The Dinner Table.
The silver required depends upon the number of courses to be served, but a few suggestions may help one to decide what is proper for her own table. The silver for all the courses except the dessert may be put on the table when it is set, or it may be placed there by the waitress as needed for each course. Dinner plates are placed on the table or not, when it is set, as one pleases. The silver needed for an ordinary course dinner would be a small fork for raw oysters, tablespoon for soup, fork for fish, knife and fork for meat, and fork for salad; carving knife and fork at the head of the table, soup ladle at the head of the mistress’s plate, and, if the dinner be served from the table, spoons for serving.
In the centre of the table set rather a low dish containing flowers or ferns. On each side of it place some small dishes of pretty design for olives, salted almonds, confectionery, and such things; or these small dishes may be set in the corners of the table. If the dinner is to be served on the table, the small dishes should be put in the corners; but if it is to be served from the sideboard, such dishes may be placed wherever they look best and are most convenient. Lay the tablespoons in pairs; in the corners, of course, if the dinner is to be served on the table. In the fold of each napkin lay a small square of bread or a small roll. The fruit and dishes for the dessert may be disposed on the sideboard. All the dishes for a handsome dinner service may be of one pattern, or for each course a different kind of china may be used. For the olives, almonds, etc., it is desirable to have bits of cut glass, or pretty little china dishes. Such wares are used much more than silver. The dishes on which fish, meats, and entrées are served may be round, oval, square, plain white, or richly colored Chinese or Japanese ware. The plates for the several courses are, of course, carefully to be kept hot or cold, as each course may require, until serving time. After-dinner coffee cups, when all are of different patterns, give a remarkably pretty effect. Indeed, there is so much that is beautiful in table-ware nowadays that one can have a handsome service with means either large or limited.