Tableware

“ 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. ”

“ After the salad, crumb the table, both at luncheon and supper, but if you use doilies do not take the regular crumb-knife and tray, but carry a folded napkin in your right hand and gently sweep off the crumbs into the tray; a knife might scratch the table, and would certainly sound disagreeable against the wood.
"The dessert, which may be fruit, should be ready before the meal on the sideboard, with the plates and finger-bowls. When the last course before it is taken off and the crumbs removed, there are no plates on the table at all; it is the one time when it is cleared. ”

“ Decorated porcelain is cheap nowadays, and makes a table look extremely pretty. Each one of the household should have his own especial oatmeal set, either the bowl, plate, and pitcher, or one of the deep saucers that come for this purpose in dark blue and white ware, with a plate to match, while the cream or milk may be held for common use in one good-sized pitcher, to be served by the mother, or passed to each, as may seem best. Every tea or coffee drinker should have his own cup and saucer, and in his imagination his favorite beverage will taste better from that cup than from any other. ”

“ If, when there is only one servant to wait at table, the carving is done by her at a side table, either the first person she helps must wait for vegetables, sauce, &c., while she is carving for others, or they must wait for their fish or meat. The sideboard for the late dinner must be laid fancifully and prettily, and with such a disposition of the tallest articles, that all the rest are shown to good effect. No knives should be seen, all should be silver and glass. Never turn a tumbler or a wineglass upside down in [614] arranging a sideboard or a table—it is a vulgarity. ”

“ Modern tables are provided with a shelf underneath, which runs from end to end at a convenient height from the floor; and this arrangement is exceedingly useful in large kitchens, because it saves a great deal of going to and fro between the centre and side tables; and in small kitchens where the table space is limited the wide shelf forms a good substitute. The table should be made of good, well-seasoned deal or other white hard wood; the top must be smooth, without cracks, and substantial, and the legs perfectly plain and strong. ”

“ A strict watch has to be kept on the table-napkins, or they are sure to be carried to the kitchen and pressed into the dirtiest of service as dish-cloths, lamp-cleaners, etc. However many kitchen-cloths and dusters may have been given out, you never find one which is fit to touch; nor, until experience has taught you to keep the paraffin and its attendant rags under lock and key, and yourself to superintend the cleaning and filling of the lamps, is there one cloth which does not communicate the smell and flavour of the oil to every plate, cup, and glass brought to table. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is awkward to ask eight guests and then find your best dessert-plates are a half-dozen set. While plates, forks, etc., may be washed, and so be used a second time at the same meal, it is better to have enough on hand for the entire luncheon. Washing delays the service, a thing now considered very undesirable. For the woman who possesses a handsome dining-table it is customary to use a centerpiece and place doilies, thus showing a portion of the polished wood. A white linen table-cloth is always in good style, however, no matter what the fad of the moment may be. ”

“ FIG. 4.
By the apparatus described above, many changes can be made, as a living man appearing in a previously empty chair, flowers growing on an empty bush, a change of a man into a woman, a painted picture into a living one, etc. In some effects a table is employed, to all appearances the common square kitchen table. A person is seen sitting at the table, which is empty; suddenly there appears before him a large dish of oranges or a meal. This is arranged by providing the table with a slot which runs diagonally from corner to corner. ”

“ When not in use this table may be moved to some other part of the room. There should be one more table in the kitchen, between two windows if the space will permit,—a settle table, which serves as a seat when not in use for ironing or some other purpose. Above the table have two shelves,—one for a clock, and the other for cook-books, the grocer’s and marketman’s order-books, etc. It is a good idea to have the corners of all the tables rounded, so that nobody shall be hurt by striking against them. ”

“ In default of a table regularly made for the purpose, the amateur may with little difficulty adapt an ordinary table for use as a makeshift. A common library or kitchen table having a drawer on one side, and raised on four bricks or blocks of wood to the requisite height will answer the purpose very fairly. The table must be covered with a cloth; and should have the drawer pulled out about six inches (the drawer side being, of course, away from the audience) to form the servante. ”

“ Where a cloth is used they may be hotter. Place a tray for the hot platter at the foot of the table, and stand the platter of chops on it. Lay a small carving-knife and tablespoon at the right of the platter, and a small carving-fork at its left. Place a pile of warmed plates in front of the platter.
When a chop has been served, take the plate in the right hand, place it on the tray, and take it to the lady of the house. Serve, first, all on one side of the table, then all on the other side. There is no choice in this service, for the carver asks each one if he may serve them. ”

“ It is sure to cut off one side of the table from the eyes of the other half. Women who must have what is newest use it for every kind of social entertaining—dinners, luncheons—wherever a table is used. More conservative hostesses have one for a wedding breakfast or other affair where there is no question of cutting off the view of any guest.
These baskets are really among the daintiest bits of table furniture that the florists have yet devised. Usually the body of the basket is more or less shallow. The handle curving over it is very high and carried out in some artistic design of wicker-work. ”

“ Many people make a most ostentatious display of plate and china on their sideboards, and if one has pretty things why not show them? The poorer and more modest have, on their sideboards, simply the things which will be needed. But there should be a row of large forks, a row of large knives, a row of small ones, a row of table-spoons, sauce-ladles, dessert- spoons, fish-slice and fork, a few tumblers, rows of claret, sherry, and Madeira glasses, and the reserve of dinner-plates. ”

“ Always spread the same side up, or the carpet will be soiled by the rug. Table-mats are needful, to prevent injury to the table from the warm dishes. Tea-cup-mats, or small plates, are useful to save the table-cloths from dripping tea or coffee. Butter-knives for the butter-plate, and salt-spoons for salt dishes, are designed to prevent those disgusting marks which are made when persons use their own knives to take salt or butter. A sugar-spoon should be kept in or by the sugar-dish, for the same purpose. ”

“ Not far removed from the dining table is the sideboard or buffet, so important a piece of furniture in the dining hall, for on it were formerly displayed table appointments and emblems of the feast. The urn-shaped knife boxes which were so often placed on either side were chiefly of mahogany, sometimes inlaid with satinwood and often with those rare shell-like ornaments which became so popular in the days of Chippendale and Sheraton. The compartments in which were placed the table knives prevented either blades or handles from being rubbed. ”

“ The tray taken to an invalid should be studied as carefully as the table in the dining-room. A trained eye will let no spot or stain on the dining-room linen escape it; nor will a trained waitress fail to replace a spotted cloth by a fresh one. On a tray cloth a coffee stain or a fruit stain is not at all sure to escape notice because it is covered by a plate or a saucer. ”

“ On the contrary, there are many tables where the closest economy is practiced; and yet the table-cloth is so white and smooth, the dishes, silver, glass, and other table articles so bright, and arranged with such propriety; the bread so light and sweet; the butter so beautiful, and every other article of food so well cooked, and so neatly and tastefully served, that every thing seems good, and pleases both the eye and the palate. ”

“ The proper placing of a side-table makes every difference in the serving of a meal. A small table at each end of the room is often desirable. This gives a proper place to put down a vegetable or other dish, without walking the length of the room, when the waitress needs to take a plate to the carver for a second helping. This table may hold whatever extras may be needed by the hostess for the dishes which she serves, as the table near the host holds extra carvers, etc., which he may need. ”

“ The shape of a table is a point of more importance than some people think. If you wish your dinner to be social—not a mere collection of tête-à-têtes—the table should be of a shape which will make it easy for each guest to address any one at the table. The long parallelogram, with the host at one end and the hostess at the other, is stiff, too broad, too long, and isolates the givers of the feast from the guests. ”

“ Not much luxury, but here and there tables and consoles of mahogany and rosewood with marble supports and gilt ornamentation, give tokens of former elegance, and in the two large glass presses built into the wall, a tea urn, vessels, all the accessories of the table in English electro-plate which does duty for silverplate. As for plate, in the true sense of the word, there are in the house only fourteen spoons and five forks, one soup spoon, six dessert spoons, and eleven little coffee spoons. ”

“ Tables with traps and other mechanical appliances are almost, if not entirely, out of date, no performer with any pretensions to originality making use of them.
A neat little table can be made from a piece of board eighteen inches in diameter, covered with red baize, and hung with fancy fringe to taste; the legs taking the form of an ordinary music stand. The under-side of the table is fitted with a brass plate holding a pin, about two inches long, to fit the socket of the stand. ”

“ Paper-bag Cookery calls for no big outlay of money, no patent stove oven, no complex apparatus or appliances. All that is necessary is an oven of any sort—coal, gas, electric, wood or oil—a broiler, a paper bag specially and sanitarily prepared,—grease proof and waterproof,—a wood cookery dish if the food contains liquid or a number of separate ingredients, and something to cook therein. Another convenience are the wire clips for fastening the mouth and corners of the bag, which can be purchased wherever the bags are sold. ”

“ To persons of good-breeding, nothing is more annoying than violations of the conventional proprieties of the table. Reaching over another person's plate; standing up, to reach distant articles, instead of asking to have them passed; using one's own knife and spoon for butter, salt, or sugar, when it is the custom of the family to provide separate utensils for the purpose; setting cups with the tea dripping from them, on the table-cloth, instead of the mats or small plates furnished; using the table-cloth instead of the napkins; eating fast, and in a noisy manner ”

“ The table cloths at every meal are masses of lace, and every sort of wonderful implement in the way of different gold forks and knives for every dish lie by your plate; and such exquisite glass; and some even have old polished tables like Aunt Maria, but instead of the simple slips they have mats and centrepieces and squares of magnificent lace. Only the very highest cream of the inner elect have plain table cloths and a little silver like we do at home. ”

“ The expert waitress will arrange her sideboard and side-table with as much care as she does the table itself. These two accessories should hold everything that may, can, or shall be needed. The sideboard may be left uncovered if the table is uncovered. If the table is draped, a suitable cloth must be laid on the sideboard. A side-table should always be draped. Use this for hot dishes without [Pg 5] stands. The sideboard should hold in readiness extra plates, knives, forks, spoons, tumblers and napkins, fine sugar for the pearled oats, a pitcher of water, and a pitcher of milk. ”