SPOON COLLECTING THE FAD.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 361, 9 April 1903, Page 3

SPOON COLLECTING THE FAD.

JHGohmhb »»▼* " Eim<&orta Ta3k» Tlkew

*TE ftoiffJ -object to fads KM principle,*' said the proprietor of a fashionable Broadway rest.aurant to a reporter for the Mew Yor* Times the other day, "but there is one in rogue now that I would like to see run its course and give way to one which respects the rights of property. The young women ox this town hare a craze for collecting restaurant spoons. They don't care for them at all, unless they bear the mark of the house from -which they were niched. No, they won't take them themselves. The aTerage young -woman, all reports "to the contrary notwithstanding, is timid when in a,public diningroom. They simply intimate to their gentlemen acquaintancea that thej r appreciate such thing* and the men they do the rest. "I can't say how many I hare lost from good customers whom I couldn't call down even if I were to catch them red-handed. The customer of a place like this is likely to be worth several hundred dollars in the course of a year, and a few spoons more or less would not cut down our profits to any large extent, but the practice is annoying, and for that reason more than any other I would like *o sea it abandoned.

"Say, I knew one young fellow who couldn't steal even to please his best girl. What do you suppose he did? He went and had a lot of spoons especially stamped with the names of different restaurants I and gave the.in to her one at a time. She undoubtedly has a large collection, but. X have often wondered since I heard, about it if she would aet as much'-' store by them as she does if she were to be informed that the donor Mme by them honestly."

MODERN CHHfA MONOGRAMS.

g»Utfi»etfve M&vtt Is the Present MipQe 'tn B9»*fc*Ber the Sots oS m SSousehoad. Much fit the handsome ehing we'd is marked with the monogram or croat of the owner. . It is a distinctive mark that differentiates the china from all other, ware, and the lettering ia an ornament in itSelf. It is usually the more simple :' china that is ornamented in this way, and an attempt is made always to put the lettering upon the side or wing of a plate, as the professional will say, to prevent wear. Old-time china was frequently marked in the center of the plate, and the marking was worn away by the knife and fork, says the New York Tribune. In some' instances entire sets of china for different courses are marked, and always each piece of a dish—the cover, the dish itself, and, if a soup tureen, the piece upon which it rests. The letters for the marking are always the initials of the mistress of the house and are put on in script in preference to the block letters. The lettering is usually in, gold, but occasionally one letter will be put in in oolc* and the others in gold. The gold may be flat or raised, and upon this will depend largely the cost of the lettering. The flat gold will cost six dollars a dozen and upward and the raised gold from sls to $lB a dozen and upward. BOUNTY FOR TRIPLETS*

OikMt-Mnble Praettce That Cos* Queen VtAtorta About S*,BGO a Yean ior Forty Twm,

"I had once," Writes a correspondent of the London News, "the curiosity to write to Windsor castle and ask the origin of the queen's charitable practice of giving a 'bounty' to women who had given birth to triplets. I had a very courteous reply from the queen's private secretary explaining that the first gift to a woman who had three children at a birth was prompted solely by her majesty's sympathetic feeling toward her. The case had happened to come to the knowledge of the queen, and she sent a sovereign for each of the newly-arrived little Britons, as an assistance to the mother in her.- embarrassment of family treasures. This had happened about 40 years before this correspondence, and quite early in the reign, and had cost the queen's private purse about £3OO a year ever since. Of course, it is not in all cases of the kind that this 'bounty' is sent to the mother. It is only in those who are poor and apply for it, but as the majority of people are poor, and somehow these little surprises seem generally to overtake people who cannot afford them, the queen's bounty for triplets had come to be regarded almost as a mattes fll course." ti:,iii