While individual manners at the table require a kind consideration for the rights and feelings of others which marks the true gentleman, there are details of behavior which deserve mention.

Raw oysters must be eaten with a fork. Soup should be sipped from the side of the spoon and without noise. A soup plate should never be tilted for the last spoonful, and it should not be called for a second time. Fish should be eaten either with the fork, or a fish-knife. Salads, cheese, pastry, and everything that can be cut or broken without a knife should be eaten with a fork. A knife should never be put into the mouth during a meal. Bread should be broken, never cut at the table. Turkey, chicken, and game are cut up, never picked with the fingers, unless in the indulgence of a family dinner, when the bone may be held in one hand and picked. Salt must be taken on the side of the plate and never upon the table-cloth. The fork conveys food to the mouth and may be used in either hand, as most convenient. Food that cannot be handled with a fork should be eaten with a spoon. To help yourself to butter or any food from a common dish, with your own knife or fork, is a gross offense. It is exceedingly impolite to pick the teeth at the table, or in the presence of ladies after a meal. If it is necessary to use a tooth-pick at the table, it is done while the napkin is held over the mouth. Avoid making any sound with the mouth while eating or chewing food.

Eat slowly, both for the sake of health and good manners, and do not take so large a mouthful that you find it difficult or impossible to speak. Do not lean the ellx>ws or lay the hands on the table, or play with knives and forks or glasses, or lounge in, or tilt back, your chair, or take a lounging attitude at the table. When you have finished a course, lay your knife and fork side by side on the plate, which is the signal for their removal. Never dip bread into gravy or preserves.

Refuse fish if you wish, but do not call for it a second time. When soup is passed as the first course, never refuse it, but you need not partake of it unless you wish to. Never apologize to a waiter for asking him for anything; it is his business to serve. Never rebuke a waiter, as that is the business of the host. When dishes are passed by one guest to another, help yourself before offering it to the next, as it makes confusion and delay to do otherwise. Never use the napkin to wipe your face or nose. It is for the lips only. Do not scrape your plate, or tilt it up to get the last drop, or wipe it with a piece of bread. Pudding may be eaten with a fork or spoon as is most convenient. Ices require a spoon.

It is rude to monopolize the conversation at the table, or to talk or laugh loud. Boisterous conduct is particularly ill-mannered at the table. If a special delicacy has been prepared by the hostess for the dinner, which a guest does not care for, or which his health will not permit him to eat, he may take a portion of it on his plate and eat as much or as little of it as he pleases. To refuse it might be to injure the feelings of your hostess. It is not regarded in good taste to say much about the food, either in praise or disparagement. If one is obliged to leave the table before a meal is finished, he should ask the hostess to excuse him. Bread should be held on the plate or near the table, while it is buttered, and it should be broken, and not bitten into. The general rule is that nothing should be bitten at the table.

One should not sit too near the table, nor too far from it, nor drum with his fingers, nor make diagrams with his knife and fork, nor twirl his goblet, nor play with his saltcellar, nor cough, sneeze, or smack his lips, nor put his elbows on the table, nor fidget in his chair, nor blow in his soup to cool it, nor soak up gravy with his bread. If a plate is handed you at table, keep it, unless you are requested to pass it to another. The host knows whom he wishes to serve first. As soon as you receive your plate, you are at liberty to begin eating without waiting until all others are served, as is often done. An apple may be held in the hand while paring, and eaten in small slices cut from the whole fruit, carrying each slice to the mouth on the point of a fruit knife. Never bite into an apple at the table.

In cases where a person is in doubt just what to do, or how to act at table, it would be well to conform to the usage of those around him, for it is almost impossible to give rules or suggest hints to apply to all cases and all circumstances into which a person may be thrown.