For a change, a coloured centre- cloth could be used, and the honhonnieres and silver fruit spoons placed on it, with a small palm or bowl of flowers in each corner. One of the prettiest decorations for a table for fourteen or sixteen is a pale yellow silk (surah for preference) pufled down the centre of the table ; the candelabra placed on it ; also silver honhonnieres, but no fruit. There should be light sprays of asparagus fern to edge the silk, and small bouquets of (not more than three of small blooms) safrano roses with their beautiful tinted leaves laid lightly in the puffs of the silk ; one rose for each gentleman, and two for each lady. The sweets to be red and yellow. Yellow is undoubtedly the most becoming shade for a dining-room decoration ; it lights up well, and if the furni- ture is of dark wood it is by far the most effective colour. Next comes pink, and, indeed, few dinner- tables are more 72 THE housewife's KBFEREE lovely than those arranged with Rothschild, La France, Catharine Mermet, or Captain Christie roses. These are all lovely roses in their way, and with large blooms and good foliage laid carelessly on the cloth, a few make a handsome decoration. Banks of moss in the centre of the table with pink and red carnations, maidenhair fern, and gypsophylium, arranged in it as if growing, are also very lovely. Irises of different shades mixed with feathery ferns, make a charming table. But I could go on giving descrip- tions ad infinitum of the many lovely table decorations I have seen, did space allow me. I may here mention before I leave the floral subject, that for the home, break- fast, and luncheon -table, four small palms, one at each corner are generally sufficient. Smilax looks remarkably well where there is plenty of silver on the table, as it allows itself to twine round everything, and can be festooned in loops from the centre-piece to the candlesticks and then gracefully trailed along the cloth. Those who have not silver candlesticks can substitute very pretty ones by making them of wire, and then entirely covering them with moss and flowers. Suggestion for a Dinner Table in the Spring. — Place in the centre of the table three large horse-shoes made in tin, arranged so that the toes almost touch, and slightly raised so as to incline downwards to the open ends. Fill them with spring flowers, primroses and violets with fern, except at the top, where daffodils and ferns, if well arranged, look very charming. Two horse-shoes can be placed at each end of the table, and down the sides small-sized horse -shoes alternately made with primroses and violets into which the menus can be placed. Wedding Reception. — Place the wedding cake in the centre of the table, and flank it on either side by small orange trees — the cake standing, metaphorically speaking, in a bed of white flowers. Silver baskets filled with white blooms and white china slippers filled with white bonbons may be placed about the table. There is a growing fashion of using floral slippers to throw after the happy pair instead of old white satin shoes, which is a very pretty and appro- priate idea. PAET II COOKING RECIPES AND MENUS PLAIN COOKING " True economy in the household has Heaven for its banker."

AI-modernized reading of the original text

For a change, a coloured centrecloth could be used, and the bonbonnières and silver fruit spoons placed on it, with a small palm or bowl of flowers in each corner. One of the prettiest decorations for a table for fourteen or sixteen is a pale yellow silk (surah for preference) pufled down the centre of the table ; the candelabra placed on it ; also silver honhonnieres, but no fruit. There should be light sprays of asparagus fern to edge the silk, and small bouquets of (not more than three of small blooms) safrano roses with their beautiful tinted leaves laid lightly in the puffs of the silk ; one rose for each gentleman, and two for each lady. The sweets to be red and yellow. Yellow is undoubtedly the most becoming shade for a dining-room decoration ; it lights up well, and if the furniture is of dark wood it is by far the most effective colour. Next comes pink, and, indeed, few dinner- tables are more THE HOUSEWIFE'S REFEREE lovely than those arranged with Rothschild, La France, Catharine Mermet, or Captain Christie roses. These are all lovely roses in their way, and with large blooms and good foliage laid carelessly on the cloth, a few make a handsome decoration. Banks of moss in the centre of the table with pink and red carnations, maidenhair fern, and gypsophylium, arranged in it as if growing, are also very lovely. Irises of different shades mixed with feathery ferns, make a charming table. But I could go on giving descriptions ad infinitum of the many lovely table decorations I have seen, did space allow me. I may here mention before I leave the floral subject, that for the home, breakfast, and luncheon -table, four small palms, one at each corner are generally sufficient. Smilax looks remarkably well where there is plenty of silver on the table, as it allows itself to twine round everything, and can be festooned in loops from the centre-piece to the candlesticks and then gracefully trailed along the cloth. Those who have not silver candlesticks can substitute very pretty ones by making them of wire, and then entirely covering them with moss and flowers. Suggestion for a Dinner Table in the Spring. — Place in the centre of the table three large horse-shoes made in tin, arranged so that the toes almost touch, and slightly raised so as to incline downwards to the open ends. Fill them with spring flowers, primroses and violets with fern, except at the top, where daffodils and ferns, if well arranged, look very charming. Two horse-shoes can be placed at each end of the table, and down the sides small-sized horse-shoes alternately made with primroses and violets into which the menus can be placed. Wedding Reception. — Place the wedding cake in the centre of the table, and flank it on either side by small orange trees — the cake standing, metaphorically speaking, in a bed of white flowers. Silver baskets filled with white blooms and white china slippers filled with white bonbons may be placed about the table. There is a growing fashion of using floral slippers to throw after the happy pair instead of old white satin shoes, which is a very pretty and appropriate idea. PAET II COOKING RECIPES AND MENUS " True economy in the household has Heaven for its banker."

The housewife's referee