SENDING DINNER INVITATIONS
Dinner invitations should be sent out at least a week before the date of the function. In places where social life is of a strenuous character and people are likely to have many engagements ahead, two weeks should be allowed. In New York and Washington, invitations for formal dinners are issued four weeks before the event. The invitation to a dinner should be answered immediately. As the number of guests invited in any case is small, the hostess should know as soon as possible the intention of those invited, so that, in case of a regret, she may fill the place so quickly that the person next chosen may not realize that he is an alternate. The letters R. s. v. p. should not be put on a dinner invitation. Any one who receives such a card or note is supposed to understand that an answer is expected.
THE DINNER MENU
When the guests are selected, the invitations delivered and the proper number of acceptances received, the hostess may then turn her attention to the other arrangements. The important matter of deciding upon the menu is next in order. If the hostess has an admirably trained cook or is in a position to engage an expert cateress, a consultation with one or the other settles the affair. In case she has not the one and is not financially able to engage the other, she must depend upon her own resources. She must select a menu which she and her maid can together carry out successfully.
The composition of a dinner menu is an employment that gives scope for talent and originality. The range of possible dishes is large, the variety in the way of combination inexhaustible. To plan a dinner that is at once palatable and pleasing to the eye requires no mean ability. To a woman who has a genius for culinary feats, this sort of accomplishment may be an exercise of the artistic faculties; and the effect produced upon the partakers of the feast goes far beyond mere physical satisfaction. If one is in the habit of studying cook-books, which make more interesting reading than they are generally given credit for, the opportunity afforded by a dinner party for the display of one’s knowledge should be as eagerly welcomed as the opportunity offered a violinist for the exhibition of his art. Novelties are to be indulged in sparingly. Queer highly-colored dishes make the guests nervous as to the hygienic results.
ROUND OR SQUARE TABLES
Sometimes fashion decrees that a square or oblong table is the appropriate form. Again she approves the round table. At the present time the round table has the preference and, as far as the present writer can see, with reason. The round table puts all the diners on an equal footing instead of establishing a sometimes embarrassing distinction between guests and hosts. Its use makes it possible for each guest to have a good view of every other guest and this promotes general conversation. Added to these merits is another of importance, namely, that a round table is more susceptible of attractive decoration.
Many people who employ a square table for family use, employ on formal occasions a round top, capable of seating twelve or fourteen people, which top can be placed above the table commonly in use. This top when not in use folds together on hinges in the center. On occasion it can be clamped to the table in ordinary so that it holds perfectly firm.