One should not ask more guests than the table will roomily accommodate. A woman guest will often be glad of a footstool.
THE SILVER AND CHINA
On the morning of the dinner the silver and china necessary should be looked over and later in the day properly placed. The table should be arranged with cloth, the napkins, the various knives, forks and spoons, the flowers, the candles, and the service plates, if such are used. The china to be employed for the various courses should be placed, before the dinner, in the butler’s pantry in a way to promote, as far as possible, swift and deft service with the maid. She should be instructed exactly where she can lay her hands on the dishes for each item in the menu so that her attendance may be expert and noiseless. For her benefit it is well also to make out in good legible writing, the menu for the meal and hang it in the kitchen in full view of her and any other servants employed for the occasion. In giving a dinner nothing should be left to chance. Every emergency should be taken into consideration and planned for. In small households where only one maid is employed, a trained waitress may be hired at small expense to help serve.
FLOWERS AND CANDLES
The flowers to be used should have some relation to the color of the candles if candles are used. A few flowers skilfully arranged are sometimes quite as effective as a profusion. A clear glass jar which shows stems and leaves as well as blooms is a good investment for the woman whose love of beauty goes further than her ability to pay. The importance of foliage is not always appreciated. One of the cleverest minor inventions for making a few blossoms appear to their best advantage is the cross-bar of wire which one finds now in the shops, in various sizes and fitted to the tops of various ornamental vases. By the use of this device each flower stands out in individual beauty. The effect of no single blossom is lost.
Avoid a centerpiece that is so high as to obstruct the view across the table.
LAYING THE TABLE
The table-cloth and napkins should be of pure white and of the finest napery that one can afford. Silk and lace contraptions that will not stand washing are in bad taste. The table-cloth is not starched and preferably is never folded by the laundress but rolled so that when used it shows no creases except one down the center. First on the table is laid a heavy felt cloth known as the silence cloth, which, besides deadening sounds, serves to make the damask lie more smoothly and gives it a richer, handsomer appearance than if it were spread on the bare boards. If the game or joints are to be served from the table, a carver’s square should be laid at the head of the table and beneath it a thick mat for the protection of the table surface. Beside this square are laid the carving knife and fork, a table spoon and a gravy ladle. At each guest’s place, is set a “service plate,” insisted on by the punctilious who choose to obey the unwritten rule of hospitality that a guest once seated is never without a plate. This plate is exchanged by the waitress for the one bearing the food when it is served. To the left of this plate will be arranged the forks, tines upward. These will ordinarily consist of two large forks for the main meat course and the salad, then a third fork for the fish and outside of these a small oyster fork if there is to be a course of raw oysters. At the right of the plate will be two dinner knives with the edges of the blades turned toward the plate, a fish knife, and the spoons, including first a small spoon for the after-dinner coffee. The spoon that will be used first is placed on the outside for obvious reasons. The soup spoon with the bowl uppermost will be placed either at right angles to the knives or from right to left back of the plate. The water glass and the glasses for wine, if these are used, stand to the right and back, a little beyond the knives. As butter is not served at formal dinners the bread and butter plate and butter spreader are omitted. The folded napkin containing the dinner roll is laid to the right of the knives or on the service plate. Fancy foldings of the napkin are not approved.