FORKS AT TABLE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 7 March 1925, Page 13

FORKS AT TABLE.

ONLY 300 YEARS OLD. PRESENT-DAY INTRICACIES. There was a time of happy history when no lorKs were made, Everybody ate, quite- simply, with his fingers. The fastidious used napkins and finger bowls. The unfastidious used otner means wlncii tJiey considered less annoying. It is possible that if we had seen some of our revered ancestors at table we should be less interested in genealogy (.observes- an American writer). Table manners were really invented with the coming of forks—modern table manners, that is. Without the invention, it would stilj lie the tiling to balance one’s edibles on the bJaae ot one’s knife, or even to dispense with that more or less artificial conveyance and use nature’s own method ol direct action.

Ail that is changed, however. One must use a fork. One must do more than that. One must use forks. The question is now, which fork, A candidate for the position oi : governess in a Boston family received the information recently that it was more important for her to know her forks than to know Latin. It was in fact, a sine qua. non .tor the job. Her inquisitor was surprised to mid that she had not learned it in college. THE FOUR HUNDRED AMONG’ FORKS. Alphabetically, the list of them runs something like this: asparagus, beef, berry, cord meat, dessert, dinner, fisfi, ice cream, lemon, lettuce, onve, oyster, cocktail, pastry, pickie, ramekin, samd, sandwicn or baited potato, sarame serving.

So tar, there is no fork to accompany and dignify the serving ot soup, but no doubt some day soup lorks will appear as a novelty for the holiday trade. Meantime there are rumours afloat of the introduction of a fork for the manipulation of frogs’ legs, although they iiave not yet arrived in the conservative shops. Three of the forks listed above are fairly common at format dinners, and are the most confusing of the lot, for they are nearly alike, so nearly alike that in many families they are used interchangeably. These are the fish, salad, and pastry forks. The'fish fork has lour broa«, flat tines, with one of the outer ones differently pointed from the other three.. The salad fork is the same, except that it is smaller. The pastry fork is like the salad fork, only it lacks < the odd point on the fourth tine. These variations are not universal, however, for makers differ in their ideas on the subject; some even make a three-tined pastry fork, and a fork- which, does for both fish and salad.

At table, of course, one is much aided by the tactful method now in use of setting the flatware so that even an over-bookish collegian may find her way by following her forks platewards, course by course. Pish, meat, salad forks are placed consecutively, while forks for entree and dessert are brought in with their respective dishes.. POPULARITY SLOWLY ACHIEVED.

A few years ago the strawberry fork was hailed with much scornful laughter by the funny papers, which thought it was something new. As a matter of fact, however, one of the first forks in history was owned: by Charles V ol France, in the middle ot the fourteenth century, and used for strawberries' ana for eating .pears. He had a whole dozen of them made, their handles incrusted with gems. Several centuries before this, about the year 1000 A.D., the wife of a doge of Venice hau thrown the city into an uproar by her extravagant ways—she had been* seen to use a. small gold two-tined fork to eat with instead of her fingers. Prior to these courageous pioneers, persons of unusual delicacy had been hard put to it. Pithyllus the Dainty, for instance, was a person who likeu things . just right. Hot food he liked hot. But how might! he convey it to his month without burning his fingers r Not having a fork he was forced to use gloves. Forks began to appear in England about 300 years ago. It seems to have been subsequent to Shakespeare, who never mentions them in his plays, am. of course Queen Elizabeth could noi have heard of them. The innovation of a pronged tool was not regardet. favourably when it arrived. . It was not. a thing you took to naturally'; it required testing. As Ben Jonson, win outlived Shakespeare by 21 years, advised in one of his plays—•• Then you must learn the use and' handling o your silver fork at meals.”

Another author, however, when he wrote, “We need no little forks t< make hay with our mouths, to throw the meat into them,’’ expressed the popular opinion. Travellers, however, who had been across the channel to France, or had ventured even to far-away Italy, brought home news of the new table implement, and forthwith it began to appear in. England, in polite .society. The value of forks once established, they slowly made their way into more general use. Old silver' platters! and urns were melted up and made over into these new and popular implements. Few families had more than enough of them for one course, and it was either a matter “Keep your forks” 01 of waiting till they were washed for the next appearance. FOR THE BRIDE OF TO-DAY.

The first table fork in America arrived in 1633, and its tercentennial should surely he observed when the time comes. It was sent over to Governor Winthrop with a diplomatic message. The donor wrote, “1 am sending a knift or bodekvn and a forke, the useful application of which I leave to your discretion.” What the future of the fork will be no one can tell. Probably the ciiinax of its erratic behaviour has been reached, and it may become more standardized. At present, a full set of table silver of the sort bestowed on affluent brides, may include the following conservative assortment; dinner, dessert, and supper forks ; fish, salad and pastry forks, and oyster and ice cream forks. In addition, three special serving forks besides the usual ones are needed for salads, cold meat, and asparagus.