DECORATIONS OF THE DINNER TABLE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2420, 7 January 1882, Page 4

DECORATIONS OF THE DINNER TABLE.

It is impossible for the average female mind to confront unmoved the delightful possibilities to-day afforded by the service of the dinner table. Times have have changed since the mistress of a household was wont to set before her guests a feast like the daydream of lohabod Crane, where, “the pigeons were snugly put to bed in a comfortable pie and tucked in with a coverlet of crust, the geese swimming in their own gravy, and the ducks pairing cozily in dishes, like snug married couples, with a decent competency of onion-sauce.” The now universal diner a la Jlutse with airy hints, suggestions, innuendoes of ministry to the appetite, has limited each course to one dish offered at a time, with attendant sauce or vegetable. Giving a dinner- party in the country in by-gone davs, for instance, what labor did it not entail ? The ladies of the family spent hoars in the seclusion of storeroom or pantry, with curls tuoked up, and ribbons obscured by a gingham apron, while weighing, measuring, egg.beating, almond-blanching, icing, garnishing, seasoning, tasting and gossiping—all this, and much more, till the lavish banquet “ stood confest’’ before the eyes of twenty hungry guests who had driven over miles of winter bound roads, to bo punctual at the hour of two P. M.! Modern degeneracy has materially lessened the labor of hospitality. The modern chatelaine bids her guests, and consults with her cook —then abandons all concern. In a well ordered city establishment, the cares of entertaining are comparatively light. And this state of things is by no means to be found exclusively in the household most liberally endowed with wealth and most abundantly equipped with servants. To deprive a woman of a due amount of Eeraonal painstaking in the preparation for or guests, would be to rob her of one of the chief enjoyments of hospitality. The adjustment of rooms and furniture, the arrangement of flowers, is hers. Though the work of setting silver, crystal and steel upon the cloth may be done by a trained servant, there are last touches no hand but hers may gits. An hour before the coming of the guests you may behold a sylph in trailing Watteau gown of cashmere, with saucy little bows, glide into the dining room and hover around her board. There are wreaths of stnilax to be trained over piles of rosy fruit, and flowers to be grouped in studied carelessness beside each plate; dinner cards and the mighty question of places to be settled ; bonbons, little cakes and orystalised fruit to be arranged. Lamps and candles must be passed in review, the temperature of the room regulated, screens set and partieres drawn for the comfort of the company—then a word of admonition to the servants about the warmth of the soup and the chill of the oysters, before the mistress vanishes into her dressing room to reappear and take her place, watchful, gracious, yet unconscious, as hostess of the feast. The rigid forms of Eastlake’s Jacobean table are common now, despite the remonstrance of old dinner givers, who claim there is no shape so comfortable, so sociable, or so attractive as the perfect round. TJnlil recently table cloths have been restricted to an ornament arising merely from the gloss obtained by various distributions of the warp and woof in weaving. The specimens of British and Saxony table damask are satin-like in texture. But from Dresden has now come a table cloth quite new in conception, representing a dance of oupids amid garlands of flowers, encircling the centrepiece. And the profluent tide of color has invaded even this stainless snow. In January, in 1872, table cloths were made, imitating the Renaissance linen, and bearing a familiar design of the Royal Meissen china—the Zweibelmuster or onion pattern, in colored borders. Since then, scarlet and blue reappear in monogram and crest, with traceries in arabesque wrought by baud upon the damask. A table-cover, with napkins and sideboard cloth, has been made with a broidery of soarlet poppies, wronght in washing cotton, interwoven with mottoes in German text., Variety thus laid on the corner-stone of the dinner table appears throughout. The changes are kaleidoscopic and bewildering. Yon take your soup in Severs, your entrees in England, and so on, till you come to fruit and coffee, in Ohina and Japan. It is like a “voyage around the world in eighty"— minutes. The correct affectation with connoisseurs iu ceramics is to reverse the plate set before them, and study the marks subscribed, with an air of inscrutable wisdom. But avoid the catastrophe which befel an absent-minded man not long ego, who, forgetting that he had just been helped, turned over his plate, bestowing a 11 bouohee a la reine ” upon the satin lap of the lady next to him. The use of heavy silver pieces has been generally superseded by pretty bits of glass and porcelain containing flowers. This fashion is in reality an economy, as any lady may select from her cabinet or mantelshelf a Venice jug, a Do niton or a Minton vase, or a tiny iridescent bulb of glass, aud group her own flowers, without resorting to the costly aid of the florist. For bouquets offered at each plate, come horn-shaped holders in Italian straw, flat baskets to suspend by ribbons from the waist, and horse-shoes made of violets, to use in similar fashion. A phase of the dessert at a recent dinner may prove suggestive, especially as the general effect resulted more from a harmonious assembling of colors than from lavish display of wealth. The centre-pieoe was a glowing mass of scarlet poinsettia and white japonicas, the latter cut with long stems and having dark green foliage. Side dishes at dessert, Anger bowls and ice cream plates were ruby Bohemian glass. The doyleys were etched with red silk in tiny Japanese designs. The candelabra used were clear crystal, with bobeohes of ruby glass, aud the red wax candles had each a little jaunty cap, or shade of scarlet silk. The sparkle of fire-light and candle-light over all, ro-oalled the impression produced upon Jane Eyre by the drawingroom of Tborcfield, “ a general blending of snow and fire.” It should be quite a consolation to our country friends, who have so long been sighing for the luxury of gas, that candles again play a prominent part in the household. The old fashioned double-branched silver-plated candelabra, now eagerly sought in the brio-a-brae shops and bought at the price of 40 dole, a [pair, are very much in vogue, and those people are fortunate who possess antique candlesticks in genuine silver. Dining-room candelabra should be set upon the table, or upon mantelshelf or sideboard. There is no artificial light so becoming as the mild, unwavering lustre of lamp or candle.—“ Woman's Handiwork in Modern Homes."