into the water, and wiped
upon the napkin.

Salt should never be put upon the tablecloth, but always on the side
of the plate, unless the individual salts are provided.

Never spit out a prune, peach, or cherry stone.

Never hold food on the fork while you are talking, ready as soon as
you reach a period to be put into your mouth. Having once picked it
up, eat it promptly.

A bit of bread, but nothing else, may be used, if necessary, to help
one put food upon the fork.

If one tastes of something which one does not care to swallow, it may
be removed from the mouth with the closed left hand and placed on the
plate. This should be done silently and with as little attention as
possible.

Never take a chicken or chop bone in the fingers. Cut the meat from
the bone, leaving all that does not readily separate.

Bread and butter plates, with the butter spreader, are always used,
except at formal dinners, when the dinner-roll is laid in the fold of
the napkin.

The knife is used only for cutting, and for spreading butter on bread
in the absence of butter spreaders.

Almost all foods are eaten with the fork, which should always be used
in the right hand with the tines up. It may be held in the left hand,
tines down, when one is cutting, the knife being in the right hand.

The soup spoon is an almost circular and quite deep spoon. Therefore
it is obvious that the soup should be noiselessly sipped from the
side of it. When the oval dessert spoon is used for soup, it is
especially necessary to sip the liquid from the side.

Special spoon-shaped forks are provided for salads, ices, and creams,
but for these spoons may always be substituted.

No hot drink should be poured from the cup into the saucer to cool it.

Toothpicks should not be passed at the table. They may be left on the
sideboard, and if one is needed, it may be requested of the waiter or
taken as you leave the room, but always used in private.

Wherein elderly people do differently from the established ways of
to-day, they are not to be criticised. Manners change even several
times within a generation, and such may be simply following the
customs they were taught. When the three-tined fork was the only one
in common use, the blade of the knife was much more in requisition
than now.

On leaving the table the dishes of the last course should be left
exactly as used, and the napkin left unfolded by the side of the
plate. In case one is at home, or visiti