Dinners and Luncheons by Paul Pierce (mystery books to read TXT) 📖

"Dear Sir,

"Do you care to buy the small, stuffed lamb that has been in our window for several years past? It looks very natural, and would be much more quiet for a model than a live one.

"Respectfully,
"Beck, Butcher."
Washington Market.

Dinner, Menu and Place Cards.

The place card may be plain white edged with gold, and the monogram or crest in gold with the guest's name written plainly across it. However, handsome cards as souvenirs of a dinner are much prized by travelers and the younger set and are especially in favor for breakfasts, luncheons, bridal affairs and college dinners and spreads.

At the present moment there is the greatest diversity in guest cards. You may use a plain heavy visiting card with flowers stuck through the upper left corner, or decorated cards of every style, pen and ink, water-colors, etc. Cards for stag affairs have Old English pictures on a soft gray background; souvenir postals make interesting guest cards; tiny fans, playing cards, ribbons, cards cut out of water-color paper imitating flower pots with flowers in bloom, cards decorated with sketches of brides and bridegrooms, kodak pictures of familiar scenes, boats, different sports—you can scarcely go amiss on your cards—the more original they are the better. The card is laid on the napkin at dinner or luncheon, or if it has an easel-like back is fastened to the wineglass.

Graphology cards are an idea of the moment, and seem likely to prove more than a passing fad. Before ordering a set of these, the hostess obtains from each guest a line in his or her own handwriting; the note of acceptance received can be used, if one is sure that a secretary has not been employed. These specimens are turned over to the stationer, who, in turn, places them in the hands of an expert graphologist. When the occasion arrives for which the writing was obtained, each guest finds at his cover a card bearing his name and a printed delineation of his character formed from the chirography.

For guest cards at a large dinner have in the center of the table a gridiron of flowers and from it run orange and black ribbons to each plate. Have the guests' names in gilt letters on these ribbons, and each ribbon ends in a favor, which indicates the special fad of the guest. The oarsman finds a scull, the yachtsman a tiny yacht, the football captain a football, the hunter a tiny bear, the bowler ten pins, the poker player a miniature poker table, the glee club leader a tiny mandolin, and the man who wins hearts, a heart-shaped box with the miniature of a Gibson girl on its surface.

The girl who cuts paper dolls may make quaint and unique menu cards by cutting out little pickaninnies from shiny black kindergarten paper, then, little dresses, say of red, since this is the most striking combination, and pasting them on the plain cards.

The way to make them is to place a bit of black and a bit of red paper together, fold them shiny side out, and the red outside the black, cut out the dolls, one black, one red, then snip off heads, hands and legs of the red. This leaves the little dresses all ready to go on.

Before pasting on the dress make eyes and mouth in the little black head, by folding it perpendicularly and cutting out the mouth, then horizontally for the eyes. When the figure is once nicely pasted on the card, it is perfectly smooth, no sign of the various foldings appearing.

A dinner for a mixed company of talented men and women is made attractive by clever little quotations on the place cards. A general quotation in quaint lettering at the top of the card may apply to the feast; one following the name of the guest whose place it marks, may apply to the profession or personality of the guest.

"Who can display such varied art,
To suit the taste of saint and sinner,
Who go so near to touch their heart,
As you, my darling dainty dinner?"

"Who would not give all else for two pennyworth only of beautiful soup?"

"Your dressing, dancing, gadding, where's the good in?
Tell me, sweet lady, can you make a pudding?"

"Smoking and tender and juicy,
And what better meat can there be?"

"The true essentials of a feast are only fun and feed."—O. W. Holmes.

"May your appetite keep on good terms with your digestion."

"A good dinner is better than a fine coat."—Proverb.

"Sit down to that nourishment which is called supper."—Shakespeare.

"To thee and thy company I bid a hearty welcome."—Shakespeare.

"No man can be wise on an empty stomach."—Geo. Elliot.

For the Artist:

"Industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot."—Henry Ward Beecher.

"He is the greatest artist then,
Whether of pencil or of pen,
Who follows Nature."
—Longfellow.

For a Writer:

"Wise poets that wrap truth in tales."—Carew.

For the Architect:

"He builded better than he knew."—Emerson.

For the Actor:

"We'll hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to Nature."—Shakespeare.

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."—Shakespeare.

For the Young Bachelor:

"A weather-beaten lover but once known,
Is sport for every girl to practice on."
—Anon.

"He had then the grace too rare in every clime
Of being, without alloy of fop or beau,
A finished gentleman from top to toe."
—Byron.

"That man that hath a tongue I say is no man
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman."
—Shakespeare.

"A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman
Fram'd in the prodigality of Nature,
Young, valiant, wise and no doubt right royal;
The spacious world cannot again afford."
—Shakespeare.

"Oh, he was all made up of love and charms,
Whatever maid could wish or man admire."
—Addison.

For the Soldier:

"They never fail who die in a great cause."—Byron.

"The rascal hath good mettle in him."—Shakespeare.

For the Young Girl:

"Blessings be about you dear, wherever you may go."—Allingham.

"The mildest manners and the gentlest heart."—Shakespeare.

"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A jug of Wine, a loaf of bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness.
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow."
—Omar Khayyam.

"Grace was in her steps, heaven in her eyes;
In every gesture dignity and love."
—Milton.

"Bright as the sun her eyes the gazers strike,
And like the sun they shine on all alike."
—Pope.

"The clear blue eyes, the tender smile,
The sovereign sweetness, the gentle grace,
The woman's soul and the angel's face."
—Anon.

Apt sentiments in connection with each course add much to the interest or amusement of guests, but they must be chosen intelligently.

The Dinner.

If the dinner be to a guest of honor, have something like this at the head of the menu:

"I beseech you all be better known to this gentleman."—Shakespeare.

SAUCE

"Come, gentlemen!! Here's sauce for the gods."
"Let hunger move thy appetite, not savory sauce."
—Babee's Book.

WELSH RAREBIT

"A man can die but once."—Henry IV.

"Cowards die many times—the truly valiant never taste death but once."—Shakespeare.

ROAST BEEF

"England's darling."—Alfred Austin.

"Cut and come again."—Crabbe.

"Our old and faithful friend, we're glad to see you."—Shakespeare.

WITH THE OYSTER COURSE

"All the world is my oyster."—Anon.

WITH CLAMS

"Fruit of the wave, all dainty and delicious."—Croffut.

"If you can't speak, sing; if you can't sing, imitate the clam."—Six Dinners.

SOUP—CONSOMME AND MOCK TURTLE

"Of two evils, choose the least."—Thomas A. Kempis.

"It's the rules of the house, sir; you must take soup."—Mark L. Demotte.

FISH

"'Tis sweet and fresh—'twas caught this night."—Beaumont & Fletcher.

"Now bring along your liars, and let the biggest one take the cake."—Six Dinners.

TERRAPIN

"A dish that I do love to feed upon."—Shakespeare.

LOBSTERS

"On eight long feet these wondrous warriors tread
And either end alike supplies the head."
—Homer.

SHRIMPS

"Old Ocean, envious of my ladies crimps,
Tried hard to copy them, and—presto! Shrimps!"
—Six Dinners.

FOR ENTRIES OF VARIOUS KINDS

"Take every creature in of every kind."—Pope.

"When I have tasted of this sacred dish, then shall my bones rest in my father's tomb in peace."—Beaumont & Fletcher.

"Not to know me argues yourselves unknown."—Milton.

FOR A SPECIAL OR NOVEL DISH

"It's better to be out of the world than out of the fashion."—Swift.

FROG'S LEGS

"We sport in water or we dance on land."—Homer.

"Though this be fun for you,
'Tis death to us."—Fables.

LAMB

"Pray you, who does the wolf love?"—Shakespeare.

"Ah, gentle lamb! 'Tis better that you be roasted and served to sympathizing human folk than be devoured ungracefully by ravenous beasts."—Six Dinners.

ROAST PIG

"See him in the dish, his second cradle!"—Charles Lamb.

"He hath a fair sepulchre in the grateful stomach of the judicious epicure, and for such a tomb might be content to die."—Charles Lamb.

CHICKENS

"We'll not eat crow, but him that crow'd."—Anon.

TURKEY

"Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving of it."—Macbeth.

GOOSE

"What's sauce for the goose
Is sauce for the gander."—Old Rhymes.

SUCCOTASH

"These be the great twin brethren."—Macauley.

MACARONI

"Some Jay of Italy."—Cymbeline.

ONIONS

"So near will I be that your best friends shall wish I had been further."—Julius Caesar.

GREEN PEAS

"How green you are and fresh."—King John.

GAME

"Here's a pigeon so finely roasted it cries, 'Come eat me.'"—Swift.

SALAD

"I warrant there is vinegar and pepper in't."—Twelfth Night.

DESSERT

"'Tis the dessert that graces all the