Lillian B. Lansdown

“ Yet it is a serious one for the hostess who gives the latter form of dinner. The cook often requires extra help (dishwashing, etc.) ; and where a chambermaid is available, she has to be drafted as a second waitress or an extra waitress engaged. There must be a helper on duty in the pantry, for there must be no hitch in any detail of the formal dinner service. So the extra pantry-hand must serve soup and pour coffee, see that there is crushed ice always ready, stack up soiled dishes, open wine bottles (yes, this is still done!) ”

“ Side lights (adding candles for grace and charm) are far pleasanter to the eyes and look better.
In the dining room the table is the dominating furniture note. A round table, an oblong table or a square table may be the more desirable according to the shape of the room. But a round dining table may be harmonized with an oblong dining room by means of an oblong rug, with rounded medallion, by a round flower bowl, a round tray or even the wheels of the tea table. In the dining room, as elsewhere, repetition in color establishes the color tone of the room. ”

“ Scale and proportion should always dictate the choice of furniture, lamps and pictures. Each has its place in the general decorative scheme. Red is a hard color for the eyes. Many a red living room has been the cause of chronic headache. Not that red need be entirely tabooed. A living room for example, paneled in oak, with a soft red-toned Oriental rug, red draperies, a touch of red in a stained glass window panel, and red cushioned window seat will have far more warmth and charm than a room whose walls are completely covered with red. ”

“ For informal service, with a member of the family acting as a waitress, the former may quietly leave the table to attend to the bringing on or carrying off of a course, or to supplying water, butter, etc. But the same care and attention to everyone’s needs is expected of her as of a regular waitress. Water, butter, rolls, bread, etc., should never have to be asked for. Within reach of hand the waitress should always have a soft napkin to remove any liquid spilled during the meal, at once covering the spot with a fresh doily. ”

“ If the children eat breakfast with the family, a regular child’s service, with attractive little knives and spoons should be provided, and his whole service, preferably, should be arranged on a tray near the table’s edge. Every child likes to have his own porridge bowl, his mug and little milk pitcher, and having his own table tools teaches him to be neat and self-reliant. ”

“ A family dinner may be served quite comfortably even without a maid. The table set and the service laid, the younger members of the family should attend to her duties. One may bring in the soup, hot, in individually heated plates. Another may fill the water glasses, pass butter or sauces and remove dishes between courses. The most convenient way of serving vegetables, under these circumstances, is for some member of the family next the carver to attend to it, as soon as meat has been laid on the plate. It saves extra passing. ”

“ If a maid serves, she should always have an extra plate, one more than the number of individuals to be served. She will need it.
A salad served with meat, at an informal dinner, is placed on the right side, from the right, the exception to the rule of serving from the left.
Vegetables, once served, are taken back to the kitchen, to keep them warm. If a second serving is desired, the mistress rings. Suit yourself about having the serving silver placed on the table before the dish to be served is carried in. ”

“ The more formal luncheon dictates that coffee be served in the drawing room. Here the waitress passes the after-dinner coffee which the hostess pours. If it seems preferrable to serve coffee at the table, the waitress, after she has placed the finger-bowl service, puts the coffee at the guest’s left hand, and passes him cream and sugar. When he has removed his finger bowl the guest uses the plate for his bonbons. ”

“ While one waitress passes the roast, another follows with the potatoes. Other vegetables and rolls then come in order and, if the nut dishes of any of the guests are empty, they are refilled.
When more than a single meat course is served at a formal dinner, the sorbets and frozen punches should be dropped. In such a case they are only permissible at an especially large official dinner, a banquet or a large hotel spread.
After dinner plates have been taken away the salad (already arranged on the plate, the fork on the right hand side) is served from the right, and sandwiches are passed. ”

“ If a restful instead of a cheerful quality is desired for the living room or drawing room, green may be made the dominant hue. Yellow is a joyous tint, also a good breakfast-room hue. It will harmonize in the living room with plain fumed oak, willow furniture and cretonne hangings as well as with painted and paneled ivory walls, old Chinese rugs, damask hangings and satinwood and lacquered furniture. But furniture, bric-a-brac and walls always must be good in line and color. For proper floor balance use a large rug in a large living room, and several small ones in a small one. ”

“ It should always be served very cold, on a large fruit plate, and with fruit knife and fork. If half-melons are served, with the rind, the host cuts egg-shaped pieces from the fruit, and places it on individual plates for passing by the waitress.
Bananas may be served “in the skin” at breakfast, or peeled and sliced, with sugar and cream, or sprinkled with sugar and lemon juice.
Shredded pineapple, sprinkled with sugar, or sliced pineapple (slices an inch thick) may be served from a large dish by the waitress.
Fruit at breakfast does not necessarily demand a waitress. ”

“ As many as four ladies may pour, two during the first, and two during the second hour. Friends of the hostess—they serve all refreshments, though waitresses assist, removing soiled cups and plates and bringing in fresh ones—preside at either table end, and the table is decorated (flowers and candles) . At one end of the luncheon cloth (or the table may be laid with doilies) stands the service tray, with teapot, hot-water pot, creamer, sugar bowl with tongs and cut sugar, and sliced lemons in dish with lemon fork. ”

“ In general white paneling calls for the use of one warm and one cool color, while dark brown or black paneling needs two or more warm colors.
PROPORTION
All parts of a furnished room must help express one ideal of balance. The realization of this ideal is proportion. A horizontal room calls for horizontal furniture and lines, a vertical room for vertical ones. Every important decorative feature of a room must be selected in accordance with its proportion in general. The size of a room increases the form scale (or scale of the forms) represented by furniture, pictures, rugs, etc. ”

“ Broken lines give us a feeling of life and movement. But they should not be used for the permanent decorative lines of a room—the lines of the walls, openings, hangings, draperies, carpets, or large, immovable pieces of furniture which have a fixed place. In pillows which break the long back line of a couch, in cornice moldings, lambrequin bottoms, chair backs, screens, etc., they lend life. ”

“ The waitress should serve and remove everything, except beverages and extra silver from the guest’s left. Fork and spoon should always be easily at hand for the person served, and dishes should never be offered and removed by reaching across a cover. Remove glasses, cups and saucers from the right, and serve all beverages from the right. Plates should be placed and removed, one by one. Two plates of food (especially salads or soup) may be brought into the dining room at the same time, but one should be left on the serving table. ”

“ Fruit salads require thin, unsugared crackers—they may be served hot, sprinkled with mild paprika over butter. Anything of the sort served with a salad is merely served to bring out its flavor, not to destroy it!
DESSERTS
When the dinner is a heavy or elaborate one the heavy pudding with a rich sauce is distinctly out of keeping. Frappéed or cold desserts are the proper thing, served together with small wafers or cakes. At less formal dinners the sweet dessert may be omitted, and cheese and hard crackers, a fruit salad, or toasted wafers and coffee may be substituted. ”

“ The tray also contains cup and saucers (each saucer with spoon, handle paralleling cup) . The coffee, bouillon or chocolate service is established in the same manner at the other end of the table. If coffee is served, the service tray is equipped with urn, cream and sugar; if chocolate, whipped cream in bowl with ladle; if bouillon, the urn alone.
Each lady who pours must have a large napkin convenient to guard her gown. Arranged along the table should be plates of sandwiches and cakes, bonbon dishes and dishes with salted nuts. But the table must not be crowded. ”

“ A single large rug, harmonizing with the wall color scheme is admirable in any room. In the dining room, however, a figured carpet is often preferred for practical reasons: it stands wear and tear around the table better. Well-chosen paper (See Chapter II) often improves a badly proportioned room by optical illusion. The ideal lightings for dining rooms are side lights. Dining-room drop lights or domes are very trying to the eyes of those who dine, and are unbecoming. ”

“ The usual arrangement of the centerpiece in the center of the table (the table itself being immediately under the light, unless the waitress is thereby prevented from moving between the table and sideboard) with its dish of fruit or ferns or flowers (never so high as to cut off view or conversation) can be varied to suit individual taste. But the covers (the plates, glasses, napkin and silver of each individual) must always be in line, opposite each other on the opposite sides of the table. The plate doilies indicate the covers when a bare table is laid. ”

“ On the other hand the simple beauty of line of Adam, Sheraton, Heppelwhite and Chippendale are better suited to simpler rooms—though they may be quite as subtly and perfectly finished. In general, the choice of all furniture—chairs, tables, beds, mirrors—should be influenced by the size of the house and rooms, individual circumstances and individual taste, where the last does not conflict with established laws of decoration. ”

“ Be sure, if you have French toast, hot cakes or waffles served, that they come from the kitchen hot. A perforated silver cover should cover the plate containing them to prevent their cooling. Never use a soup plate or bowl for the purpose! The steam cannot escape and the toast grows soggy. Do not forget syrup when waffles, hot cakes or French toast are served. Some prefer cinnamon and sugar to syrup with hot cakes, and they should also be on hand.
BACON
Bacon is the ideal breakfast meat. The rasher of bacon should be served piping hot on a hot silver platter, in crisp, curling slices. ”

“ The salad is by no means the least attractive among the courses. You may have Pepper and Fruit Salad, with Nut-Bread Sandwiches or an Asparagus Salad with Lemon Rings. You may incline to Spring Salad with Horseradish Sandwiches or to Dressed Lettuce with Cheese-Bread Wafers. Or, again, you may prefer Chicory Salad with Cheese Croquettes. You have but to choose. With the passing of the salad and its sandwiches, salt and pepper sets are removed, the table is crumbed and the ice-cream plates are laid out, together with ice-cream forks and spoons. ”

“ If the ladies only retire to the drawing room, one waitress serves them there with coffee, while another remains in the dining room. Here she passes cigars and cigarettes on a tray, together with a lighted candle or matches, and then serves coffee and cordials or brandy and soda. ”

“ Bird on back (drumsticks to right of carver, as with all fowl) the carving fork is thrust through breast. The joints lie much farther back than those of chickens or turkeys. After removing leg and wing, make cuts in breast meat parallel to breastbone, three-quarters of an inch apart, and remove by sliding knife under meat. Small pieces of rich meat, dark, may be cut from the sides of the duck. Game Duck: First cut breast meat from one side, then from other. Half a breast is the individual portion. Legs and wings are too tough, as a rule, for satisfactory table use. ”

“ Then crumb the table with a small plate and clean, folded napkin.
When serving dishes of food do so with a dinner napkin folded square on the palm of the hand. The serving dish should be held firmly and not too high. If necessary steady with right hand on edge of dish. Close contact with the person served always should be avoided. The serving tray comes into its own for removing or passing cream and sugar, pepper and salt, etc. ”

“ The rococo styles (Louis XV and the Regency) are overluxurious and often weak; the curves in Arabic or Celtic ornamentation vague and obscure. The undulating curves of Persian rugs suggest movement. Curves, in general, which turn up, make an effect of animation and happiness. Wall papers and draperies used to emphasize such furniture curves lend an air of happy animation to the rooms in which they are used.
Contrast to stiff, straight lines is afforded by the use of the curved line in decoration, which offers soft, rich and lovely effects. ”