Buckeye cookery

Those who entertain should remember it is vulgar hospitality, exceedingly annoying to guests, to overload plates, or to insist on a second supply. If the guest wants more, he knows that it is a delicate compliment to a dish to pass his plate the second time. Too great a variety of dishes is also a coarse display. A few cooked to a nicety and served with grace, make the most charming dinners. A sensible bill of fare is soup, fish with one vegetable, a roast with one or two vegetables and a salad and cheese, and a dessert. Parties should be made up of congenial persons, and the table should never be crowded. Novel dishes are great strokes of policy in dinners, but no wise housewife will try experiments on new dishes on such an occasion. The carver should serve meat as he cuts it, so far'as possible, and not fill the platter with hacked fragments. It is ill-bred to help too abundantly, or to flood food with gravies, which are disliked by many. Above all, the plate should be served neatly. Nothing creates such disgust as a plate bedaubed with gravy or scattered food. It may be taken for granted that every one will take a piece of breast; and after that is served, it is proper to ask, ‘‘ What part do you prefer?’’ The wings and legs should be placed crisp side uppermost, the stuffing should not be scattered, and the brown side or edge of slice should be kept from contact with vegetables or gravy, so that its deli- cacy may be preserved. Water should be poured at the right hand. Every thing else is served at the left. The hostess should continue eating until all . guests have finished. Individual salt-dishes are used at breakfasts, but not at dinners,—a cruet, with salt dish and spoon, at each end of the table, being preferred as giving the table less of a hotel air. The salt dishes should be neatly filled. Jellies and sauces are helped on the dinner plate and not on side dishes. If there are two dishes of dessert, the host may serve the most substantial one. Fruit is served after puddings and pies, and coffee last. In pouring coffee, the sugar and cream is placed in the cup first. If milk is used, it should be scalding hot. Some prefer to make coffee strong, then weaken it with scalding hot milk, and pour into cups in which cream and sugar have previously been placed. For tea it is better to pour first and then add cream and sugar. In winter plates should be warmed, not made hot. INDIVIDUAL MANNERS. Manners, at table and elsewhere, are made for the convenience and comfort of men, and all social observances have now, or have had at some time, -a good reason and sound common sense behind them. Jt must be remem- @ ee w. © Ss ett INDIVIDUAL MANNERS. 395 bered, however, that the source of all good manners is a nice perception of, and kind consideration for, not only the rights, but the feelings and-even the whims of others. The customs of society are adopted and observed to enable us to be more agreeable, or at least not disagreeable, to friends And nowhere is the distinction between the gentleman and the boor more marked than at the table. Some persons are morbidly sensitive, and even slight improprieties create disgust ; and every true gentleman is bound to respect their sensitiveness and avoid giving pain, whether in sympathy with the feeling or not. ) As this is not an etiquette book, we can only give a few hints. Once seated at table, gloves are drawn off and laid in the lap under the napkin, - which is spread lightly, not tucked in. Raw oysters are eaten with a fork;