Upon
the Serving of Wines.

CHAPTER II. How to Send the Invitation--How to Serve in Proper Form
Dinners and Luncheons With Menus and Recipes--The Invitation--Dinner
Menus--Simple Menu--More Elaborate Menu--A Full Course Dinner--The Ease
of a Course Dinner--A Fine Menu--A Mid-Summer Dinner--Luncheon
Menus--Simple Luncheon--More Elaborate Luncheon--A Berry
Luncheon--Mid-Summer Luncheon--A Rural Luncheon--Buffet Luncheon for
Sixty.

CHAPTER III. Dinners and Entertainments for Patriotic, Holiday and
Special Occasions--Valentine Luncheon--A Lincoln Dinner--For St.
Patrick's Day--Attractive Easter Luncheon--Cap and Bells Luncheon for
April First--Decoration Day Luncheon--For a Hallowe'en Dinner--A Fourth
of July Dinner--A Luncheon for Thanksgiving--Thanksgiving Dinner--A
Christmas Dinner--An unusually Original Dinner--A Spring Dinner--College
Dinners.

CHAPTER IV. "Ice Breakers," Suggestions for Dinner, Menu and Place
Cards, Table Stories, Toasts, Table Decorations.

CHAPTER V. Helps Over Hard Places--Hints to the Hostess--Don'ts for the
Table--The Emergency Mistress--Passing the Loving Cup.

CHAPTER I.

DINNER-GIVING FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF BUSY HOUSEWIVES.

Three things are required to give an enjoyable dinner party; good taste,
good judgment and an intuitive sense of harmony. Good taste suggests the
proper thing in table dressing, in menu cards, in viands and beverages.
Good judgment dictates the fortunate time, the appropriate guests, the
seasonable dishes and topics; and last, a sense of harmony is the
quality that throws a glamour over all, combining pleasant parts in one
symmetrical whole, making a picture "distinct like the billows, but one
like the sea." This sense of harmony never yokes uncongenial persons at
table, except through unavoidable necessity. It is on the alert to
suggest congenial topics and deftly turn the conversation away from
disputed or disagreeable ones. It will often succeed in putting a
garrulous and self-assertive man who likes to talk all the time, beside
a mild and inoffensive woman who is content if she has naught to do but
listen and--eat. It will swell the heart of a silent man with gratitude
by reversing this action and placing beside him a woman who chatters
like a magpie. It will often turn the stupid guest, who for various
reasons will, in spite of all, occasionally appear at the best of
tables, over to an intimate friend to whom a sacrifice for the sake of
the host or