tain vegetables, as sweet corn on the cob, may be regarded as a
course by themselves, being too clumsy to be disposed of conveniently
on a plate with other things.

The game course is next in order (if it is included, as it generally is
in an elaborate dinner). Celery is an appropriate accompaniment of the
game course. The salad is sometimes served with the game; otherwise it
follows as a course by itself.

The salad marks the end of the heavy courses. The crumb tray is
brought, and the table-cloth is cleared of all stray fragments. A
rolled napkin makes a quiet brush for this purpose, especially on a
finely polished damask cloth.

The dessert is now in order. Finger-bowls and doylies are brought in
on the dessert-plates. Each person at once removes the bowl and doyley
to make ready for whatever is to be put on the plate.

Ices, sweets (pastry and confections), cheese, follow in course; and,
finally, the fruits and bon-bons. Strong coffee is served last of all,
in small cups. Fashion decrees _cafe noir_, and few lovers of cream
care to rebel on so formal an occasion as a dinner; but when the
formality is not too rigid, the little cream jug may be smuggled in for
those who prefer _cafe au lait_.

Water is the staple drink of the American dinner-table. A palatable
table water, like Apollinaris, well iced, is an elegant substitute for
wine when habit or conscience forbids the latter.

When wine is served with the different courses at dinner, the
appropriate use is as follows: with soup, sherry; with the fish,
chablis, hock, or sauterne; with the roast, claret and champagne; after
the game course, Madeira and port; with the dessert, sherry, claret, or
Burgundy. After dinner are served champagne and other sparkling wines,
just off the ice, and served without decanting, a napkin being wrapped
around the wet bottle.

While wine may be accounted indispensable by many, the growing
sentiment in favor of its total banishment from the dinner-table has
this effect on the etiquette of the case, that the neglect to provide
wine for even a very formal dinner is not now the breach of good form
which it would have been held to be some years ago. Such neglect has
been sanctioned by the example of acknowledged social leaders; and when
it is the exponent of a temperance principle it has the respect of
every diner-out, whatever his private choice in the matter. No
_gentleman_ will grumble at the absence of wine at his hos