Domestic.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 87, 9 March 1876, Page 3

Domestic.

TABLE CUSTOMS.

While certain forms of table etiquette may seem altogether conventional, even fantastic, the torms usually observed are founded on good sense and adapted to general convenience. Table etiquette is not, as is often alleged, merely a matter of fashion, although some things that were in vogue a generation or two ago are no longer deemed polite. The reason is that manners and furniture have undergone so many changes — have really so much improved — as to require a mutual readjustment. For example everybody was accustomed, twenty or thirty years since, to use the knife to carry the food to the mouth, because the fork of the day was not adapted for the purpose. Since the introduction af the four-tined silver fork, it has so entirely supplanted the knife that the use of the latter in that way is not only superfluous, but is regarded as a vulgarism. Another example is the discontinuance of the custom of turning tea or coffee from the cup into the saucer. Although small plates were frequently employed to. set the cup in, they were not at all general use ; and even when they were used, the tea or cofiee was likely to be spilled on the cloth. The habit likewise of putting one's knife into the butter arose from the fact that the butter knife proper had not been thought of. Such customs as these, once necessitated by circumstances, are now obviously inappropriate,

Certain habits, however, are regulated by good taste and delicacy of feeling, and a failure to adopt them argues a lack of fine perception or social insight. One of these is eating and drinking audibly. ;= . No sensitive person can hear anyone taking his soup, coffee, or other liquid without positive annoyance. Yet those who would be very unwilling to consider themselves illbred are constantly guilty of such breaches of politeness.. The defect is that they are not so sensitive as those with whom they come in contact. They would not be disturbed by the offence ; they never imagine, therefore that anyone else can be. It is for them that rules of etiquette are particularly designed. Were their instinct correct they would not need the rule, which from the absence of instinct, appears to them irrational, merely arbitrary.

To rest one's elbow on the table is more than a transgression of courtesy ; it is an absolute inconvenience to one's neighbors. All awkwardness of position, such as sitting too far back from or leaning over the table, are reckoned as ru.dnesses, because they put others ill at ease through fear of such accidents as are- liable to happen from any uncbutlmess.

These and kindred matters are trifles; but social life is so largely composed of trifles that to disregard them wliolly is serious affront. We can hardly realise to what extent our satisfaction dissatisfaction is made up of things in themselves insignificant, until their observance or non-observance is brought directly home to us.

To Prevent the Hair Coming OFF . — A correspondent writes to a home paper : — Take ' bullock's marrow (shank-bone) render while warm, add strong rum as much as the marrow will take so as to form a pomade. Use at once, and continue as long as necessary, but the second or third application in all probability will be sufficient. Do not shave the head, My own hair used to come of so freely that it became quito thin, and so weak that I could pull out a tuft without feeling it — when a lady friend told me of the above pomade. The second dressing was sufficient, although I continued it longer. Moreover, it is quite unnecessary to shave the head ; I only had mine dressed in the ordinary way. Hoarseness. — Whoever will try honey and alum — a small portion of each — will find the best known remedy for hoarseness. Smell oi? Paint.— To g*et rid of the smell of oil paint, put a handful of hay into a pailful of water, and let it stand in the room newly painted. Glue for Ready Use.— To any quantity of glue, use common whiskey instead of water. Put both together in a bottle, cork tight, and set it away for three or four days. It will be then fit for use. Ego- Toast.— Cut your dry bread into thin slices and dip in cold water ; then in beaten- egg (in which a little ' salt has been sprinkled)" and fry in hot j butter or drippings. Two- eggs will be J sufficient. y To "Prevent Tin "Rusting.— Rub fresh lard over every part of the dish, ; and then put it in a hot oven and heat it thoroughly. . Thus treated, any tinware may be used constantly, and remain bright and freb from rust indefinitely. There is an instance redorded at Bordeaux, in 1?72,' of a gentleman who had been married 16 times, A woman, Elizabeth Nase, who died in Florence, iri 1768, had been married 'to ? husbands. . She was at the age of 70 when last led to the hymenial altar, and contrived to survive her beloved. When on her death- bed she recalled "the V|*6bd and bad points bf each of her husbands; and having weighed in her mincl ythe j pros and cons, she determined the fifth claimed the highest merit, and ordered that her grave be with his.