Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-05
TEA TABLE TALK.

What looks to be a pack of flannel playing cards is new kind of penwiper, which, how ever, may not find its way to a clergymana study table
 Fancy baskets made by the plain Indiana in the neighborhood of Bar Harbor are the craze, and are utilized for bonbon boxes at o'clock teas. ...----szs.4.s
 German favors are of a more practical and useful kind than ever before, and indicate a current of common sense forcing it's way into fashionable festivity.: aas 5
 Triplicate pincusions have crowded the old fashioned fat family out of sight among people who sniff at ancestry, and insist that grandfathers portrait shall be hung in the garrett
 With so many quaint and pretty things for the library desk or table, cne can form a mu- scum or miniature woman's exchange, even If there is no inspiration to be drawn from the exhibition.
 For loose photographs there is what ap- pears to be large volumes of poems. The top of where the leaves should be slides off, and then even the most obtuse can see where to put the pictures.
 Newest correspondence cards have few lines of verse appertaining to letter writing across the top, which have been cleverly se- lected. even if it may be a struggle to search out all the authors.
 A paper weight made of large square block of glass, with clock and calendar the center, accessible by means of slide in the sback, is new, and expensive enough not to be "common" for @ while
 Large straw shells, like what Venus and Undine are represented on in chromos, are design in waste baskets. They are inge- niously mounted, and artificial seaweed and grasses help on the illusion. A maid. presumably Holland, with water pails from yoke on her shoulders, comes in china and does duty an ash receiver. She is dainty and fragile enough for speedy de- struction at the hands of the hired girl. Note paper, actually yard long and two inches wide, with ''just few words" face tiously inscribed on the upper left hand cor ner, comes in box of the same dimensions, with "Great Scottr' printed ill big letters on | the cover.
 Tulip candlesticks are new, and, it goes without saying, pretty. They are an admir- able imitation of the flower in design, color ing and material, and very dainty for the French dressing table, now quite indispens- able in milady's boudoir.
 If we have forty religions in this country, but only one kind of sauce for boiled fish, there is infinite variety in inkstands, both ornamental and useful. The display causes the man who only uses the five cent bottle to gnaw his finger nails in sorrow.
 Fashionable extravaganza does not stop at utilizing Chinese four foot vases for umbrella stands. but it is very much to be doubted if the Pekin manufacturers ever intended them for such base uses in this country. The ex- ample has been set, however, and that is enough.
 Two or four shade lamps, three lights be ing considered unlucky by the superstitious. are the latest for milady's drawing room and nobody can fail to admire the present styles. They arc intended to stand on 6 pedestal by themselves, and are worthy the elevated distinction.
 Christmas tokens and bric-a-brac have crowded out actual Christmas cards at last and the postofice statement of the great fall ing off in big envelopes this year tells tho . story. Poetical sentiment was almost ex hausted, and the abandonment of the cards seems to have come just at the right time.
 For the sewing class young ladies there i. shown long strip of wide gros grain rib bon made with loops and intended to hang al tho side of tho dress like a sash. At the enc is pair of scissors, and under every loop is hid either needle book, spool of thread emery or some other article used by amateul seamstresses. It is very dainty and pretty
 All sorts of unique and pretty things ar' shown for dinner favors-animals of silk tha hide bottles of perfume, college caps that ar' , pincushions, imitation soda crackers that ar, sachets, and so on to the end of O long ana clever chapter. The prettiest goods in thi gastronornic line this season come from Vi enna, although Paris makes her usual con tributions.