Finger Bowls No More in Oregon?

The death of finger bowls was predicted very early in the 20th century, as more and more people traveled by rail and fewer people entertained with grand, multi-course meals. The use of finger bowls wouldn’t truly become uncommon until the 1960’s. Sixty years later, they are a welcome surprise at an exceptionally fine dining event. It’s too bad that very few people have the opportunity to use one, or even the knowledge of how to use them properly. 

SALEM, Ore., Feb. 19. (United Press)— The dear old finger bowl, which was to a restaurant waiter what the whisk-broom is to Pullman porter - the reminder that a generous tip is expected - is joining the Oregon elephant in blissful extinction. It is still used to some extent, but it is not so obvious as of yore.

Early in January the State Board of Health in conference assembled put its germ-killing heel down upon the post-prandial ablution. The board gave restaurateurs thirty days in which to store all finger bowls and ordered them never to allow bowls to appear on patrons' tables again.

The bowls spread germs, these guardians of the state's health maintained. Even scalding fails to kill the little fellows that know no union hours but work the clock around.

Because they were detremental to the state's health, particularly he health of those portions of the state which could afford restaurants where the finger bowl was an important adjunct to the cuisine, the bowls were ruled off the boards by the anti-germ campaigners.

Nowadays— in Oregon - upon the completion of a successful meal, one must seek the nearest sanitary drinking fountain and surreptitiously permit the limpid fluid to trickle over the fingertips in cleanly abandon. And then one uses one's handkerchief to do the drying, or waves the hands about in the air much in the manner affected by the young lady in "The Dance of the Fairies."

Some people doubt if the bowl ever will go out completely in Oregon. Some restaurateur may work up a test case, in which event the evidence introduced in court promises to be interesting. — Madeira Tribune, 1923

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

American Naval Finger-Bowl Usage

Nothing dainty like a crystal finger-bowl with a matching under-plate would do for the Navy. No, Sir! In 1947, they needed fluted and pierced finger bowls (with gadroon-mounted borders) in silver-plate of heavy quality. A whopping 38,000 of them!

Fred Othman Says: Evidence Concludes Fact That Admirals Must Be Sloppy Eaters

Washington, May 19 (UP)– Careful study of the evidence forces me to conclude that admirals are sloppy eaters. At breakfast they smear strawberry jam between their fingers. They butter their knuckles at lunch. At dinner they dip their digits in the gravy. This explains the Navy's desperate need for 38,000 fluted and pierced finger bowls (with gadroon-mounted borders) in silver-plate of heavy quality.

The gold-braided gentlemen with the sticky fingers never have learned to dampen same gently. The way they splash in their finger-bowls you'd think they were taking a bath. This is hard on the table linen. So the Navy also has asked for bids on 30,000 gadroon-mounted silver-plated finger-bowl trays to match. 

Rear Admiral W. A. Buck, chief of the Bureau of Operations and Accounts and the old sea-dog in charge of finger-bowls, never did get around to the 8,000 discrepancy between trays and bowls. My guess (only a guess) is that some naval officers splash less than others and don't need trays under their bowls.

Rep. Noble J. Johnson of Ind., brought up the subject of the sailors’ gooey fingers. He was disturbed over reports of the Navy buying finger-bowls from the silverware manufacturers while it was peddling other silver finger-bowls as surplus property. The bluff old admiral, veteran of many a meal at sea, said this was not true, except in part. It takes a good, solid finger-bowl to stand up under attack by an admiral or even an ensign. During the war, the Navy had to accept some ersatz finger-bowls of cheap and flimsy silver-plate, like wedding presents.

It has turned 663 of these battered bowls over to the War Assets Administration, along with 5,376 trays, mostly dented and none with piercing, fluting for gadroon-mounted borders. Admiral Buck wasn't sure what his new finger-laving equipment would cost. Inflation seems to have hit the finger-bowl business. He figured that before the war 38,000 custom-built, finger-bowls would have nicked the Navy for $26,700. The bill for 30,000 trays to match would have been $27,000.

Congressman Johnson, who hails from Terre Haute, where oysters and admirals seldom are seen, was interested also in the Navy's stores of oyster forks. The admiral said he was fresh out of oyster forks, but had put in an order for more. We taxpayers can only hope they arrive by September, which has an "R" in it.

"And how about the 23,000 surplus salt and pepper shakers?" demanded Rep. Johnson. "With the cut glass linings?” “Pressed glass,” snorted the admiral. “Not cut glass.” “And further more,”he said, “the Navy is hanging on to nearly all of them.”

“It has offered only 627 surplus salt and pepper shakers for sale, along with 3,750 gravy ladles, 209 unlined silver-plated mustard pots, 57,775 dessert forks and other cutlery too numerous to mention here.”

“The unlined mustard pots cost $7 each; the gravy ladles $1.03. And I think the admiral, the congressmen and I have answered all pertinent questions as to naval eating habits, except one: What is a gadroon-mounted border on a silver finger-bowl?” 

“It is a rim with bumps on it. Intended to discourage splashing.” –  By Frederick C. Othman United Press Staff Correspondent, 1947

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

South Sea Island Finger-Bowls

The finger bowls of the South Sea are halved coconut shells. They are useful, practically unbreakable and new ones can always be found on the next palm tree. 

— Photo source Etiquipedia private library by Clifford C. Graber

Europeans and Americans did not invent fhe finger-bowl —either in form or in use. They were used in the South Sea Islands, some hundreds of years before Europeans and Americans found out that they were necessary to their own “refinement.” A bowl of water is handed around to every diner in the South Sea home. The South Sea finger-bowl is half a coconut shell, beautiful, useful, practically unbreakable, yet not of sufficient worth to its being thrown away tomorrow and replaced with by a fresh one from the nearest palm tree. —From a Harper’s Weekly article, 1911 

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

Antebellum Gents vs Parlor Snakes

The little book says, “At dinner, where the common household bread is used, it should never be cut less than an inch and a half thick. Rasped rolls are the most proper.” 

Fundamentals Remain the Same, But Strange Modifications Take Place in So-called Polite Behavior

Funny thing, etiquette! Some ways it changes most remarkably from generation; in other respects it remains the same down through the ages. From which one gathers that those points that remain ever the same contain some germ of the universal, while those that change with the seasons have to do with mere fashion. Which observations are stimulated by opening the covers of a little manual, dated 1848, and entitled “Etiquette for Gentlemen.” 

Back in 1848 you could tell a “gentleman” from a mere person. Now-a-days it isn’t so easy. The ante-bellum parlor snake, according to the picture on the cover of the little book, wore highwaisted trousers, with gaiter straps under his boots, a claw-hammer coat, an elaborate neckerchief and a shiny high beaver hat. One of the striking features of the little book, according to these free and easy times, is the chivalric deference assumed toward women. ’Tis said these courtesies were protective coloring for an Oriental attitude toward women, and upon the other hand, this view of the matter has been scouted by many. 

However, the little book says: “If you meet a lady acquaintance in the street, it is her part to notice you first, unless you are very intimate. The reasons are first, she is the superior; if you bow to a lady first, she may not choose to acknowledge you, and there is no remedy; but if she bow to you—you as a gentleman cannot cut her.’’ And again, in re introductions, “The inferior should always be introduced to the superior; the gentleman to the lady.’’ 

In the Ball Room 

Here is a little sentiment that might go well at dances of the present day. Almost any girl will tell you so. “If a lady should excuse herself from dancing when you have asked her, and you should immediately afterward see her dancing with another, do not take any unpleasant notice of it; the probability is that she preferred and expected to dance with someone better known and more highly favored, and not that she had any objection to you!’’ The present day youth gives the poor girl a “nasty look” upon similar occasions and ever afterward refuses to dance with the offending damsel. She has taken unwarranted liberty with the lordly male. 

Another quaint bit of instruction in ball room deportment is this: “If a lady waltz with you, beware not to press her waist; lightly touch it with the open palm of your hand, lest you leave a disagreeable impression, not only on her ceinture, but on her mind.” Times have certainly changed! Here is a style that many of the more juvenile hostesses have found sadly out of date with the lads: “If you have accepted an invitation, do not fail to keep it, unless for the most unavoidable reasons.” 

The Music Room 

“If you intend to sing, do not affect to refuse when asked, but at once accede.” “When a lady is going to the piano, if near her, rise and give her your arm; if you can read music, turn over the leaves for her at the proper time.’’ 

At Dinner 

This is still good, and applicable more times than you’d think: “Always feed yourself with the fork; a knife is only used as a divider. But if one tried this, for instance —! If what you are eating before dessert, has any liquid, sop the bread and then raise it to the mouth. For articles of dessert having liquid, a spoon is usually provided.’’ Noting this use for bread one readily sees why the little book says, “At dinner, where the common household bread is used, it should never be cut less than an inch and a half thick. Rasped rolls are the most proper.” 

Finger bowls were evidently new style and not everybody knew how to use them, hence the following: “Finger-glasses come on with the dessert; wet a corner of your napkin and wipe your mouth; then immerse your fingers in the water and dry them with the napkin—but on no account be guilty of the disgusting practice of gargling your mouth, and ejecting the water into the glass.” This valuable little hand book belonged to John M. French of Keokuk, Iowa., grandfather of E. A. French of the National Bank of Riverside. — Riverside Daily Press, 1922

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

A Healthy 1930 Etiquette Suggestion

While finger bowls, and finger bowl usage, have fallen in and out of fashion over decades and centuries, clean fingers at the dining table have always been fashionable.

Finger Bowls First

Though it is contrary to the book of etiquette, finger bowls ought really to be served at the beginning rather than at the end of a meal. The present practice serves an aesthetic end, the recommended one would serve as a measure of better personal hygiene. But there is nothing very novel in this suggestion. In fact, it is an old idea. The Mosaic law which includes so many good rules for the protection of health, forbids an orthodox believer to touch food before his hands have been washed. 

Keen observation had no doubt impressed the author of those sanitary laws that unclean hands are a source of, and a means of, transmitting disease. Indeed, the observations need not to have been so very keen to appreciate the point, for in the course of an hour the hands come in contact with a vast multitude of things which in themselves had previously been touched by scores if not hundreds of others, and each contact represents a possible source of danger. 

Now the matter is simple and yet! A large number of our schools have lunch rooms for their pupils, or cafeteria services, where those that cannot, or will not go home for their midday meal, may eat. How many among these schools provide washing facilities? How many shops, factories, or offices have a place where the workers might wash their hands before eating, without having to stand in line for half the lunch period? And also how many parents insist upon having their children come to the dinner table with hands freshly washed? 

Consider the care we bestow upon our foods, how we protect our milk, our meat and our water from contamination and pollution, and then consider how all of the precautions bestowed upon our food substances turn to naught by the soiled hands that transport the victuals from table to mouth. – Edited by Dr. lago Galdston for the N. Y. Academy of Medicine, 1930

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