The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-04-02
In WOman'S World.

There are several new ways of serving
suppers at home. after small dances,
card or theatre parties, and these novel;
ties are all the outcome of practical APP
plieation of chatting dish science.
When the hour for refreshment arrives
and the dining room doors are thrown
open. in place of the doubtfully inviting
cold collation. on the long sideboard, or
at one end of the stately dining table.
the steam and glow from a couple or
trio of big chatting dishes greet the hum
CRY guests.
Over the great silver heaters, with
their double power alcohol lamps, in the
very smart houses the family chef, or a
caterers man. engaged for the occasion,
presides. From top to toe he is arrayed
like a lily, and he probably speaks very
broker English.
If a couple of double chafng dishes,
which supply in all four cooking basins,
are used. two men can capably feed al
most any number of persons, and a de-
Mghtful informality relgns. All about the
cooks are bowls heaped with raw mate
rails for conversion into dainty messes.
Every utensil used in preparing the sup
per is silver, and every guest, selecting
what plates. knives, spoons. ETC., he or
Sn6 desires lIOu1 pies Oi d STU taDiCs
goes personally for helpings from the
chatting dishes.
The discreet caterer. who has an eye
to artistic effects as well as convenience,
establishes in the four corners OF the
room or across one end a group of giant
double bowl chatting dishes These glit-
tering furnace are presided over by chefs
in white, who respectively prepare oys-
ters, Holsters, curried fowl and terrapin.
by the steaming quart or half gallon.
Plates, forks, ETC., are heaped on a CEN
ire table, at the head of which urns OF
bouillon, coffee. and chocolate keep hot
over alcohol lamps.
A wise arrangement is the dishing up
of all hot semi-liquid preparations. as ter
rapin and lobster a la Newburg, in small
silver bowls, for by doing away with as
much china as possible the food is kept
very much hotter and breaAuei is avoid
ed. The hot drinks, too. are offered in
silver cups, and the most charming paint
ed Russian p~latters answer as plates for
salad, croquettes, etc.
BY this clever device no china-loving
hostess is Obliged to subject her own
treasured porcelain to peril. The caterer
supplies XII LitSSt 4CN SiiC aAoA ~ -
termath. as a bill for b~reakage, chills
hespitabie pleasure over a successful en-
tertainment. Another pretty and sensible
plan at large balls. wedding receptions
and musicales, where supper is a feature,
is the heapfng of sandwiches in graceful,
high-handled flower baskets.
on the brown or white wicker plates
the bread is piled and topped by a silver
wire fork. which holds a card. On the
card. in leg9ble gilt letters. is written
..ham. chicken salad or jelly sandwiches"
as the case may be. and as the maid
passes by those who are hungry may
read and make their selection. AS long
as supper is in progress these baskets of
bread are kept circulating through the
rooms. and the ices are dished up in the
prettiest little pasteboard boxes. Inside
the boxes are lined with waxed paper,
and it is a fact to be remembered that
napkins seem rarely or never used now
at such suppers. .
That manelpiece problemi I know all
about it, says a writer in "Harpers
Bazar.' / wrestled with it in my own
house for months, and I thought l never
was going to be able to solve it. Blu /
learned much. I learned, for instance,
that a mantelpiece ought either to be a
purely decorative feature of the room, or
it ought to enter into the family life, as
it were. It ought, in other words. to be
something you seldom disarrange, and at
which you could always look with pleas
ure, as you do at your pictures and bric-a-
brac; or it ought to be something used,
as a bachelor uses his, for the reception
of the various things entering into daily
life. Of course, being a woman, you
won't have a pipe to put therei The ar
chitect ought to settle the mantelpiece
problem for us. but he seldom does, I'M.
less he chances to possess more taste
and knowledge than those whom the
contractor employs. The mantelpieces
we find in rented houses are generally
hideous monstrosities. out of key with
everything else in the house, but trying
to atone for their ugliness by presenting
the tenant witha compensations in the
way of impossible shelves and mirrors,
which every sensible person, by the way,
at once removes. So, if your mantelpiece
is a high one, arrange it with a view to
its decorative or architectural value in
your room. If it be a low one, constantly
inviting you by its height to rest your ell
bow on it as you stand by your fire. or
tempting you as q coHVtLlSit ptdtc ou
which to lay the book you have just re-
ceived, then arrange it SO that the book
or card need never seem out of rlace on
it, or SO that the photograph you place
there NAV not seem a careless and an
untidy act. If your nnantelpiece, let US
say, is in a room which Is used as a IL
brary, sitting room and parlor combined"
the temptation to lay a book or a pho
tograph on it would be very great. And
as I doubt the architects having done
any better for you than for the rest of
us. I should try to make my mantelpiece
a comfortable affair. always agreeable
to look at, always with some picture over
it which made itself the very centre OF
your room, as 1t were, but still a mantel-
piece which you did not feel was
stranger to alLthe hospitable qualities.
please state to the court exactly what
you did between s and 3 o'clock on Mon
day morning. said a awyer to a deli
cate looking woman on the witness
stand.
aWell,' she said, after a moments re-
Election, II washed my two children and
.E