FREE online courses on Table Etiquette - Doing The Honors Of The Table
This is one of the pleasing duties of the housekeeper; and
the manner which she performs it increases or diminishes much of the comfort
attending a well-furnished table.
Some persons will urge every dish upon their guests with an
annoying importunity, while others will neglect even the ordinary civilities,
and complacently declare that they never learned how to wait upon people, and,
if they can't help themselves, they may fare badly.
Others, again, will help you without any reference to your
peculiar tastes. For instance, there are those who will deluge your plate with
gravy, when you may particularly object to it; or will give you well done meat,
cut in thick slices, when your palate delights in very thin slices of delicious
rare meat, and vice versa.
And still others will help you so abundantly that the
overflowing condition of your plate destroys your appetite, while a small
quantity would have increased it.
A certain amount of tact and quiet attention to your guests
and children is greatly essential to the successful performance of the rôle of
mistress or master of table ceremonies.
One should attend to the needs and comforts of each person,
and exercise some care and judgment in supplying their wants. These are the
first requisites of table etiquette, and they should be accomplished without
bustle, or leaving the table; for there is nothing more detrimental to table
etiquette than to see two or three children, or the host or hostess, start up
from the table to obtain this or that article.
The greatest care should be taken to see that everything that
is required for the repast is placed upon the table before sitting down; but if
anything is needed, or dishes are to be removed for the dessert at dinner (which
is always essential for a well-ordered table), if a servant is not in
attendance, ask one of the family to obtain it for you, but never allow two
children to run after it, or leave the table yourself.