Before dinner is announced, after the guests have arrived, the host has the names of each person written on a card and laid on the plates at the place where he or she is to sit. This does away with that awkward moment when the guests are in the dining room waiting to be told their places. The method long used at public dinners is now adopted for private ones in the best circles here and abroad. The standard size for dinner tables is four and-a-half feet wide, by any length desired. Round tables for gen- tlemen's dinners, where all are wanted in the conversation 36 THE HOME COOK BOOK. are made seven feet across. For the costly dinner parties given in his white marble mansion, Mr. A. T. Stewart has a dining table five feet by twenty, and there are one or two larger held by dinner givers in the city. For his intimate parties, Mr. William Butler Duncan has a round table seven feet across, and we hear of English tables of twelve feet, the napery for which has to be woven to order. Dining chairs should have cushioned seats covered with fine leather, but no arms, or very low ones that will not impede the flow of ladies' dresses. People who make a study of entertaining are particular on such points. Each gentleman offers his right arm to the lady he takes to dinner and seats her on his left, which gives occasion for a pretty piece of attention on his part. On reaching their places, he draws out her chair for her, and as her hand leaves his arm he takes the tips of her fingers and hands her to her seat, relinquishing his touch with a slight bow or glance of acknowledgement. Of course, the honored guest, if a lady, takes the right hand of the host ; if a gentleman, he is at the right of the hostess. Small can-shaped pitchers of engraved crystal, holding about a quart, are placed with ice water between each pair of guests. The napkins are folded flat, with a thick piece of bread on each, a cruet-stand and silver salt cellar is at each corner, and a silver butter dish at each end. The small individual salt cellars and butter plates, have an air of hotel arrangements which it is desirable to avoid at home dinners, though entirely admissible and convenient at breakfast. If wax lights are used, there should be as many candles as guests, according to the old rule. These DINNER ETIQUETTE. 37 are ih branches held by Sevres and Dresden figures, above the heads of the guests. Nor are wax lights by any means the extravagance they seem. Dinner napkins are from three-quarters to seven-eights of a yard square, and should match the cloth, for which Greek, Moresque, and Celtic filigrees and diaper patterns are preferred to large arabesques and fruit pieces. French napkins of fine fringed damask, with crimson figures of lobster and craw- fish woven in the centre, are sometimes used at first and removed with the fish. Decorations must be choice and used with discretion. Flowers should be fine but few, for cultivated senses find their odor does not mingle pleas- antly with that of food. All artificial contrivances, like epergnes and show-pieces, tin gutters lined with moss and filled with flowers for the edges of a table, or mirror plates to reflect baskets of blossoms, are banished by the latest and best taste.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Before dinner is announced, after the guests have arrived, the host has the names of each person written on a card and laid on the plates at the place where he or she is to sit. This does away with that awkward moment when the guests are in the dining room waiting to be told their places. The method long used at public dinners is now adopted for private ones in the best circles here and abroad. The standard size for dinner tables is four and-a-half feet wide, by any length desired. Round tables for gentlemen's dinners, where all are wanted in the conversation are made seven feet across. For the costly dinner parties given in his white marble mansion, Mr. A. T. Stewart has a dining table five feet by twenty, and there are one or two larger held by dinner givers in the city. For his intimate parties, Mr. William Butler Duncan has a round table seven feet across, and we hear of English tables of twelve feet, the napery for which has to be woven to order. Dining chairs should have cushioned seats covered with fine leather, but no arms, or very low ones that will not impede the flow of ladies' dresses. People who make a study of entertaining are particular on such points. Each gentleman offers his right arm to the lady he takes to dinner and seats her on his left, which gives occasion for a pretty piece of attention on his part. On reaching their places, he draws out her chair for her, and as her hand leaves his arm he takes the tips of her fingers and hands her to her seat, relinquishing his touch with a slight bow or glance of acknowledgement. Of course, the honored guest, if a lady, takes the right hand of the host ; if a gentleman, he is at the right of the hostess. Small can-shaped pitchers of engraved crystal, holding about a quart, are placed with ice water between each pair of guests. The napkins are folded flat, with a thick piece of bread on each, a cruet-stand and silver salt cellar is at each corner, and a silver butter dish at each end. The small individual salt cellars and butter plates, have an air of hotel arrangements which it is desirable to avoid at home dinners, though entirely admissible and convenient at breakfast. If wax lights are used, there should be as many candles as guests, according to the old rule. These DINNER ETIQUETTE. are in branches held by Sevres and Dresden figures, above the heads of the guests. Nor are wax lights by any means the extravagance they seem. Dinner napkins are from three-quarters to seven-eights of a yard square, and should match the cloth, for which Greek, Moresque, and Celtic filigrees and diaper patterns are preferred to large arabesques and fruit pieces. French napkins of fine fringed damask, with crimson figures of lobster and crawfish woven in the centre, are sometimes used at first and removed with the fish. Decorations must be choice and used with discretion. Flowers should be fine but few, for cultivated senses find their odor does not mingle pleasantly with that of food. All artificial contrivances, like epergnes and show-pieces, tin gutters lined with moss and filled with flowers for the edges of a table, or mirror plates to reflect baskets of blossoms, are banished by the latest and best taste.

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