HOTEL MANNERS.

Patea Mail, 19 April 1881, Page 3

HOTEL MANNERS.

Sir, —I travelled sometime back through your fine district in the character of, eay, an unprotected female, and though treated with the greatest kindness and civilitj', must say I was shocked at the manners of some of the young men at various hotel and other tables, who evidently had just arrived from some of the back settlements where forks were a very recent introduction. Several of them I thought ran great, risk of enlarging their mouths by the rash way they handled their knives, using them as though they were a spoon or a fork ; but when a young fellow opposite me, having emptied his plate in this way, deliberately dabbed his juicy knife into the butter, my feeling# of astonishment gave way to disgust, for it was rather too much, especially as 1 had of course to go without butter for the rest of the meal, He capped this by lighting his pipe before he left the room with his hat on. Now I have read something of the sort in Trollope’s “ American,” but such manners are now only seen in the very far West, though they may linger in Marryatt’s Island. Trusting that those of your readers whom the cap fits may invest in some little introductory handbook on the manners of society (not etiquette) and a fork or two, I remain, An Unfortunate Female.