It requires some expertness and practice for a man with a moustache to take soup in a perfectly inoffensive manner. The accomplishment is worth some trouble.
The mouth.
Some men, who should know better (and some women, too), forget that the mouth should be kept closed while mastication is going on. This is a very important matter.
Nature not a good guide in this matter.
Nature teaches us to keep the mouth open, as any one may see from the way in which children and uncultivated persons eat, but good manners enjoin upon us that to adopt the natural mode is to disgust and annoy those with whom we sit at meat. If these little things have not been learned in childhood, it is difficult to master them afterwards. Mothers should also teach their boys (and girls) never to speak while food is in the mouth, and never to drink until it is quite empty. Who would not be mortified if he were to choke ignominiously at the dinner-table?
How to eat a curry, &c.
The correct way to eat a curry is with a spoon and fork; but this is the only meat dish that is eaten in this way. Sweetbreads and many other entrées are eaten with the fork alone. It is then held in the right hand. Should a knife be found necessary it can, of course, be used. Vegetable entrées are always eaten with a fork, held in the right hand. Fish is eaten with a silver (or plated) knife and fork.
Taking Sauces.
Sauces are never taken very plentifully. The sauce ladle, filled, will be generally sufficient. I once saw a man, in helping himself to oyster sauce, look scrutinisingly in the sauceboat and carefully fish about for as many oysters as he could collect in the ladle. This caused some covert amusement, except, perhaps, to the last persons to whom the sauce was handed. They probably found few oysters.
Foods touched with the fingers.