e
lips, and then lift it to a slight angle. Do this easily.

Drink sparingly while eating. It is far better for the digestion not
to drink tea or coffee until the meal is finished. Drink gently, and
do not pour it down your throat like water turned out of a pitcher.

When seating yourself at the table, unfold your napkin and lay it
across your lap in such a manner that it will not slide off upon the
floor; a gentleman should place it across his right knee. Do not tuck
it into your neck like a child's bib. For an old person, however, it
is well to attach the napkin to a napkin hook and slip it into the
vest or dress buttonholes, to protect their garments, or sew a broad
tape at two places on the napkin, and pass it over the head. When the
soup is eaten, wipe the mouth carefully with the napkin, and use it to
wipe the hands after meals. Finger bowls are not a general
institution, and yet they seem to be quite as needful as the napkin,
for the fingers are also liable to become a little soiled in eating.
They can be had quite cheaply, and should be half-filled with water,
and placed upon the side table or butler's tray, with the dessert,
bread and cheese, etc. They are passed to each person half filled with
water, placed on a parti-colored napkin with a dessert plate
underneath, when the dessert is placed upon the table. A leaf or two
of sweet verbena, an orange flower, or a small slice of lemon, is
usually put into each bowl to rub upon the fingers. The slice of lemon
is most commonly used. The finger tips are slightly dipped into the
bowl, the lemon juice is squeezed upon them, and then they are dried
softly upon the napkin. At dinner parties and luncheons they are
indispensable.

Spoons are sometimes used with firm puddings, but forks are the better
style. A spoon should never be turned over in the mouth.

Ladies have frequently an affected way of holding the knife half-way
down its length, as if it were too big for their little hands; but
this is as awkward a way as it is weak; the knife should be grasped
freely by the handle only, the forefinger being the only one to touch
the blade, and that only along the back of the blade at its root, and
no further down.

At the conclusion of a course, where they have been used, knife and
fork should be laid side by side across the middle of the plate--never
crossed; the old custom of crossing them was in obedience to an
ancient religious formula. The servant should offer eve