1. Help ladies with a due appreciation; do not overload the plate of any person you serve. Never pour gravy on a plate without permission. It spoils the meat for some persons.
2. Never put anything by force upon any one's plate. It is extremely ill-bred, though extremely common, to press one to eat of anything.
3. If at dinner you are requested to help any one to sauce or gravy, do not pour it over the meat or vegetables, but on one side of them. Never load down a person's plate with anything.
4. As soon as you are helped, begin to eat, or at least begin to occupy yourself with what you have before you. Do not wait till your neighbors are served—a custom that was long ago abandoned.
5. Should you, however, find yourself at a table where they have the old-fashioned steel forks, eat with your knife, as the others do, and do not let it be seen that you have any objection to doing so.
6. Bread should be broken. To butter a large piece of bread and then bite it, as children do, is something the knowing never do.
7. In eating game or poultry do not touch the bones with your fingers. To take a bone in the fingers for the purpose of picking it, is looked upon as being very inelegant.
8. Never use your own knife or fork to help another. Use rather the knife or fork of the person you help.
9. Never send your knife or fork, or either of them, on your plate when you send for second supply.