of pressed-pattern glass tableware that was mass produced in the United States during the late 19th Century. Among items are a variety of such common tableware as serving plates and platters, bowls and goblets, pitcher and tumbler sets, and celery vases from the museum’s collections.

“By the late 19th Century, we suspect that nearly every household in America possessed some pressed glass tableware because it was inexpensive and plentiful,” Alexander says. “Whether the pressed glass tableware was considered ‘special’ or ‘everyday’ depended on the household and on an item’s purpose and appearance. Many examples have survived and are of great interest both as clues to the culture of late 19th-Century America and as the product of an important U.S. industry.”

Mass production of mechanically pressed glass originated in the United States in the 1820s. The process involved pressing molten glass into metal molds by machine.

From the late 1820s through the 1860s, the developing American pressed glass industry made most of its tableware from expensive lead glass. Most of the pressed glass tableware sold between 1875 and 1900 was made of an improved, non-lead glass, often known as soda-lime glass.

Perfected in 1864 by William Leighton Sr. in Wheeling, W.Va., this formula yielded relatively inexpensive non-lead glass that stood up well to the pressing process. It produced bright, thin, lightweight and serviceable items. The advent of the improved non-lead glass greatly reduced production costs and expanded manufacturing possibilities.

“During the last quarter of the 19th Century,” Alexander says, “customers could choose from naturalistic designs of fruits, flowers or animals, a large variety of abstract geometric patterns, realistic scenes and portraits. Many patterns endured for years, popular with consumers and profitable to produce.”

Identifying patterns and their makers can be a confusing process. “Companies sometimes issued similar patterns,” Alexander explains. “Sometimes a company reissued one of its existing patterns under a new name. And some patterns became known by popular names. Although more than 1,000 patterns have been identified, many remain whose original names or makers are unknown.”

Various pressed glass items often were used in combination with ceramic and metal tableware. Elaborate Victorian dining customs encouraged the use of many dishes and containers. “Affordable pressed glass serving pieces were available in a broad selection of patterns, sizes and quality,” Alexander says. “A ‘refined’ table set with appropriate pieces was within the reach of many households.”

Some items, such as spoon holders, are virtually unknown to most Americans today. So is the celery vase. “Celery was expensive a century ago, since it was a seasonal vegetable, labor-intensive to grow and perishable,” Alexander explains. “Presented at the table in a special vase, fresh, uncooked celery stalks became a high-status food among middle-class Americans.”

Pressed glass tableware, she adds, can tell historians not only about popular taste and etiquette, but it can also provide clues about people’s circumstances and aspirations and can indicate which events and public figures were considered noteworthy a century ago.

“Commemorative patterns often appeared on cups and plates,” Alexander says, “especially bread platters.” Subjects included Jenny Lind, the internationally beloved singer known as the “Swedish Nightingale;” Nellie Bly, who challenged and beat the fictitious speed record set in the Jules Verne novel “Around the World in 80 Days,” and the deaths of Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield.

Interest in ancient civilizations surged with the discovery in the 1800s of various ruins in Europe and the Middle East and with the development of Classical archeology as a field of study. Consequently, Greek, Roman and Egyptian motifs were incorporated in the design of some pressed glass patterns, as well as in other 19th-Century household goods. Japanese motifs were first popularized through various international expositions. All offered a tantalizing hint of the exotic to Victorian America.

By the 1880s, the manufacture of pressed glass had become a big business. “More than 200 factories produced tablewares for sale in the United States and abroad,” Alexander says. “Most were located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Indiana— regions near sources of fuel and raw materials and close to rivers and railroad lines for transportation.”

In their constant competition for consumers, the glass companies produced more matching sets and more patterns featuring a greater use of color. Surface treatments were added as well, such as frosting, staining, accenting with gilt and the application of etched decorative motifs. By 1890, marketing strategies led to the introduction of at least one new pattern each spring and fall.

The 1890s was a period of great upheaval for the pressed glass industry. “Increasing automation, the depression of 1893, labor problems and dwindling supplies of natural gas forced many factories to close,” Alexander says. “To survive, a number of companies entered into combines.” The United States Glass Co., the most successful of the glass manufacturing combines, was established in 1891. In one year, 18 companies joined, with more to follow. While changing dramatically over the years, the combine survived until 1963.

“During the first half of the 20th Century, the colorful Carnival glass and Depression glass comprised a sizable portion of the tablewares pressed,” Alexander says. “Though overall production of pressed glass continued to decline in the United States, many new patterns and some late 19th-Century reproductions were introduced.” Today, there are still a few U.S. factories making pressed glass.

Collectors look for all kinds of pressed glass--in whatever area may strike their fancy. “Some may collect all the pieces of a certain pattern, or the same piece, such as a toothpick holder, from a number of patterns,” Francis Allen says. “Some collectors concentrate on just one color or one manufacturer.”

Despite wars, natural calamities and breakage, he adds, there is still plenty of pressed glass out there. And Allen agrees with Alexander’s assessment that glass has a nostalgic appeal: “An era may come and go, but the glass remains.” — By Vickie Moeser,  Smithsonian News Service, 1992

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Table Etiquette of 1899

Mary Barr Munroe was a Miami pioneer who contributed much to the community life of Coconut Grove. Mrs. Munroe founded the southern Tropical Audubon Society. As a member of the Florida Federation of Women's Clubs, she was instrumental in the establishment Royal Palm Park (later the Everglades National Park.) Mrs. Munroe also started the Coconut Grove Library in 1895 and taught many children in Coconut Grove how to read. She strongly believed, and proved, that women can make a great difference.

Helpful Hints on the Uses of Knives, Forks, Spoons and Fingers

Those who are very particular, hold the large end of a spear of asparagus with a fork, while with the tip end of a knife they daintily separate the tender green tops from the white end, which is then put aside. Others take the white end between the fingers and carry it to the mouth. Both are correct, but the former is much more dainty and easily done. 

The etiquette of eating a soft boiled egg has been the subject of more than one clever essay. The English custom is to eat it directly from the shell, when of course a small egg cup and egg spoon are necessary. The American way is to break the egg into a cup or glass by striking the egg in the center and turning the contents into the glass. In this case it is usually eaten with a teaspoon, as an egg spoon, unless extra large, would be too small, and we have seen the egg held by a corner of the napkin, but this is not only tiresome but difficult to do nicely without soiling the napkin. 

Celery is always taken from the dish and carried to the mouth by the fingers. If individual salts are not provided, it is etiquette to use one half of the butter plate for salt. If salt shakers are used, hold the celery in the left hand just over the rim of your plate and gently sprinkle it with salt, and the old custom of putting a spoonful of salt on the cloth is still in practice. 

When corn is served on the cob it must be taken in the fingers, only managed very daintily. We have seen pretty little doylies for the purpose of holding it, but it is a question if that is not carrying table linen too far. Many housekeepers, and especially in the south, serve corn as a separate course, when finger bowls are placed by each plate and removed with the course. 

Lettuce when served without dressing is always pulled to pieces with the fingers. This is usually the lady’s duty and there is no prettier picture than that of a young lady preparing a plate of fiesh, crisp lettuce leaves in this way, for the tender green shows off to perfection her dainty white hands and she may be as exquisitely neat about it as she likes, and it is one of the most fascinating and becoming of table duties that a hostess can possibly provide for her lady guests, to assist in helping the gentlemen at a social or informal meal. 

Watercress is also taken in the fingers and the prettiest way of serving it is to obtain a long low sided basket or dish, in the bottom of which lay a folded napkin, then heap the cress so as to fill the basket and you have not only an enjoyable, but a very ornamental dish for the breakfast table. 

When a slice of lemon is served with fish or meat it is much more correct to take the slice in the fingers, double the ends together and gently squeeze the juice over the article than to use a knife for that purpose, as is sometimes done. It is always proper to help one's self to bread, cheese and lump sugar, if tongs arc not provided, with the fingers. 

Never use your own knife, fork or spoon to take from the dish. It is also correct if a plate of hot, unbroken biscuits is passed, to not only break off for yourself with your fingers, but for your neighbor also. When things are passed, help yourself as quickly as possible, for you must not keep others waiting and never insist on some one else being served before you, if the host or hostess has honored you first. —Mary Barr Munroe in Good Housekeeping, 1899

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

Etiquette and the Unfamiliar

It's sad, but true; People will judge you by how you stand, walk, talk and evidently, how you eat your celery or oysters. So it is good to learn all the etiquette and manners one can, in preparation of social success.

The prettiest face in Christendom will not counteract glaring signs of ill-breeding. I can call to mind a perfect specimen of young womanhood who came from the heather fields of Scotland to a city famed for its culture; She was a joy to the eye, healthy, sweet, young and gifted with that greatest of all blessings — style. As you might imagine, masculine attention awaited her at every turn, and among her admirers was a wealthy bachelor, who gave a dinner in her honor. 

The girl had one other gift that I forgot to mention — she talked very little, and was thus able to hide many deficiencies in education. Her great beauty would cover up minor faults, naturally. To the dinner, over which I would not dare say how much time and thought had been poured by the host, went this girl and her married sister. It was perfect in every detail and the guest of honor did it credit by her irreproachable toilet. 

Amongst other good things out of season was celery, which, when passed to the young woman, was accepted as a matter of course, although she had never seen a piece until that evening. She calmly ate the leaves and discarded the succulent stalks, while her host was simply helpless from amazement. 

He ate little or nothing, was uncommonly silent all through the meal, and ended his attentions when he deposited the girl and her chaperon at the outer door of their home. She wondered at the falling off, but never knew the reason— that she had cured him of his infatuation by a bad break which, everybody noticed.

Look for etiquette clues and cues from others who are socially welcome everywhere. You'll find that grooming before dinner, away from the table, makes a much better impression on others. As does watching how hosts and hostesses use their dinglehoppers.

Two years later I met her again, still healthy and pretty, still stylish, but with a tinge of coarseness in her manner which savored of companionship somewhat lower in the social scale. She had drifted downward simply because she did not possess tact enough to make the most of her advantages, and had grown bitter with the change. You see, she was not the least bit clever, despite her ambition. She could not adapt herself to circumstances — those in which a kind fate had placed her. 

She ought to have avoided strange food, like celery, until she had learned something of it: she should have been able to assume good manners by imitating those near her. Lack of this kind of cleverness deprived her of worldly advantages to which her stock of good looks entitled her, yet she did not seem to be able to avoid the vulgarity which is now her portion. 

In contrast to this, I can cite the case of another girl to whom nature had been unkind. She had not a single personal charm outside of small and delicately formed hands and feet, both of which were made much of, by the way. As compensation for her ugliness she was given a brain which landed her at the top of the line of fortune's favorites, and she is now enjoying the fruits of it. I do not think more than one story will be necessary to give an idea of her nature. 

She was dining with a number of state dignitaries who were being entertained on shipboard. It was a brilliant occasion, and the opening course of the elaborate dinner was the usual plate of oysters. She took one and suddenly realized that it was not all it should be. Just then a prominent man at her right turned toward her with a remark which called for an answer, and all hope of getting rid of the oyster except by way of the throat was gone. It required some will power to avoid a breach in good manners, but it saved her from something far more unpleasant than the flavor of a bad oyster— the sacrifice of a position she was striving to hold against heavy odds. 

It was by just such means that she realized her ambitions and became an honored member of society, not the little circle of 400 or so fashionable and wealthy folk, but the big, big world of refined men and women. By tact she won, by tact she will retain her hold upon the world. –By Mrs. Martha Taft Wentworth, in San Francisco Call, 1901

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