Soup in a Mustachioed Gilded Age

“It seems from these extracts to be the rule of highly-cultured nations, that no one should speak while he is eating soup, and, considering the modern mustache, it may be a very appropriate police regulation.” — Three “Mustache Spoon” designs from the Gilded Age for eating soup, including one for left-handed dining. Many of these spoons were also occasionally marketed as “Noiseless Soup Spoons.” During the period there was great focus on silently keeping a gentleman’s mustache free of foods and liquids. 

—Photo source Etiquipedia’s private library 

There are some dinner rules in high fashion we may not all know. For instance, in the new novel, “Aristocracy,” this passage occurs: “‘I dare say you'll find England very different from America, Mr Allen,’ Lady Oaktorrington (pronounced ottor) says after the removal of the soup, during which course not a word had been spoken at table.” 

And how it is in France one may gather from Guy de Maupassant’s novel, “Belami,” in which this occurs: “The servant announced: ‘Madame is served.’ then they adjourned to the dining room. Duray found himself seated between Mme. de Marelle and her daughter. *** No one spoke while eating the soup.” This looks like it is by design. 

It seems from these extracts to be the rule of highly-cultured nations, that no one should speak while he is eating soup, and, considering the modern mustache, it may be a very appropriate police regulation. But we must not too quickly jump at conclusions. We all know that sometimes at American dinner parties, in the matter of early conversation, one finds himself, as it were, silently “in the soup.” - Louisville Courier Journal, 1890

Patented “Mustache Holders” and lifters of the era were also sold to those who worried about appearances while dining. As popular as mustaches were at the time, the mustache spoons, along with cups and other mustache-themed items sold very well, even if their patented designs looked downright ridiculous when sent to the patent office to great, unintended comic effect. 

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

A Second Look at Japanese Etiquette

A 1990’s, traditional-shaped, Asian-style bowl, suitable for soup, noodles or rice, with the proper Asian etiquette printed inside and outside the bowl. Asian soup etiquette differs greatly from European and American soup etiquette. This article from 1959 quotes a famous Japanese author who chided those who wished to change the tea drinking etiquette and soup etiquette of Japanese newcomers, many of them brides of American military husbands, to America.  “Never to make noise when you have soup,” he argued at the time, was to “force Western etiquette on the Japanese who have been used to noisily slurping soybean soup and tea since childhood.” And girls, he argues, are too easily influenced by books on superficial etiquette. – From a 1959 Shin Nichibei Newspaper article which was originally posted on Etiquipedia in 2019 

 
TOKYO, Jan. 1 — Slurp your soup and prove you are no social sheep. So advises Yukio Mishima, one of Japan’s most popular postwar novelists. “Amidst a quiet first class restaurant,” Mishima admits, “it requires social courage.” The 33-year old author frowns on efforts-to cram Western table manners down Japanese throats. “Never to make noise when you have soup,” he argues, “is to force Western etiquette on the Japanese who have been used to noisily slurping soybean soup and tea since childhood.” And girls, he argues, are too easily influenced by books on superficial etiquette. 

He quotes a confession appearing in a women’s magazine: “The first time I went out with him to dine, my boy friend started sipping soup with the ‘z-z-zhu’ sound as if he were swallowing a bowl of noodles down his throat. Instantly I felt sick physiologically . . . since then I’ve had no affection for him.” Mishima says such confessions usually appear in women’s magazines under special subjects as “Delicacy of Love Psychology.” “This kind of women’s psychology has nothing to do with feminine delicacy but rather with vanity,” he says. “What is elegant is what is decided by the greater numbers of a society.” – Shin Nichibei, 1959

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

Etiquette and Mustache Guards

“To abandon the mustache is almost out of the question. Inasmuch as that appendage is highly ornamental to the masculine visage, making many a homely man good looking and contributing pulchritude even to the most beautiful specimens in pantaloons.” — This patent for a mustache guard by T. Ferry was as applied for in 1900. Several other types are shown below.

Mustache Guards for the Gilded Age

If nature had contemplated soup she would never have provided man with a mustache. That civilized man cannot live without dining is undeniable, and a good dinner is almost necessarily introduced by soup. But the average male human being whose upper lip is unshaven finds it very difficult to eat his potage in a neat and well bred manner.

To abandon the mustache is almost out of the question. Inasmuch as that appendage is highly ornamental to the masculine visage, making many a homely man good looking and contributing pulchritude even to the most beautiful specimens in pantaloons.

The problem has furnished inspiration to a number of inventors, who during the past few years have applied for patents on “mustache guards” of various kinds. All of them are ingenious, and, taken together, they show that a vast amount of earnest thought has been expended in the effort to produce a contrivance that will give happiness to the man with the hirsute lip by enabling him to eat his soup gracefully and comfortably.

Latest of the Inventors in this line is T. Ferry of Wilmington, Del., who only a couple of weeks ago took out a patent on a mustache guard for which one advantage claimed is that it may be “easily carried in the vest pocket.” It is a sort of comb arrangement, and, holding itself in place by a pair of springs at the sides, keeps the hairy ornament up and out of the way of the mouth. — J. A. Moore of Cambridgeport, Mass., 1905

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