for whom a luncheon or dinner is given. In a country-house several distinguished people or dear friends are entertained at one time; to serve the hostess first and follow a regular order along the table makes no distinction. Novelties are often introduced, both in food and in service. Dishes are served before which a guest hesitates as to which fork or which spoon to use until he glances at his hostess to see which one she takes up.
Not every one who travels goes to the East, and not every one who goes to the East is entertained by Eastern dignitaries and brings Eastern customs home. When a lady does dispense with finger-bowls and follows the custom of a Grand Pacha in having passed to her guests a large silver bowl of rose water, in which each one in turn is expected to dip the tips of the fingers and wipe them on a pearl-fringed towel, she need not be surprised if the first guest, seeing this bowl of rare workmanship presented at her left hand, looks about on the tray for some spoon or ladle by
which she is to help herself to the pale beverage. If the bowl be handed first to the hostess and she follows the custom of the Grand Pacha, no guest need betray that she was not brought up in the house of a Grand Pacha herself.
A hostess who takes pride in having her forks made to suit special courses, like asparagus, and who has several forks laid by each plate before dinner is served, finds it necessary to take up the right one before her guests make a choice. I have in mind a dinner where the hostess delayed the tasting of a course, the absent-minded host took the wrong fork, some guests took one and some another. The butler did his best to replace the right ones; but after all his efforts, somebody had a wrong fork to the end of the dinner.
A waitress should remember, when going into a new family, that some things, which seem novel to her and only to be done away with, may be old-established family customs, to which she must adapt herself if she is to
give satisfaction. If she finds that pease, tomatoes, and other vegetables are served in a semi-liquid state instead of the drier one to which she has been accustomed, she must use the small dishes provided, remembering that the rule, “all vegetables are to be eaten from the dinner plate,” is not accepted by all housekeepers, although it is by a great number. So, if fish knives are provided, she need not feel that she is offending against good manners, even if she has seen only forks used before.
However, there are some things which a little true tact and management might alter for the benefit of all concerned. I knew one table where many well-cooked dishes and many delicate desserts were served, at which the relishes were something startling. Spanish peppers, stuffed and pickled, I had been used to see cut in small pieces and served from a pickle dish. At this table a whole stuffed Spanish pepper was served to each person in a small dish which held some of the vinegar as well as the pepper.
An improvement upon this is the serving of olives in small dishes to each person, although it is hard to realize how any one at a well-served dinner would care to eat a relish as if it were a vegetable. Those who are fond of olives think them very, very good, and those who do not like them think they are horrid; but it would seem better to lunch off of them when alone, and not neglect for one flavor the many flavors prepared for enjoyment during a well-thought-out dinner.
A waitress with good health, a fair amount of brains, and a determination to be a better waitress than any woman was before, has a great field before her. But if she aspires to raise waiting to the dignity of a profession, she must study; she must educate her eye to know the difference between a line that is exactly straight and one that is slightly askew; she must train her memory until the daily routine is perfectly easy and she can give thought to decoration and invention; she must educate her hands until they are to be trusted
with the care of the frailest glass and china, and educate her sense of smell and of taste until she can suit each salad dressing to the dinner of which it forms a part, making it rich or piquant, as the other dishes demand.