Make no attempt to vary your usual bill of fare. Your guest will infinitely prefer the newness of your dishes to an imitation of her own. If you live in the country, the home-made bacon and ham will be a real treat; and a bass, fresh from the river, will be a revelation to one who has only eaten fish after it has been packed in ice. If you live in the city do not attempt to serve spring chicken to your country guest. It is impossible for a town chicken ever to become the tender, toothsome morsel she is used to at home. But the juicy steaks and roasts you are so tired of, are a treat she can seldom enjoy at her distance from markets.
Oriental sweetmeats have become so popular for afternoon tea tables in New York that many shops keep an extensive selection of these piquant novelties. Among the first favorites are candied Chinese oranges; dates, plums and other stone fruit crystallized by foreign processes and stuffed with nut mixtures; Turkish pastes and East Indian goodies of unpronouncable names.
When a plate is taken to be replenished always leave the knife and fork on it.
Don't drink green chartreuse. Take the yellow. Also beware of the man who takes sweet soda with his brandy, and a man who wants claret from the ice box.
Use your napkin with a finger behind it, drawing it around or across the mouth. Don't use it like a mop and your mouth as if it were the deck of a fishing sloop.
When two or more forks are at your plate, use the smaller one for fish, or whatever the first course may be. The steel knife is for meat. When you have finished, place the knife and fork on your plate crossing each other. Any good servant will know that you have finished.
Don't fold your napkin unless you are dining at home and intend using it again. And if you are entertaining guests, do not do it then, as you thus indicate that you are determined to save the washing of at least one bit of linen.
Tucking a napkin under the chin as if the user was now to be stuffed like a turkey, is in very bad taste. Lay your napkin across your lap. If it falls to the floor, quietly beckon the servant at a convenient time to restore it.
It is no longer the thing to perfume the water in finger glasses, or to offer the bowls with slices of lemon in them. So many people have a positive objection to perfume of any kind that its use in this way is discontinued. The pretty Japanese custom of dropping a flower or flower petals in the glass is, however, growing in favor. Usually the flower chosen corresponds with those used in the centerpiece. A few rose petals floating in the clear water are most attractive. Two or three scented violets are charming. At a little luncheon given in honor of an English woman visiting in this country, each bowl contained a water lily.
Some time ago it was necessary to eat asparagus with one's fingers, while to do so today would be to commit an unpardonable sin in the eyes of society.