CHAPTER III.

DINNERS AND ENTERTAINMENTS FOR PATRIOTIC, HOLIDAY AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS.

VALENTINE LUNCHEON.

Here is a Valentine luncheon for young girls suggesting the "Sweet Sixteen" idea in a novel and beautiful manner. Spun sugar should be used exclusively in most of the table decorations. Have a round table set in pure white and crystal, the latest fad. At each girl's plate have a flower done in candy in a realistic manner.

On each side of the table have small, red heart-shaped candy baskets filled with red candy hearts. Imitation baskets of rock candy tied with bows of candy ribbons holding preserved citron, ginger and nuts glace. The fruit salad should be served in paper cases imitating pink roses. Over the salad have a white mayonnaise dotted with pink rose petals. The crackers heart shaped. The ice cream should be served in white candy baskets with tall handles. For place cards use pink hearts.

A LINCOLN DINNER.

As most of the evening is spent in the dining-room, particular attention is given to the decoration of it, and the appointments of the table, to make them original and attractive. The national colors prevail in the use of bunting and flowers, and none save those peculiar to February should be utilized; tropical foliage is dispensed with, and, inasmuch as Kentucky was Mr. Lincoln's native state, only such evergreens as are native to that commonwealth--as holly, cedar, laurel, etc.,--should be used to supply the necessary greenery disposed about the room, the particular arrangement of which must be decided by the furnishings therein and by individual taste.

The table is laid in the regulation white, dotted over with American Beauty petals and violets, the edge being draped in laurel tied with tri-colored ribbon. In the middle is laid a round mat of woodland moss to simulate bluegrass, and on it rests a miniature log cabin, around which is built a fancy rail fence made of chocolate sticks; a number of little pickaninnies are seen playing about the house, and grin out at the guests, which renders the effect very realistic and interesting. Little jugs tied with blue ribbon are also prominent features. In front of each cover stands a diminutive barrel labeled "Old Bourbon," but in reality holding nothing more harmful than delicious bon bons, unless it happens to be a stag affair, when the genuine article would be preferable. Ices are presented in fancy moulds decorated with small darkies, and in the form of the dome of the Capitol, or any other suggestive figure that one prefers.

In issuing the invitations the guests are informed that one and all will be expected to contribute to the general enjoyment by relating some story or anecdote of Lincoln.

FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY.

Menu for Irish Luncheon:

_Cream of Potato Soup with Powdered Parsley,_ _Celery Curls (Pigtails),_ _Salted Almonds,_ _Pigs in Blankets,_ _(Oysters skewered in slices of bacon and broiled),_ _Coldslaw,_ _Croquettes shaped like Potatoes, resting in Beds of Cress,_ _Stuffed Baked Potatoes (Fixed with tiny wooden skewers to resemble Pigs),_ _Spinach served in Shamrock Decorated Cases,_ _Shamrock-shaped Bread and Butter Sandwiches,_ _Sweet Watermelon Pickle or Spiced Peach, decorated with Angelica Shamrocks,_ _Salad of French Beans, Peas and Pearl Onions in Lettuce Leaf,_ _Ice Cream in Slices decorated with Green Sugar Shamrocks,_ _or Pistachio Ice Cream,_ _Small Cakes decorated with Harps of Gold Candies,_ _Coffee, Buttermilk._

For favors there are Irish hats, clay pipes, Irish flags, harps, shamrocks, bon bon boxes, green snakes, etc. Oxalis answers for shamrock and pots of this arranged in a "fairy ring" with fairy lamps or green-shaded candles make a pretty, inexpensive centerpiece.

ATTRACTIVE EASTER LUNCHEON.

An extremely attractive Easter luncheon is as follows: The table is round, covered with a snowy damask cloth, exquisite china, sparkling glass and silver. The center piece, a small gilded cart, wreathed in violets and smilax, holds decorated eggs colored in tints of yellow and purple, while mingling with them are clusters of violets tied with lavender ribbons, one end extending to the front of each cover and there attached to wee yellow chickens resting in nests of violets, in whose beaks are tiny cards with name in gold.

Have also nests of spun sugar containing candy eggs, wax tapers burning under creamy lace shades. At each end of the table tall vases filled with ferns and garlanded with vines and at every plate daffodils growing in pots covered with green tissue paper.

This is the menu:

_Clear Tomato Soup,_ _Baked Shad, Bermuda Potatoes,_ _Roast Spring Lamb, Creamed Onions,_ _Orange Halves,_ _Chicken Croquettes, Celery Salad,_ _Neapolitan Ice Cream, Sponge Cake,_ _Chocolate._

CAP AND BELLS LUNCHEON FOR APRIL FIRST.

For an April fool luncheon write your invitations in red ink on dunce caps, cut out of yellow paper and seal with red seal. Call your luncheon a "Cap and Bells" or "Harlequin" luncheon, as you prefer. Use bowls of red and yellow tulips, or red carnations, in yellow bowls. Rustic wall pockets with pussy willows, tied with pale green ribbon, are delightful April decorations. When the guests assemble give them snapping bon bons which make paper caps. Let them wear these caps to the dining-room. Do not put names on the guest cards; let each draw a card from a dunce cap. Have the card clowns cut from water-color paper and a suitable quotation and a number on each one. This number marks the order of procedure to the dining-room and the privilege of choosing seats. In this way no one can regard the card quotation as offensively personal. If you wish an "April Fool" menu, serve it as a buffet luncheon before going to the table. You can find imitation dishes of every sort at the caterer's.

Over the round dining table suspend a hoop wound with smilax or red and yellow ribbon. From this hoop hang tiny bells by invisible wires. A Japanese "windbell" is especially suitable. It consists of pieces of metal of odd shapes so suspended that they strike in the wind. Light your table by red candles with yellow dunce cap shades. In the center of the table have a clown or "Pierrot" in costume of red with large yellow dots, driving toy geese by red and yellow ribbons. These geese may be made of water-color paper and filled with salted almonds and bon bons. At each plate have a "fool's stick" or wand. This is made by winding a short stick with red and yellow ribbon, the ends of which are fastened at the top with a gilt-headed tack, and tiny bells are fastened to the ends of the ribbons. Use maidenhair ferns at the base of the center piece and the candlesticks to give a touch of green. Serve:

_Clam Bouillon with Alphabet Crackers,_ _Celery Curls, Radishes,_ _Salted Almonds, Lobster Patties,_ _Bread and Butter Sandwiches,_ _Cucumber Jelly, Creamed Peas,_ _Squab on Squares of Hominy in Wreath of Cress,_ _New Potatoes with Parsley,_ _Wild Grape Jelly, Mint Ice,_ _Spring Salad of Sliced Cucumbers,_ _Tomatoes, Radishes in Lettuce Cups,_ _Cheese Straws,_ _Vanilla Ice Cream in Cone Shape with Large Strawberry_ _Tipped with Whipped Cream on Top and Ring_ _of Fresh Strawberries at the Base._

DECORATION DAY LUNCHEON.

This pretty luncheon combines two features--it can be given on Decoration Day, and also as a bon voyage luncheon. Have bands of red, white and blue ribbon radiate from the center of the table to each plate, and a large cutglass bowl filled with white flowers, roses, hyacinths and narcissi and ferns stand in the center. Before each plate have a tiny ship in full sail, the name of the guest written in gilt on the silk sail. The favor for the guest of honor might be a bon bon box made in imitation of a shawl strap. Inside have a tiny silk flag.

Red and white should be carried out in the menu. Have a white soup with whipped cream. The salmon salad served in white paper boats with tiny American flags sticking in the prow. The ices frozen in form of flags. The cakes red, white and violet icing.

FOR A HALLOWE'EN DINNER.

Have a big pumpkin filled with yellow chrysanthemums for the center of the table and at each place a tiny pumpkin made into a candle with a green pumpkin leaf shade. Light the room with jack o' lanterns or yellow Chinese lanterns. For the menu serve cream of corn soup in yellow bowls. Serve turkey, cranberry jelly, mashed turnips, baked sweet potatoes, on yellow plates. Serve fruit salad in the red apple cups, with pumpkin pie and yellow ice cream frozen in shape of pumpkins, for dessert. Serve coffee in yellow cups.

FOURTH OF JULY DINNER.

A beautiful summer dinner for July Fourth is as follows: On the table have a centerpiece of pineapple cloth over pale green satin, on which place a flat willow basket of green and white striped grasses that border the garden flower beds. From this basket have wavy lines of pale green gauze ribbon reaching to each corner of the table, the ribbons ending in flat bouquets of daisies tied with grasses. The dinner cards should be cut out of water-color paper in the shape of long, narrow spikes of lilies and fastened to the glasses by flaps on the backs. The menu is clam bisque; lobster cutlets with egg sauce; timbales of sweetbreads; new carrots with fine herbs; crown of lamb with mint sauce; potato croquettes and salsify; peach ice; truffle-stuffed squab, cress; asparagus and lettuce salad; green cornucopiae of ice cream filled with lemon ice; white cake with green icing; coffee, nuts glace.

A LUNCHEON FOR THANKSGIVING.

Have this sentiment painted on a white or dark gray background framed in cedar boughs and placed over your mantel:

The waning year grows brown and gray and dull, And poets sing November, bleak and sere; But from the bounteous garnered harvest store, With grateful hearts we draw Thanksgiving cheer.

Place a row of white candles in pewter candlesticks across the mantel and display all the old china, pewter, brass and copper about the dining-room. Use cedar boughs to decorate the chandelier and plate rail. In the center of the bare table have a miniature stack of wheat (the florist can furnish this). Peeping out of the wheat have toy turkey candy boxes filled with almonds or hickory nut meats and raisins. Have the candles on the table set in flat cedar wreaths and scatter pine needles over the surface of the table. At each plate have a little doll dressed in Puritan costume with the name card tied around her neck. If one wishes to add a bit of color to the table use old-fashioned blue and white or colored bowls, in one pile glossy red apples, in another purple and white grapes, in another oranges. Here are some suitable Colonial dishes: Brown bread, roasted fowl, oysters in every style, cakes of Indian meal called bannocks which are spread before the fire on large tins and baked before the fire, brown sugar and molasses for sweetening; fruit cake, molasses cake, pumpkin, apple and mince pie; jellies, jams and conserves (a sweet mixture of fruits). Use all the old-fashioned china and silver possible.

THANKSGIVING DINNER.

First an old-fashioned oyster stew served in old white, gold-banded tureen.

Next fish-balls--not great, soggy old-fashioned fish cakes, but the daintiest little golden-brown balls, fried in a basket in hot fat, and not more than an inch in diameter, just a good mouthful. Have them served individually, smoking hot, heaped up in the daintiest little piles, with a few tiny sprigs of baby parsley for garnish.

Next will come the turkey, a monster bird, "with stuffing" made of Italian chestnuts.

It goes without saying that with this will be served the historic cranberry jelly, which may be moulded in a square tin and served in tiny cubical blocks. After the sweet potatoes are baked the contents will be removed, whipped light as a feather with two well-beaten eggs, a little milk, pepper, salt and butter, the skins refilled, stood on end in a pan and the tops browned in the oven.

Then Roman punch.

Then two good old-fashioned pies, one pumpkin, the other mince, each about two inches thick.

A CHRISTMAS DINNER.

If one wishes to develop the idea of Santa and his sleigh, buy a doll and dress as Santa and fashion a sleigh out of cardboard and color red. About Santa and his sleigh, which may be filled with bonbons or tiny gifts like animals from Noah's ark, etc., for the guests, have imitation snow of coarse salt or sugar, or cotton sprinkled with diamond dust. Have tiny sprigs of evergreen standing upright for trees. At each plate have a tiny sleigh filled with red and green candies and light the table with red candles and shades in shape of Christmas bells. Have the dinner cards ornamented with little water-color Santa Claus' heads or little trees. If one uses the Christmas bell idea have the bells covered with scarlet crape tissue and swung from the chandelier. One can have the letters on them spell "Merry Christmas." In the center of the table place a mound of holly with bright red berries; have red candles arranged in any design one chooses, and far enough away so their heat will not ignite the tissue paper bells. White paper shades with sprays of holly painted or tied on make pretty Christmas shades. Have the bonbons, nuts, salads and ice cream served in cases in shape of bells, or have the ice cream frozen in bell shape. If one wishes to decorate with the tiny trees, fasten them upright in flower pots and cover the pots with red paper. Hang bonbons or sparkling objects and tinsel or little favors of bells for the guests from the branches of the trees. The holly wreaths may be used in any way the fancy dictates--a large center wreath and if the table is round, a second larger one near the edge of the table, leaving room for the plates or single candlesticks set in tiny wreaths at intervals between the larger wreaths. A wreath dinner is very pretty and easy to plan, for the different dishes may be garnished with wreaths of parsley, radishes, endive, cress, or the sweets with rings of kisses, macaroons, whipped cream roses, candies, etc.

Here is a suitable menu. Oyster or clam cocktail, wafers, consomme, bouillon or cream of celery soup, celery, radishes, small square crackers. If one wishes a fish course, creamed lobster or salmon with potato balls. Roast Turkey or game of any sort, glazed sweet potatoes, corn fritters, creamed peas, peach, currant or grape jelly, hot rolls. Cranberry sherbet; nut salad with plain bread and butter sandwiches, individual plum puddings with burning brandy, ice cream in any desired shape, white cake or fruit cake if one does not have the plum pudding, cheese, crackers, coffee.

AN UNUSUALLY ORIGINAL DINNER.

A quail dinner given recently will furnish ideas for others who wish to give a dinner out of the ordinary. Let the oblong table on which the dinner is served represent a field with miniature shocks of grain and stubble in which are quail, pheasants' and other birds' nests. A border of toy guns stacked mark the edge of the field. At each man's place have a toy figure of a hunter with some toy fastened to the back telling some joke on the diner. The women can have birds' nest candy boxes surmounted by birds. The name cards can be English hunting scene postals.

This is the menu:

_Blue Points,_ _Celery Hearts, Olives, Stuffed Olives,_ _Cream of Asparagus with Asparagus Points, Crackers,_ _Broiled Fresh Spanish Mackerel served on Lettuce Ribbons,_ _Cucumbers, Cannon Ball Potatoes,_ _Sherry, Champagne Punch,_ _Quail on Toast, French Peas, Stewed Mushrooms on_ _Toast, Hot Rolls,_ _Champagne,_ _(Salad, Head Lettuce, French Beans, Ring of Chopped_ _Whites of Eggs, Ring of Powdered Yolks_ _of Eggs, French Dressing,)_ _Crackers and Melted Cheese,_ _Chestnut Ice Cream molded in Form of Broiled Quail and_ _Asparagus Tips, Eggnog Sauce,_ _Coffee and Liqueurs in the Drawingroom._

A SPRING DINNER.

To secure a pretty effect pull the extension table apart and fill in the center space with palms and ferns, keeping the foliage low enough not to interfere with the vision of the guests. Across each end of the table lay a pale green satin and lace cover on which place French baskets filled with yellow daffodils and pink tulips. Before each place set tall stem vases filled with yellow daffodils resting on wreaths of pink begonias. Have the pink and yellow candies in French baskets tied with the same colors. Use monograms of the guests on plain white cards with tiny silver boots tied to a corner for favors. Serve:

_Green Grapes Dipped in Sugar,_ _Cream Salsify Soup in Bouillon Cups,_ _Bread Sticks,_ _Deviled Lobster in Shell,_ _Cucumber Mayonnaise,_ _Squab on Toast, Creamed Potatoes,_ _Ice Cream in Form of Fruits,_ _White Cake, Coffee._

COLLEGE DINNERS.

To those who may have the planning of college dinners, the description of this Harvard dinner may not come amiss.

In the center of the table have a large bowl of red tulips; red shades on the candles standing at either end of the table. The favors can be small boxes in the shape of foot-balls filled with red candies. The place-cards in the shape of foot-balls, cut out of red cardboard, and painted in black and white; by each plate a roll with a small Harvard flag, of silk. Place the olives, nuts and red candies in small paper cases covered with tissue paper, which match in shape as well as in color, the central bouquet of tulips.

Even in the menu the color scheme may be carried out as far as possible with tomato bisque, deviled crabs served in the shells, chicken croquettes, fillet of beef, garnished with cress and radishes, beet salad and ice cream baskets filled with strawberries. The croquettes can be made in the shape of foot-balls. The beets for the salad are boiled until tender, and when cold scooped out and filled with dressed celery. A few curved cuts made around the sides of the beets give the effect of flower petals. The little cakes, served with the ice-cream, are covered with red frosting.

If Princeton be the Alma Mater in whose honor the feast is spread, tiger-lilies should be the flowers used on the center of the table, and the menu would of course, differ much from the one already given. Instead might be substituted black bean soup with slices of hard boiled egg; fried scallops and Saratoga potatoes; sweet bread pates; chicken with sweet potatoes; and carrots cut with a vegetable cutter into what are called shoestrings; lobster salad served in paper boxes, having around the outside, ruffles of orange crepe paper; and orange ice served in the natural oranges. If one prefers a change from the wishbone creation, Noah's Ark tigers may stand guard over the pates.

A Yale dinner would be the most difficult to arrange as there are no fruits or vegetables that could rightly be called blue, unless some varieties of grapes and plums might be considered as coming under that head. But with a large central bouquet of cornflowers, with blue ribbons extending from this to each cover, where under the bow or rosette will be laid the corn-cob pipe or other souvenir, and with blue crepe paper used to decorate some of the dishes, the table will present quite as attractive an appearance as either of the other dinners; while the genial guests will probably enjoy the feast fully as well, and be quite as loyal, even if the roast and salad do not show the college colors.