The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-04-22
THE 5 O'CLOCK TEA TABLE.

Suggestions For Its Tasteful and Fashion
able Fitment.
A correspondent asks for information
concerning the proper fitting of
o'clock tea table
Beginning with the table itself, it
may be a small oval, circular or hexagon
shape Any one of these is preferable to
a square one. Tables are shown in shops
that are provided with small leaves, or
arms, few inches wide, to open out in
all directions. Such are not especially
commended. Their effect is not as good
as pieces of furniture, and they perform
their Office in rather an uncertain man.
ner. Even four or five persons surround
ing such table endanger its freight.
slight jostle being sufficient to overturn
cup or plate on one of its frailly sup
ported arms.
If the surface of the table is highly
polished. and it is preferred not to cover
it entirely, a handsome square or round
centerpiece dolly, which is only a din
ner centerpiece, is used, or teaclotb d
yard square may prettily and wholly
veil it. The Dresden designs are not SO
much in vogue as they were. Our IN
happy fashion of doing everything to
death, whether it be Dresden, Trilby or
empire effects, has worked its inevita-
BILE reaction, and the poWdering of linen
with gay little blossoms is not much
countenanced. Anything that is well
done, however, remains beautiful, and
those who have fine pieces of such nee
dlework should let them see the light
frequently. In planning a new cloth
some later design may be employed.
For the actual impedimenta of the ia
BILE there one required tea caddy, hot
water kettle, cozy, wafer or cracker
dish. two or three pretty cups and sau-
GERS, cream jug and sugar bowl.
A hagon for alcohol is sometimes
enumerated, but this and spoon basket
are like the tables with leaves-elabo-
rating a function whose simplicity is its
warrant The alcohol should be put in
the lamp out of the room. 1t is often
attended with a little splitting, and it
is much better to have the lamp ready
for lighting beforehand. The tea caddy
ought to be of silver; on a handsome
table it is. 1t should have measuring
cover, this little distinction being one
that those Sin the know insist upon.
To measure the tea with spoon is not
considered quite so correct and so red
olent of the old time flavor as to use
the cup cover of the caddy, lone fill to
a brew" A glass mat may be provided
to set the hot teapot upon, and the
spoons are laid loose upon the table.
These, by the way, as we'll as the cups,
should be disable ones. In the days of
souvenir spoons the rage for variety be-
got some curious travesties of these use
full table implements. One felt grateful
if one was not offered a perforated bowl,
SO twisted and grotesque and abnormal
were the changes rung upon tea and
coffee spoons. Cups should hold more
than an actual thimbleful, though they
need not hold pint, and should bear
some relation to the laws of gravitation
in their poise upon the saucer. They
should have a smooth rim. A f1uted
edge is most uncomfortable finish for
a drinking vessel The wafer basket
may be silver, china or cut glass, with
again preference for silver. A tiny or
namental vase or dish may hold matches.
It seems almost needless to add the
caution that parlor tea table should
be kept in a state of irreproachable
cleanliness, but the experience, once or
twice encountered, of having scum of
dust rise on tea offered during call on
another than the hostess regular day at
home aroused the suspicion that some
parlor tea tables are kept-like some par
1or bric-a- brac-dusted only on company
days.-New York Times.