CHAPTER V.

MISCELLANEOUS SUPPERS--CAMPING PARTIES AND CLAMBAKES--NUTTING PARTY--HARVEST HOME SUPPER--AUTUMN SUPPERS--DICKENS SUPPER--BOSTON SUPPER PARTY--YACHTING PARTY--A BUTTERFLY SUPPER--YOUNG MARRIED COUPLES SUPPER--HEAD DRESS SUPPER PARTY--QUILTING SUPPER--WEDDING SUPPER--WAFFLE SUPPER--THE BOHEMIAN PICNIC SUPPER--RAILROAD PARTY--LITERARY SUPPER--PEANUT PARTY--FOLK LORE SUPPER--CAKE WALK SUPPER--BRIDGE WHIST SUPPER--AFTER THEATRE MENUS--A COLD SUPPER MENU FOR HOT WEATHER.

Throughout this broad land of ours, thousands of campers will be folding their white tents into compact rolls, tying gay blankets into portly bundles, investing in mosquito netting and hammocks, packing into boxes their cooking utensils and fishing tackle, and finally loading all into boat or farmer's wagon, to gain health and happiness, and incidentally, to have a royal good time.

Happy the camper who, taking hint from the big lumber camps, ties to his wagon an iron bean pot, and has always on hand for hungry souls a mess of delicious baked beans. Every well-regulated camp should have a bean-hole dug close by the camp fire, and then when guests come out from town, if the camp is near town, a bean bake enlivens things. The bean-hole is dug three feet square and carefully lined with flat stones or boulders, then it is filled with hard wood which makes fine coals. The wood is fired and burned until there glows a bed of hot coals and the stones are at white heat. A place is scooped out in the center for the bean-pot, and it is placed in this little oven, the coals swept back into place, the hot ashes added, and the hot earth around the fire put over it all. Then, snugly tucked away in their bed so warm, the beans are left alone for four and twenty hours. When taken out, steaming and fragrant, they are perfect in form, brown and crisp, and of flavor so delicious that the mouth waters at the mere recollection. This with brown bread or cone pone, baked in the ashes, and good strong coffee, makes a meal in itself, and if the beans are served hot, the hungry campers feel they have had a feast fit for a king. Those who cling to their bean-pots keep one mess of beans baking all the time and are never without this dish. Even city folks have had royal good times at bean bakes given at some home with large yard, and, with an addition to the beans, salads, sandwiches, cakes, and other frills, generally scorned and passed by for the delicious baked beans.

Naturally digging a hole in the ground and building a fire does not constitute a dish of baked beans; among other things necessary might be mentioned the beans themselves. These are soaked over night and then placed in the iron pot; the best sort is the English kettle with three iron legs and rounding bottom. Right in the center of the beans a place should be made for the pork. The pork should be pickled pork of a particular kind--fat on top, lean below and scored across the top. One pound of pork to one pound of beans is the allowance. For flavoring use one cookingspoonful of New Orleans molasses; one teaspoonful of mustard, one teaspoonful of salt and one of pepper. Stir into the beans and fill even to the top of the pork with water. Given twenty-four hours of slow baking, with no chance for the moisture to escape, the result is an ideal dish worth trying.

To the camper who comes in when the sun is tinging the western sky with crimson, tired and hungry from carrying a gun or holding a fishing rod all day, there is no dish so appreciated as chowder. This dish is easy of preparation. Take peeled potatoes and parboil them, then add fresh water, and put into the kettle the result of the day's chase. The little birds found along the streams, like squabs and sandpipers, are fat and give the chowder a fine flavor. In go the fish, squirrels and other small game, the fish of course, being boned. Add green corn cut from the cob, salt and pepper, and perhaps a little salt pork, though the little birds furnish fat enough. Serve smoking hot and as you stretch your tired limbs under the camp table, you will thank your stars that some genius invented chowder.

The ideal way to cook fish in camp is to first clean the fish and then stuff it, if one chooses (though he need not stuff the fish unless he like) and then make a stiff mortar of clay and encase the fish. Lay it on the coals and when the clay cracks and peels off the skin of the fish comes off with it, leaving the pure sweet fresh meat, which retains the juices and delicate aroma of the fish. This way of cooking fish cannot be beaten. This is also a good way to cook corn. Just leave on the husks and lay the ears on the coals and by the time the husks have burned off the corn is cooked deliciously. In the regions where shad abounds, there is nothing to be compared with planked shad, and this is the most popular dish. The shad is fastened on an oak shingle and turned before the fire until it is cooked, when it will be found that the fish has absorbed the aroma of the wood and the result is a flavor that delights epicures.

CLAM BAKE.

A clam-bake is a delight wherever and whenever partaken of, but when it is prepared in the piney woods of Cape Cod by the inimitable skippers of Buzzards Bay it is something that is not to be forgotten. It is a joy, from the gathering of the first stone to the swallowing of the last possible clam.

The skippers of Onset are particularly noted for their skill in making clam-bakes.

First select the stones, (which must be about the size of large paving blocks,) and arrange them in a circle. Then bring wood and chips and brush and lay them in the center, and thoroughly pile on top other blocks which have been collected.

The pile of stones and wood being completed, the next thing is to set fire to it, and soon a merry blaze rises up, the flames licking around the stones and forming a pretty picture.

The stones once hot enough the real work of the bake begins. The right amount of heat has been obtained, a barrow load of rockweed is brought--rockweed, not seaweed. As soon as the rockweed is thrown on the red hot stones a salty, savory smelling steam begins to rise.

First and foremost come two great barrow loads of clams which are spread on the steaming rockweed, then follow great piles of blue fish, each fish being stuffed and wrapped in a piece of cheesecloth to prevent coming into contact with the weed.

The blue fish is carefully placed on top of the clams and following that is a heaping load of corn, with a few leaves left on each ear to protect it from the weed. When the corn is piled high a barrow weighed down with live lobsters is brought.

Be particular over the disposition of the lobsters. Each one is placed with care and precision into the precise spot where it will do most good.

A milk pail full of fresh eggs follows the lobsters and the whole mass of food is buried in a stack of rockweed, and to complete the process a sail and a tarpaulin are drawn over the top and battened all down so that not a speck of steam can escape.

While the guests play games or stroll along the shore, the men heat big, round stones in the oven. This is a deep hole lined with stones, and the fire is built in the hole. When the fire dies down the stones are left red hot. Then the chef places dozens of clams in their shells on the hot rocks. Then a blue fish wrapped in cheesecloth and then half a dozen chickens prepared for broiling and wrapped in a similar way are placed in the hole. Next comes a peck of Irish potatoes with their jackets on, and three dozen ears of sweet corn. Over it all is packed seaweed and then heavy canvas, and then the guests sit patiently for three-quarters of an hour until the steam has thoroughly cooked the supper. When it is done it is fit for a king, and is served on a long table of boards, on wooden platters, with big watermelons for dessert.

NUTTING PARTY.

A nutting party is particularly appropriate to be given during the fall season.

The invitation may be written on paper, folded neatly and slipped inside an English walnut shell--which is then glued together and sent in a small box, labeled "A Nut to Crack."

Decorations should carry out, as far as possible, the effect of a woodland scene. The walls may be entirely covered with branches of autumn leaves, and mantels and over doorways banked with pine boughs and greenery of all sorts. Rustic tables and chairs, if available, are most appropriate, and lights shaded with red or yellow shades. As the guests arrive, each should be given a peanut shell, glued together or tied with ribbons. On a slip of paper inside is written the number of table and partner. To indicate progressions, ribbons may be glued to nuts of different kinds and one given for each game won. Or little baskets may be given into which a nut is dropped for each game won. Or if tally cards for finding partners are preferred, they may be painted to represent nuts of different kinds, not more than two being alike.

The nutting game itself is played similarly to that well known children's game, "jackstraws." On each table is placed a pair of bonbon tongs--the kind that come in candy boxes are best--and a tall tumbler heaped full of nuts--peanuts are best for the purpose--with one gilded nut. For the first game, lady No. 1 at all the tables begins play and after the first game the lady begins who lost in the game preceding. The gentleman opposing the lady who begins play, carefully turns out on the table the peanuts and the players proceed as in jackstraws, getting with the tongs as many peanuts as possible, one at a time, without shaking the others. The winners progress and change partners, after the bell rings at the head table. At the head table, as at the other tables, the winners progress and the losing lady remaining begins play for the next game. At the head table each player has two chances at the peanuts and then the bell is rung. The natural-color peanuts count one each and the gilded one ten.

Suitable prizes are: For the ladies, a silver English walnut thimble case; a linen centerpiece in chestnut design; a silver almond charm, "Philopena," which opens with kernel inside; a silver English walnut, exact size, which opens, containing powder puff, mirror, place for miniature, small scent bottle and pin-cushion, "All in a Nut Shell"; a real English walnut shell containing a fine lace-betrimmed handkerchief, enclosed in a series of boxes, one fitting within the other; a sterling silver almond set or almond scoop; a silver vinaigrette in exact reproduction of a peanut. For the gentlemen, a burnt wood nut bowl, with nut cracker and set of nut picks; a handsome edition of E. P. Roe's "Opening of a Chestnut Burr;" a silver peanut magic pencil, etc. The shops show big paper mache English walnuts, peanuts and almonds, full of sweetmeats in imitation of the real nuts, which make appropriate consolation prizes. French "surprise mottoes" in the shape of walnuts, each containing a hat, make very amusing favors.

The refreshments may perfectly carry out the nutting idea:

_Peanut Sandwiches, Walnut Sandwiches,_ _Chicken and Nut Salad,_ _Salted Nuts,_ _Bisque of Almonds or Burnt Almond Ice Cream,_ _Cocoanut, Hickory Nut, or Pecan Cake,_ _Nut Bonbons, Festinos,_ _Cheese Balls with English Walnuts,_ _Coffee._

For the peanut sandwiches, use the ready-made peanut butter. For walnut sandwiches, chop meats very fine, mix with mayonnaise and spread on buttered bread. Serve salad on lettuce leaf, garnished with a few whole nut meats. In salting mixed nuts, it is not considered necessary to blanch any except almonds and peanuts. The bisque of almonds requires one pound blanched almonds, one heaping cup of sugar and two pints of cream. Pound almonds a few at a time, together with a little sugar and rosewater, mix with cream and freeze. For burnt almond ice cream use one quart of cream, one-half pound of sugar, four ounces of shelled almonds, one teaspoon of caramel, one tablespoon of vanilla, 4 tablespoons of sherry. Blanch and roast almonds, then pound in a mortar to a smooth paste. Put one-half the cream and the sugar on to boil, stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add the remaining pint of cream and the almonds; stand away to cool; when cold, add the caramel, vanilla and sherry. Freeze and pack. For the nut cake, use two pounds nuts cut fine, eight eggs, one pound sugar, one pound flour, one teacup butter, two heaping teaspoons baking powder, one cup milk, and juice of one lemon. Mould the cheese balls round with the hands, and stick an English walnut meat on either side.

HARVEST HOME SUPPER.

The rooms can be trimmed beautifully with corn, asparagus, hops, Jack-o'lanterns, and so on. State in the invitations, which are to be tied in corn husks with grass, that a hay-rack will call for the guests.

On each of the gate posts place huge Jack-o'lanterns. In fact, have these for illumination wherever one can find places to put them. For decoration use autumnal grasses, wheat, oats and corn, and festoon strings of them wherever possible. Make a frieze around the room of ears of corn from which the husks are pulled apart. This will form a festoon from which will hang down like tassels, the ears of white and yellow corn, and if one can find a few red ears so much the better.

Bank the fire-place and corners with boughs of autumn leaves, and festoon them in garlands wherever there is a vacant place. Scrub the bare floors well, put a little wax on them, and engage one or two musicians to dispense old time melodies.

Carry out the Harvest Home idea in the dining-room. Have most of the decorations, fruits and garlands with graceful sprays of the Virginia creeper in the glory of its autumnal colors, festooned from doors to windows and back again, and have the table decorations the same. Serve the guests sitting around the room, with delicious turkey, ham, bread, sweet and sour pickles, doughnuts, cider, etc. By all means have pumpkin pie, which would be so much in keeping with the occasion.

AN AUTUMN SUPPER.

Just before closing your cottage for the season, send out invitations to friends, asking them to spend an evening with you at your home. The invitations may be written upon scarlet maple leaves. When the evening for entertaining arrives the cottage should reflect the glory of the woods. Boughs and branches of silver and sugar maples decorate the hall, "den," dining room and kitchen, and berries, vines and burrs fill jars, vases and cornucopias of birch bark. In the rough stone fire-places, log fires burn. The guests go to the kitchen to make maple sugar creams, and while the candy is hardening, games are played and stories told. Each guest, blindfolded, must draw the outline of a maple leaf. Next, leaf shaped cards are distributed with the names of different trees written upon them, acrostically arranged. A nut race closes the games, and the prizes are then awarded. Then the company may gather around the fire. Bundles of lichen covered twigs, of pine cones and of twisted tree roots are selected according to individual fancy and put on the fire, each person telling a story, original or otherwise, until his bundle is burned away; the changing shapes in the fire suggesting many quaint fancies.

For table decorations have a garland of leaves encircle the polished top just outside the plates. A large wreath and a low bowl of nut burrs and sprays of bright leaves and berries make a gorgeous centerpiece. Have smaller wreaths around the bonbon and nut dishes, and mats of leaves laid under the plates and dishes and used for doilies under the finger bowls. A birch bark cornucopia of maple sugar candy and a droll little nut Indian clad in a scarlet blanket by each plate make pretty souvenirs of the feast. Leaves can be pasted on the candle shades which are made of stiff-buff paper:

_Roasted Quail on Toast,_ _Strawed Potatoes,_ _Salad Sandwiches, Maple Layer Cake,_ _Waffles,_ _Nuts, Coffee._

WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE PUMPKIN.

The hostess who wants to provide a simple, and at the same time a novel entertainment for her friends should call to her aid the glossy, orange coated pumpkins. With pumpkins for the motif, so to speak, an evening full of fun may be enjoyed. Decorate square white cards with a huge pumpkin; one who cannot draw can cut a very presentable looking pumpkin from orange paper and paste it on the cards. Then write on each: The Mighty Mammoth Pumpkin will be on exhibition at Mrs. Blanks, from 7 to 11 p. m., next Thursday night. You are cordially invited to come and guess its weight. Get the largest pumpkin you can find and a goodly collection of shapely, medium-sized ones. Make a record of the weight, the length, and the girth of the big pumpkin, then carefully cut open lengthwise and scoop out, and if trouble is no object count the seeds. Fill the pumpkin with sawdust and bury in it the souvenirs, simple little trifles, orange hued penwipers, needlebooks, pincushions, etc. Wrap them up in paper and bury them deep. Set the pumpkin on a mat of leaves on a small table and label "Hands Off." Each guest is given a card with a pencil attached to record his guesses. Little leather covered inkstands, the exact counterpart of tiny pumpkins, and pumpkin paper weights equally as natural in appearance are appropriate for the head prizes, while pumpkin emery bags and pumpkin-shaped blotters will please the winners of the boobies. The rest of the evening may be spent in carving Jack o' Lanterns from, small pumpkins. The guests may be required to write a recipe for pumpkin pie which will bring forth some wonderful flights of fancy. Decorate the rooms with pumpkin vases filled with chrysanthemums and have a bowl of orange fruit cup set inside of a large pumpkin for the guests' refreshment during the evening. In setting the table have a pumpkin vase of ferns and yellow and white chrysanthemums for the centerpiece. The supper is served from pumpkin dishes. Select round, deep pumpkins with a stem, choosing those of a pretty color and shape. Saw off the tops even, so they may be put back on the pumpkins as lids, scoop out and line with parchment paper. As this supper is very informal, sandwiches with various fillings, a rich chicken salad made with walnut meats and chopped celery, cheese and bread sticks and coffee may form the substantial part. Stuffed figs and dates, bonbons and macaroons are served for the sweet course and an orange ice or snow pudding in little pumpkin paper cases.

A DICKENS' SUPPER.

A happy selection of time for a Dickens party is the Christmas season, which is so peculiarly connected with so many of Dickens' writings.

Have the rooms brilliantly lighted, and the bright berries of the Christmas holly against a background of the "ivy green" which Dickens loved. The hostess might dress in a handsome costume of the time of Edith Dombey.

The guests can each represent some character of Dickens.

Betsy Trotwood, tall and rigid in stiff gown and tight cap.

Dora, young and blonde, with infantile manner.

Peggotty, buxom and tightly compressed into her gown.

Dick Swiveller and the marchioness.

Mrs. Tizziwig, "one vast substantial smile."

Madame Defarge, stolid and plying her ceaseless knitting.

Joey B., with his swagger, "Sly sir; devilish sly."

Mr. Micawber, bland and portly.

Little Nell and her grandfather, and so on with the characters which Dickens has made living creatures indeed. Gathered in the reception rooms the group will make a quaint, lovely picture to the entering guest. When all the guests have arrived cards are distributed, on each of which is a water colored sketch of some of Dickens' characters. An English walnut shell tied with pink ribbon and attached to the corner of the card holds a quotation from Dickens, and beneath this nut is the pertinent quotation, "The Dickens to crack." A prize can be awarded to the one answering most correctly from which books the different quotations were taken.

Some of the pathetic scenes from Dombey and Son can be read by some one whose musical voice and gentle face, as well as intelligent reading, make this part especially effective. The hostess can read an extract from verses headed "The Christmas Carol" in Pickwick Papers.

"My song I troll out, for Xmas stout The hearty, the true and the bold; A bumper I drain and with might and main Give three cheers for this Christmas old! We'll usher him in with a merry din, That shall gladden his joyous heart, And we'll keep him up while there's bite or sup, And in fellowship good we'll part."

Pass around small glasses of egg-nog and have toasts of Christmas cheer.

For refreshments have delicious oyster and mushroom cream soup, cold wild duck, jelly and celery. A frozen salad after this; it is made of tomatoes (canned) cooked a little, strained, and when cold mixed with a thin mayonnaise, then frozen, making a delight for the palate. The ice is a lemon ice frozen in individual molds very hard and covered with a hot chocolate sauce, making a most delicious blending of hot and cold, sweet and sour. A tiny glass of cordial completes the repast.

For the prize for the quotations have a handsome copy of Christmas Stories tied with red ribbons and ornamented with a bunch of holly. For the booby prize have a bag of the buttons Peggotty burst from her gown when an exuberance of emotion filled her breast.

A BOSTON SUPPER PARTY.

When the guests assemble put them in charge of a man with a megaphone and start them through the rooms on a "Seeing Boston" tour. Have fake tablets and different objects to represent the places of interest. These objects could be numbered and turn the "Seeing Boston" into a guessing contest. Give each guest a note book and pencil to enter the correct name opposite the correct number. This can include side trips to Lexington, Concord, Bedford, etc.

Take the folders and circulars of a trip through Boston, cut out the tiny pictures, mount on grey paper, letter with white ink and give them as souvenirs. Or remove all lettering and use these pictures as a contest, asking the guests to name the pictures correctly. For amusement have "Paul Revere's Ride" acted in pantomine, or charades on the different names. For supper serve pork and baked beans, Boston brown bread, pie, tea, etc. Tiny earthen bean-pots, spectacles, handbags, imitation folders--any of these things would do for souvenirs.

A YACHTING PARTY.

Have a large room fitted up as the deck and after deck of a steam yacht. To reach the room have the guests climb through a hatchway. Steamer chairs and nautical paraphernalia fill the deck and a dozen life preservers hang conveniently near. Have all the necessary rigging and a flag pole floating the yacht flag. The host and his guests should wear yachting costumes and the souvenirs be tiny red and green lanterns for the men and yacht stickpins for the girls. The menu cards are decorated with the insignia of the yacht and couched in nautical terms. Serve the following menu:

_Oysters in Block of Ice_ _Celery, Stuffed Olives, Salted Wafers_ _Rum Omelet_ _Cold Ham, Cold Tongue, Olives_ _Pate de fois gras Sandwiches, Rare Beef Sandwiches_ _Roquefort Cheese, Hard Crackers_ _Grape Fruit Salad_ _Coffee_

A BUTTERFLY SUPPER.

Under the chandeliers, in corners and doorways, have butterflies fluttering from invisible silver wires. These butterflies are made from delicate hued crepe paper, their wings marked with rings of ruby, green, blue, gold and silver. Each guest is offered a butterfly on entering the drawing room; the men wearing them as boutonniers, the women putting them in their hair.

The host fastens a large paper butterfly, minus one wing and the antennae, to a curtain hung across a window. Each guest, in turn, blindfolded, tests his idea of distance in trying to pin the wing and antennae on the butterfly. A set of six paper butterfly princess lamp shades is the woman's head prize. A butterfly whisk holder, containing a silver handled brush, is given the equally lucky man. The "boobies" are a miniature lantern and a toy spy-glass.

In the dining room this supper is served. First a fruit drink, lemonade or grape juice. On the plate on which the glass cup rests have a small bunch of purple grapes. Decorate fish plates with lemon baskets holding the sauce tartare. With broiled chops serve stuffed tomatoes and corn pudding moulded in cups with white sauce flavored with onion. Serve raspberry ice. For salad serve pears and German cherries sweetened. For dessert serve the nutmeg muskmelons filled with ice cream or ice.

Have a tin-smith make a butterfly shaped cake cutter, four inches across the wings. Bake these cakes in a quick oven, ice them white, pink and green and then mark with rings of a contrasting color of icing.

The centre scarf and doilies, of fine white linen, for the dining table, have a cut-out butterfly border worked with white silk and gold thread. A fairy rose-tree, trained on a bamboo trellis, the pot dressed in skirts of white and green paper and sash of satin ribbon, makes a most effective centre piece. Paper butterflies shade the candles, and a crepe paper covered box of bonbons, with a butterfly hovering over the top, stands beside each plate. Decorate the name cards with sketches of butterflies.

YOUNG MARRIED COUPLES' SUPPER.

For the young married couples' supper carry out the heart-shape idea. Outline large heart in smilax on the table. Have the smilax at least three inches wide. Dot it with clusters of roses, lilies of the valley or any preferred flower. In the center have a mound of the same flowers and between the center and the smilax place individual candlesticks with white candles and shades to match the flowers. A few single flowers may be scattered over the cloth. For a menu serve a fruit cup in the parlor before asking the guests to the dining room. At the table have first hot bouillon with a bit of lemon in it. Have the main course fried chicken and rice with shoestring potatoes, tiny red radishes, creamed cauliflower, pickles and hot rolls. Creamed sweetbreads on toast may be used for a course if wished. Serve salmon salad on a lettuce leaf and with it reception flakes on which grated cheese has been sprinkled and the wafers put in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. To serve the chicken take a large chop plate, pile the rice in a snowy mound in the center and place the pieces of chicken around it, serving a spoonful of rice with each piece of chicken.

A HEAD-DRESS SUPPER PARTY.

For a head-dress party ask each guest to dress the hair in some fancy way. The men dressing in Washington, Jefferson and other wigs noted in history, while the ladies fix their locks according to noted beauties, queens, and others. Strings of pearls, tiaras, and jewels make a beautiful display. Conventional evening dress is worn in most instances, save where a ruff or frill is added to heighten the effect of the headgear. A prize is offered for the best head-dress. The minuet makes a pretty dance to finish the evening.

For refreshments serve chicken salad in tomatoes hollowed out or cucumber boats, cheese wafers, stuffed olives, tiny pickles and squares of jelly, strawberries and plain vanilla ice cream, chocolate cake, coffee or chocolate. Serve fruit punch during the evening.

A QUILTING SUPPER.

Build a little log cabin of twigs for the center of the supper table and arrange stick candy, bread sticks, celery, cheesesticks and other viands, log-cabin style, on pretty plates. Light the table by candles in old-fashioned candlesticks. Serve a hot course, oyster patties, sandwiches, potato salad, hot gingerbread, apple sauce, tea and coffee.

WEDDING SUPPER.

First serve an orange or lemon ice. Serve this in tall glasses and decorate the top of the glass with a sprig of mint. Have the ice served from a tray decorated with a wreath of green or green and white. For the green have mint leaves, lemon verbena or geranium leaves or ferns. Then serve chicken salad made of the breast of chicken cut in dice, celery cut coarse, and large nut meats. Add sweetbreads and cucumbers to the salad if desired. Mix with a white mayonnaise and serve in white head lettuce, using the cup-like outside leaves. Use the tiny lettuce heart for a crown, and garnish with white radishes cut into roses, and olives cut in fancy shapes. Serve plain white bread and butter sandwiches cut in hearts and rings or salted wafers. Have the salad on white plates and passed from a tray trimmed in ferns or white sweet peas. Have the ice cream in any fancy shape. Pink hearts dotted with pink candied roseleaves makes a very pretty course. Lay a pink rose on each plate. If one cannot get fancy shapes from their caterer, use the cone shaped spoon and dish the cream in shape of cones. Then surmount each cone with a pink candy heart. For cakes, serve cocoanut balls or squares of white cake covered with pink or green icing. Serve these from a tray or platter covered with pink and white sweet peas, putting the cakes in among the flowers. Have the wedding cake on a flower trimmed table under a gay little canopy and have the bride cut it the last thing, after coffee is passed.

A WAFFLE SUPPER.

Let us have a waffle party and introduce some of the men to more intimate acquaintance with the mysteries of the cuisine.

Flat dwellers (the word always reminds me of "Cliff dwellers") seem to consider that the propinquity of the kitchen makes entertaining a difficult matter, but if the truth were known, it makes possible many a winter evening's jollity.

The invitations are made of cream white satin, fashioned in the exact shape and size of a waffle section, padded with white cotton wadding and tacked to simulate the meeting place of the irons. They are then scorched to the right color with a hot iron and on them is printed in sepia tints

"Come and eat me;"

on the reverse side is printed

Date "----, at 8 P. M. ---- Ave."

Use the abbreviated forms for this lettering on account of the difficulty encountered from limited space and the writing on satin.

Before the evening arrives prepare cards about four by six inches, in the center of which print a much praised recipe for waffles, reading as follows: Six cups flour; three teaspoonfuls baking powder; four cups milk; three tablespoonfuls butter; one and one-half teaspoonfuls salt; nine eggs beaten separately. Mix flour, baking powder and salt, yolks with milk, then melted butter, flour and last the beaten whites.

In the upper left hand corner of the card have a small pen and ink sketch of some cooking utensil and in the right hand corner a number. In the center a ribbon for fastening. The utensils are as follows: 1. Waffle irons. 2. Mixing bowl. 3. Milk bottle. 4. Salt box. 5. Eggs. 6. Egg beater. 7. Butter. 8. Flour sieve.

It is possible to introduce as many different cooking utensils as there are guests.

After half an hour's visit let the guests all repair to the kitchen where the numbered articles are to be found. No. 1, to whom is apportioned the two waffle irons, lights the gas under them, greases the irons when hot with a square of salt pork on the end of a fork and--later--cooks the first waffle, but that comes later on. Each secures his special utensil.

The Master of Ceremonies takes charge and calls off the various ingredients in proper order. Number 2 warms the mixing bowl slightly, Number 3 unstoppers the milk and measures it, Number 4 measures the salt, Number 5 breaks the eggs and beats the yolks, Number 6 beats the whites, Number 7 melts the butter, Number 8 measures the flour, Number 9 produces and measures the baking powder, etc.

Finally, when all is ready and the Master of Ceremonies has superintended the proper mixing, the rest adjourn to the dining room, leaving numbers one and two to bake the first waffles.

The Master of Ceremonies sits at the head and the numbers run consecutively from his right. The swinging doors through the butler's pantry are propped open so as not to isolate the cooks and the supper begins.

At one end of the table have a medium sized veal loaf, at the other a mould of tongue jellied with hard boiled eggs. Chocolate is poured at one side of the table, coffee at the other. Marmalade, pickles and graham bread cut thin and made into sandwiches are placed in small dishes. Two large bowls of whipped cream with small bowls of powdered sugar, two pitchers of maple syrup boiled down and beaten until thick as batter, are for service with the waffles.

By the time the meats are served, the first sets of waffles are ready and the cooks pass them around. The next couple then pass to the kitchen to bake the next sets and so on until all are served.

THE BOHEMIAN PICNIC SUPPER.

An indoor moonlight picnic is a new diversion. The lights should be hidden by soft white silk shades, giving a moonlight effect, and the rooms decorated with foliage plants. A fishpond with grotesque objects, including a live mermaid, (a man in startling costume), is one feature. In one room is a "merry-go-round." The chairs are placed in a circle and a graphaphone in the center plays popular tunes. At 10 o'clock the doors to the dining room are opened. The table cloth is spread on the floor, surrounded by cushions. In one corner of the room are the baskets containing the supper of sandwiches, olives, pickles, baked beans, cake, pie and other picnic favorites. The girls take the viands from the baskets and arrange them on the floor, while the men serve coffee from a coffee boiler on a small table. During the meal each guest is obliged to describe some picnic he has attended or pay a forfeit.

A RAILROAD PARTY.

Have a "railroad party" if you like the refreshing flavor of informality at your social functions.

Have the invitations read, "an excursion on the Funville, Frolictown & Featherbrain Railway."

To begin with, the rapidly gathering guests "getting aboard" are greeted by the hostess and her receiving party, who cover their evening attire with spic-and-span linen dusters and caps. Down the line are distributed a miscellaneous collection of peregrinating paraphernalia from the red and white cotton umbrella, which the hostess resolutely grasps in the middle, to the omnipresent hand-box and the traditional bird cage.

With a final "all aboard" from a bustling man in regulation railway uniform, accompanied by the clanging of a bell, the trip to interesting cities begins. The conductor, in blue coat and brass buttons, promptly appears, to distribute tickets to the animated tourists. These tickets are in booklet form, inside the covers being an eighteen-inch pink paper ticket. At the top is a space for the excursionist's name, and further down a series of spaces where the excursionist is to write the names of the various stations at which the train is to stop. The name of the station is suggested by a preceding statement. This ticket, including "rules and regulations," as well as correct insertions for the stations, reads as follows:

THE FUNVILLE, FROLICTOWN & FEATHERBRAIN RAILWAY.

_Excursion Ticket_

_Issued to_ ...............................................

_Tuesday_, ---- ----

_Good for One Trip Only._

Rules and Regulations.

This Ticket is not transferable, reversible, or salable. It must be signed by the person to whom it is assigned.

The conductor will not punch this ticket. Punch is prohibited on this railroad.

If you cannot crack these nuts call on the brakeman.

Do not pull the bell rope; this is not a Pullman car.

The Company will not be responsible for cattle killed by the carelessness of the passengers who throw crackers out of the window.

Doctors are not provided on this train, but if you have the grip it can be checked by the baggage master.

The porter is the car-pet and he has to have his tax.

_The First Station at Which this Train Stops is:_

That for which our forefathers fought.

INDEPENDENCE.

_The Second is:_

A female habiliment.

GALVESTON.

_The Third is:_

A military defense and a Paris dressmaker.

FORT WORTH.

_The Fourth is:_

An ancient city whose downfall, after a long siege, avenged the abduction of a woman.

TROY.

_The Fifth is:_

An accident which generally gives one a ducking.

BATH.

_The Sixth is:_

An opera encore.

SING SING.

_The Seventh is:_

A city whose end and aim is "go."

CHICAGO.

_The Eighth is:_

Begins with an exclamation, appeals to maternity, ends with a laugh.

OMAHA.

_The Ninth is:_

A board of city fathers, in connection with a precipice.

COUNCIL BLUFFS.

_The Tenth is:_

Where the seat of affection is easily waded.

HARTFORD.

_The Eleventh is:_

One of the Apostles.

ST. PAUL.

_The Twelfth is:_

A woman's Monday occupation and two thousand pounds.

WASHINGTON.

_The Thirteenth is:_

An infernal region, a girl's name.

HELENA.

_The Fourteenth is:_

What a young man called when his sweetheart Anna was drowning.

SAVANNAH.

_The Fifteenth is:_

An afflicted stream.

CRIPPLE CREEK.

_The Sixteenth is:_

A small geological formation.

ROCK ISLAND.

_The Seventeenth is:_

What most old maids desire to find.

MANITOU.

_The Eighteenth is:_

A pleasing beverage and a period.

WYANDOTTE.

_The Nineteenth is:_

Outward sign of spiritual grace and exclamation.

SACRAMENTO.

_The Twentieth is:_

A young miss and a slang term of coin.

GALLATIN.

_The Twenty-First is:_

The father of Democracy and a large town.

JEFFERSON CITY.

_The Twenty-Second is:_

An extinct King of the Prairies.

BUFFALO.

_The Twenty-Third is:_

A girl's name, a laugh and a tumble.

MINNEHAHA FALLS.

_The Twenty-Fourth is:_

That upon which we rely.

PROVIDENCE.

_The Twenty-Fifth is:_

A bandmaster's staff and a society girl's cheeks.

BATON ROUGE.

Appropriate prizes--leather traveling bags--are awarded to excursionists who have done the most sight seeing--that is, who have guessed the names of most of the stations. In the mean time small boys in uniform pass through the "parlor cars" dispensing to the passengers such train delectables as popcorn and peanuts, while other uniformed youths pass lemonade in the time-honored tin receptacle with glasses in openings at the side.

Suddenly the station supper gong is sounded and the brisk announcement made, "Twenty minutes for refreshments." Thereupon the lively excursionists proceed in sections to the dining room where the novel feature of the railroad party is cleverly carried out. Along one end of the room is constructed a high lunch counter with every equipment of the metropolitan station. There is the steaming coffee urn, the familiar glass covers under which repose pumpkin pie and doughnuts, old-fashioned cake-stands with fruit, and so on. Bright colored placards on the wall announce the eatables, including chicken and ham sandwiches, stuffed eggs, hokey-pokey ice cream, assorted cakes, coffee, chocolate and milk.

The floral decorations in this "buffet car" are effective. The white cloth that covers the counter and extends to the floor is festooned with strings of smilax and spotted with sprays of fern. On top of the counter is a huge bowl of scarlet roses, and two immense palms behind the lunch counter make a pleasing background. In all the coaches, in fact, flowers and foliage are used in profusion.

LITERARY SUPPER.

Give each guest a card numbered, and ask him to draw thereon a picture which shall illustrate some well-known novel. When all have finished have them pass the cards and on a second numbered list write the titles of the books illustrated. Give a prize for the most perfect list and the best illustration. Let the guests vote on the best illustration.

Or, pin on the back of a guest the name of a character in a book, or the name of an author, and let him by questions discover his own identity. If he fails to guess and has to be told, he sits down. If he guesses correctly, another name is pinned on his back, and another, and so on. The one guessing the greatest number of names receives the prize, which may be simply a bunch of flowers.

Ask each guest to wear something representing the title of a book. Give each a number as he enters and a list of numbers and let all place correct names opposite the numbers on their lists. Write a simple love story, leaving blanks to be filled with names of books. This may be written on a large sheet of paper or on a blackboard, the blanks numbered and each guest given a numbered list to place words intended to fill blanks, or enough copies may be made for each guest to have a copy.

Partners for supper may be found by cutting quotations in half and matching them again. Or one guest may be given the name of a book to find his partner in the author; or he may receive a slip containing the name of some man character in fiction, to find his partner in the corresponding woman character, as "David Copperfield" would seek "Dora," "Mr. Micawber" would seek "Mrs. Micawber," etc.

Serve pressed chicken or veal cut in squares resting on cress; sandwiches of white grapes and nuts, chopped pickle; fruit salad served in white lettuce leaves, cheese crackers, ice cream or ices, cake, coffee or chocolate. Make the cheese crackers by spreading a thin layer of cheese on the crackers and toasting them in the oven.

A PEANUT PARTY.

Write invitations on cards cut out and painted to represent peanuts.

Have them read, "Won't you come next Tuesday night at 7 o'clock and help me gather my peanut crop? Cordially yours,"

When the guests assemble the night of the party, give each one a gay calico bag and a large wooden spoon. Then explain that they are to hunt for the peanuts on the lower floor of the house, and that the peanuts can only be taken up with the aid of the spoons. Half an hour is allowed to gather the peanut crop, and then the bags are marked with the gatherer's name and dropped into a large straw basket--the bag containing the largest number of peanuts receives a prize. This hunt causes much merriment.

When the time has expired and the bags are all in the basket, a large bowl of peanuts is put on a table and each guest given a needle and thread and told to make a necklace and pair of bracelets,--the best made set of peanut jewelry to be awarded a prize. The next feature of the evening's fun is making and dressing quaint little Chinese figures of peanuts. Crepe paper of various hues is provided for the costumes, and black thread for the queues. First the peanuts are strung to form the little manikins, then eyes, nose and mouth are marked on with ink. Jackets and trousers are next cut and made, and the little Ching-Changs are dressed. Pigtails are plaited and sewed on to the tops of the heads, then the hats go on and the little celestials are ready to be inspected by the judges. These dolls the guests keep as souvenirs of their skill.

In the dining room have a small evergreen tree planted in a china jardiniere in the center of the supper table with little peanut owls perched on the branches of the tree. These owls have wings of light manila paper and are marked with ink to represent feathers. Big, staring eyes add a touch of realism. The owls are attached to the branches, singly and in groups, with glue.

For supper serve creamed chicken patties, tiny hot rolls, brandied peaches or sweet watermelon pickle; salad of cucumbers and mayonnaise served on lettuce leaves or cress, peanut butter, and chopped smoked tongue sandwiches, ice cream served in sherbet glasses, assorted cakes, coffee or chocolate.

FOLK LORE SUPPER.

Engage real colored singers to give a program of songs of the Southland, the old-time plantation melodies. Arrange the stage with a log cabin surrounded by sunflowers in the background and a cotton field in foreground, and have the singers costumed as field hands. Some of the best known and best liked songs include "Old Black Joe," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Nobody Knows the Trouble I Am Seeing," "Nellie Gray," "Suawanee River," "Way Over Jordan," "Ride up in the Chariot," "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground," "Dixie." Serve a fried chicken supper with rice, hot biscuits, syrup, cornpone, ice cream and cake and coffee. The program can end with buck and wing dancing, jigs and cakewalks.

CAKE WALK SUPPER.

At this cake walk there is no walking for the cake. The cakes themselves walk for prizes.

Ask each guest to dress representing a certain variety of cake, but concealing the name of the particular cake represented.

Give a prize to the person who discovers the largest number of names.

One girl representing Wedding Cake can come with bridal veil, orange blossom wreath and shower bouquet.

Fruit Cake may be suggested by a girl carrying a graceful basket of fruit which she distributes to the company. In her hair she may wear a crown of artificial grapes and grape leaves.

A woman of very diminutive size who might be thought to be almost ineligible for the gathering because she came without insignia of any kind might represent short cake.

And these are but a few of the ingenuities. The entire list is too long to give here, but each repetition is sure to call forth new ideas.

The winner of the first prize receives a pretty china cake dish, while the second prize is a dainty cake knife in silver. There is a booby, too--a small cook book giving twenty-five choice recipes for cakes.

The guessing of the cakes is followed by an informal supper. Serve

_Chicken Mousse with Lettuce and Nut Salad_ _Brown Bread and Butter Sandwiches_ _Olives, Salted Almonds_ _Peach Bavarian Cream, Fancy Cakes_ _Coffee_

MENU AND SERVICE FOR BRIDGE SUPPER PARTY.

If one wishes a dainty and appetizing menu for a card supper serve sweetbread and celery salad, stuffed olives and tiny pickles, assorted sandwiches and plain vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate sauce, fruit cake, white cake and coffee.

While the judges are counting the points for game, have the maid lay a lunch cloth on each table. Serve the sweetbread salad either in cucumbers hollowed out or in red or green pepper shells, resting on a wreath of watercress. A pretty effect is secured by using alternate green and red peppers and leaving the tops with the stem for covers. Tie the tiniest of red peppers to the stems with narrow green ribbon for decoration. The sweetbread salad is made of cold cooked sweetbreads and celery cut into dice and covered with mayonnaise. If one adds a few sliced almond meats and mushrooms the flavor is improved. Serve ham sandwiches cut in shape of playing cards and decorated with bits of pickled beets to simulate card spots, heart shaped sandwiches of chopped green peppers and mayonnaise, cucumbers and watercress mixed with mayonnaise, plain bread and butter sandwiches, using brown and white bread. If one wishes a hot course, serve oyster or cream chicken patties and tiny hot rolls. The fork is brought on the plate with the salad or hot course.

Serve ice cream in the sherbet glasses with stems. Place a lace paper doily on the plate, stand the glass on this and lay a pink rose on the plate. Pass the hot chocolate sauce in a silver or pretty china pitcher, or have it poured over the ice cream before it is brought in. Pass the coffee in after dinner coffee cups, the maid bringing in a tray full of the cups followed by an assistant with sugar, cream and after dinner coffee spoons.

Cut the cake into squares and pass in silver basket or handsome plate with doily.

"AFTER THE THEATRE" MENUS.

_Cold Chicken in Cranberry Jelly Cups_ _Celery and Oyster Patties_ _Bread and Butter Sandwiches_ _Lemon Jelly with Whipped Cream_ _Ice Cream, Lady Fingers, Cocoanut_ _Macaroons_ _Bonbons, Coffee_

_Mushroom Patties_ _Turkey and Celery Salad in Lettuce Cups_ _Cheese and Nut Sandwiches_ _Pineapple Jelly with Whipped Cream_ _Vanilla Ice Cream_ _Small Sponge Cakes_ _Coffee with Whipped Cream_

OYSTER CRABS ON STEAK.

Since dealers do not sell oyster crabs at reasonable rates where they know their value or have a fashionable trade, if economical, one has to find a modest oyster house where they do not bring a cent and more apiece, but are for sale in bulk. A few dozen at least are needed for the steak. Oyster crabs are tiny things and they shrink in cooking.

The pan must be hot with plenty of butter in it Throw in the crabs whole of course, for they are wee things, clean as an oyster, and let them cook to a turn. Salt and pepper them and turn them over the steak which has been broiled exactly right. The oyster crabs must be cooked so as to be ready when the steak is done.

A COLD SUPPER MENU FOR HOT WEATHER.

_Iced Consomme_ _Celery, Salted Wafers_ _Lobster en Mayonnaise, Brown Bread Sandwiches_ _Cold Filet of Beef_ _Saratoga Potatoes, Jelly, Brandied Cherries_ _Tomatoes Stuffed with Celery, Green Peppers and Cucumbers_ _Chicken Salad_ _Roquefort Cheese, Toasted Crackers_ _Ice Cream in Canteloupes_ _Fruits, Crystallized Candies_