Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book

Lay a plate, right side up, for each person. If the table be long, place one plate at each end, and those at the sides opposite each other. Place the napkin at the left of the plate, and at dinner place a piece of bread between the folds of the napkin. Place the knives, butter plate, and tumbler at the right of each plate, the forks at the left, and the soup and dessert spoons in front, the handles toward the right hand, — the number of each depending upon the number of courses. The fruit dish or flowers should occupy the centre of the table ; the salt and pepper, butter, jell}', pickles, etc., at the corners. Place the various dishes on the table in regular order, straight with the table, or, if at an angle, let there be some uniformity, never helter-skelter. The cups, plates, and dishes for hot food should be heated in hot water or in a warming-oven. Use a spoon to place ice in delicate glasses or pitchers ; or put in the water first, and then the ice, to avoid breaking. The Boston Cook Book. 441 Do not let the table become disordered during the meal. The dishes, plates, etc., should be removed noiselessly, one b}^ one ; and never piled one upon another, after the hasty fashion of second-class hotels. If the serving be done by the host and hostess, it is more convenient for them to sit at the sides of the table ; the host serving the substantial dishes, and the hostess the tea or coffee, vegetables or entrees, puddings, and the dessert. Where there are servants to do the waiting, the host and hostess may sit at the ends of the table, as there the}' can command a better view of their guests, and see that they are properly served. The hostess should serve the soup, salad, dessert, and coffee ; the host, the fish and meat ; and the servants, the vegetables and entrees. At a dinner served a la Itusse^ the fruit and flowers onl}^ are placed upon the table, the several courses being served from the side. Man}^ volumes have been written upon table etiquette. Some of the suggestions they contain are practical ; others useless. What is considered proper at one place or time is not approved under other circumstances ; and those desirous of observing the usages of good society are often sorely perplexed to keep pace with the variations of fashion. But if, instead of following mere arbitrary rules from the low standpoint of style,'' we would take for our guidance the best definition of true politeness as given by Dr. Watts, — " Love manifested in an easy and graceful manner,'' — we need never be at a loss as to " what to do and what not to do." A moment's observation will show the strictness of etiquette maintained in the famil}^ in which you may be a guest, — for instance, whether the servants are expected to take entire charge of serving everything, or whether the family reserve to themselves something of the happy privilege of courtesy and thought for each other; and you may forget with them, in the mutual interchange of the proper attentions, that freezing formahty which sometimes forbids that you should seem to know or care how your neighbor fares. "Think not of 442 The Boston Cook Book.