Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1891 — Lunch and Dining. [ARTICLE]

Lunch and Dining.

Dining and lunching one’s friends have always been and will remain the favorite method of entertainmant. As Owen Meredith says, “We may live without friends, we may live without books, but civilized men cannot live without cooks.” Sir Joshua Beynolds was a great dinner giver, but in his dinings belonged none of the daintiness of arrangement and attention to detail so essential now-a-days. That wonderful artist believed in gathering about his board men whose tastes and vocations were to a degree compatible. Nor was that a mistaken basis upon which to build a successful dinner. To-day the appearance of the table is a question of great importance, and were the bouillon weak and tasteless mine host would soon forget it, provided the butler had had the forethought to serve it in dainty Dresden cups or egg-like shells of Sevres. A very pretty luncheon table, and an inexpensive one, is formed by abandoning the table cover altogether and using the unclothed table in all the glory of its poljjhed surface. A square of fringed linen embroidered in dainty silks is the center-piece, with a jardiniere filled with ferns or flowers standing in the middle of the table. Smaller squares of linen embroidered in the same design are placed under each plate, relieving the hard effect of the wood. The custom of laying a small bouguet, and oftentimes but a single rose, by the plate of each guest, is a pretty one, and not an extravagant one. either. The napkins should be embroidered with monograms and placed at the right of the plate, with a long roll folded in each. The desired number of knives must be on the right and the forks on the left. The custom of serving one’s edibles from the table is quite a thing of the past, and now everything is served from a side-table or buffet, or brought in from the butler’s pantry. A silver or cut-glass dish of olives is sometimes used as one of the ornamentations of the table, and an exquisite dish for bonbons is left standing throughout the twelve or thirteen courses, for the or breakfast of to-day is not unlike a dinner, and is fully as elaborate in preparation.