Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-06-26
MODERN DINNER TABLES.
The Rage for Decoration Overwhelming
the Taste for Food.

| Is the diner-out of to-day better or
worse treated, as regards the quality
and quantity of his fare, than his pre-
| decessor of twenty, thirty or forty years
ago?
Whether we get more or less, or bet
ter or worse, to eat than formally, we
certainly have a great deal more to
| look at. The hospitable board that
once, in the language of the reporter of
olden days, ''groaned' under the weight
of saddles and sirloins. barons and
chimes, now shippers under the imposi-
ton of satin and plush, gilt cupids and
butterfly nets, French toys, and Ameri-
can favors, orchids of price. the COM
mon field flowers, combined with
material for respectable May-day
| festival.
| The desire to crafty two senses at
one and the same time probably first
inspired men to eat their dinners at
flower-decked table, and it has led
others mistakenly to spoil their feasts
with mtsic, or their music with feast
ing, whichever way one likes to put it.
What appears most striking in the
decorative methods now in vogue is
certain failure in the sense of pro-
portion, which is becoming more pro-
nounced each season, and is hurrying
people into eXtravagances that are
bound sooner or later to bring about
reaction in favor of simplicity. 1t was
one thing to adorn dinner table ar
tistically with flowers and fruit-al-
| though fruit on the table is hardly now
permissible-bu it is another thing al
together to build up with infinite
pains and expense a colossal dec
orative trophy, with birds and but
terfies, squirrels aloft and rabbits
| below. burrowing under fiower-covered
| faggots, around which space is barely
! left here and there for the plate of an
unfortunate diner, who struggles with
trails of ivy dabbling in his soup. and
| sprays of maiden-hair and mimosa
| bending into his wire-glass, like weep
| ing willows aroud a ducb-pond. while
| he gets through his dinner with as I'M
comfortable a premonition of earwigs
| and creeping things as if he were as
sisting at that most decomposing of So
| cial entertainments, genuine picnic.
The evil does not seem likely to end
! here, however. We are warned of fur
| Their developments in the immediate
| future The scheme of decoration is to
| undergo expansion, and to rise above
the table, and to take in its surround
| ings. The covering of ceilings with
| blooms fixed in wooden frames was
practiced with considerable effect at
| some entertainments last season. Re-
Gently 4 young lady arranged dinner
table above which, as part of the deco
ration, fioated gauze clouds within whose
| folds birds and butterflies were impris-
| oned.
| If this fancy endure we may expect
many strange metamorphoSeS to take
effect in London dining-rooms, and the
liberty OF the subject is likely to be in
terfered with by arbitrary restrictions
| being imposed upon the color and
| fashion of the ladies' dresses. Not long
ago the introduction of a new form of
menu card, in the shape of d ship in
! full sail. inspired a dinner-giver to
carry out the idea of its integrity by
making the center ornament of her
/ table blue satin ship with the rigging
outlined with button roses, the lady
guests being requested to attire them
! selves in blue satin dresses, made in
nautical fashion, with wreaths of roses
perched on one side of the head. In this
case only the daughters of the house,
whose style the costume probably
suited, were sufficiently impressed with
! the solemnity of the farce to think it
necessary to dress up to the menu card.
I-Cornhiu Magazine.