and serve like spinach. The dish may be garnished in a variety of ways, either with hard-boiled eggs, sippets of fried bread, or slices of boiled carrot cut into shapes. It is usually served with white meats, as veal, sweet-breads, etc., but it is excellent as a garnish for poached eggs.

The following weeds are all good greens if properly treated: the milk-weed, the different docks, fat hen, ox-tongue, jack-by-the-hedge, sea-holly (a substitute for asparagus), sea beet, shepherd's purse, sow thistle, hawk-weed, stinging nettle, willow herb, pile-wort, Solomon's seal, lamb's quarter, and a number of other weeds common to this country, and known only to a few. Once known they would be much sought after.

TABLE ETIQUETTE.

The following article from Harper's Bazaar is so appropriate under this head that we take the liberty of inserting it entire :

"TABLE ETIQUETTE.-There are a few points of table etiquette not directly connected with the giving and receiving of dinners and teas, but which are of the first importance, as they concern individual behavior. We would be inclined to think every one acquainted with them, and allusion to them a matter of supererogation on our part, if it were not that we see them so frequently violated. Those of our readers who are, or who have always been, familiar with them will perhaps pardon our speaking of them for the sake of those who are not.

"We do not expect to see these gaucheries in the best society; but there are many people perfectly well fitted for the best society but for ignorance concerning these things, which, although trifles in themselves, are of such infinite importance on the whole. For instance, where all the requirements are not fully known, if a general cessation of conversation should suddenly supervene upon the serving of the soup, would there be silence in the place? Not at all; the gap would be filled

with a continuous bubbling sound from the mouth of some one or other unlucky wight whose mother never taught him to take soup properly, and who is possibly disturbing and disgusting all those that do better, and who know how easily the trouble might be avoided. Soup is to be taken from the side of the spoon, not from the tip, and it is not to be sucked in, but the spoon being slightly tilted, it is rather poured into the mouth than otherwise, the slightest silent inhalation being sufficient for the rest.

"Another generally neglected obligation is that of spreading butter on one's bread as it lies in one's plate, or but slightly lifted at one end from the plate; it is very frequently buttered in the air, bitten in gouges, and still held in the face and eyes of the table with the marks of the teeth on it. This is certainly not altogether pleasant, and it is better to cut it a bit at a time, after buttering it, and put piece by piece in the mouth with one's finger and thumb.

"Let us mention a few things concerning the eating of which there is sometimes doubt. A cream-cake, and anything of similar nature, should be eaten with knife and fork-never bitten. Asparagus-which should always be served on bread or toast, so as to absorb superfluous moisture-may be taken from the finger and thumb; if it is fit to be set before you, the whole of it may be eaten. Peas and beans, as we all know, require the fork only. Potatoes, if mashed, should be caten with the fork. Green corn should be eaten from the cob; but it must be held with a single hand, and not after the fashion of the alderman's wife at the lord mayor's dinner. French artichokes are to be eaten with the fingers, slightly pulled apart at the top and one of the leaves pulled out with finger and thumb; the fleshy end of this leaf is then dipped in the salad dressing served with it, and only that atom of a paler color at the bottom of the leaf is taken as it peels off between the lips, when the dry portion is to be laid back in the plate. It is always served as a separate course by itself; a pretty hand looks very pretty indeed when fingering a French artichoke. Celery, cresses, radishes, and all that sort of thing are, of course, to be eaten from the fingers;

the salt should be laid upon one's plate, not upon the cloth. Fish is to be eaten with the fork, without the assistance of the knife; a bit of bread in the left hand sometimes helps one to master a refractory morsel.

"It is best to be very moderate in the beginning of a dinner, as one does not know what is to follow, and all the rest may be spoiled for one by an opposite course. We remember the case of a lady in Mexico, who, dining with the governor of the province, was served for the first course with a hash. She was somewhat surprised; but it was a very good hash, and she really made her dinner upon it. But the next course was also hash-there were seventeen courses of hash before the main dinner, of every delicious delicacy under the sun, made its appearance! Of course, a tiny morsel of each hash, for the sake of the flavoring, was all she should have taken; as it was, she sat afterwards like Tantalus.

"Berries, of course, are to be eaten with a spoon. In England they are served with their hulls on, and three or four are considered an ample quantity. But, then, in England they are many times the size of ours; there they take the big berry by the stem, dip it into powdered sugar, and eat it as we do the turnip-radish. It is not proper to drink with a spoon in the cup, nor should one, by the way, ever quite drain cup or glass. Spoons are sometimes used with puddings, but forks are the better style. A spoon should never be turned over in the mouth. Ladies have frequently an affected way of holding the knife half-way down its length, as if it were too big for their little hands, but this is as awkward a way as it is weak; the knife should be grasped freely by the handle only, the forefinger being the only one to touch the blade, and that only along the back of the blade at its root, and no further down. In sending one's plate to be helped a second time, one should retain one's knife and fork, for the convenience of waiter and carver. At the conclusion of a course where they have been used, knife and fork should be laid side by side on the plate-never crossed; the old custom of crossing them was in obedience to an ancient religious formula. The servant should cffer everything at the

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left of the guest, that the guest may be at liberty to use the right hand. If one has been given a napkin ring, it is necessary to fold one's napkin and use the ring; otherwise the napkin should be left unfolded. One's teeth are not to be picked at table; but if it is impossible to hinder it, it should be done behind the napkin. One may pick a bone at the table, but, as with corn, only one hand is allowed to touch it; yet one can usually get enough from it with knife and fork, which is certainly the more elegant way of doing; and to take her teeth to it gives a lady the look of caring a little too much for the pleasures of the table; one is, however, on no account to suck one's fingers after it.

"Wherever there is any doubt as to the best way to do a thing, it is wise to follow that which is the most rational, and that will almost invariably be found to be the proper etiquette. There is a reason for everything in polite usage; thus, the reason why one does not blow a thing to cool it is not only that it is an inelegant and vulgar action intrinsically, but because it may be offensive to others-cannot help being. so, indeed; and it, moreover, implies haste, which, whether resulting from greediness or from a desire to get away, is equally rude and objectionable. Everything else may be as easily traced to its origin in the fit and becoming.

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If, to conclude, one seats one's self properly at table, and takes reason into account, one will do tolerably well. One must not pull one's chair too closely to the table, for the natural result of that is the inability to use one's knife and fork without inconveniencing one's neighbors; the elbows are to be held well in and close to one's side, which cannot be done if the chair is too near the board. One must not lie or lean along the table, nor rest one's arms upon it. Nor is one to touch any of the dishes; if a member of the family, one can exercise all the duties of hospitality through servants, and wherever there are servants, neither family nor guests are to pass or help from any dish."

I would here disclaim against the disgusting habit of mouth-rinsing so prevalent at many dinner-parties. The bad taste of such a procedure seems to me so evident that

everybody of refinement would avoid it. Yet I have repeatedly seen it resorted to in fashionable society.

BANQUET SERVICE.

The correct or proper manner of taking care of a number of guests that have assembled before the hour of dinner or supper has always been a puzzling problem to the novice in this line of business; but a first-class caterer will always be willing to help the host out of the dilemma, provided the host does not pretend to know more about the business than the caterer. It is a very good plan to have a colored servant at the door, another to receive the coat, hat, and cane, and give a paper check therefor, and still another to usher the guests to the reception-room, where they will find the host holding court over a bowl of lemonade or a light punch. The guests are eventually summoned to the banquet-room, but just before they enter it is "in good form " to serve them with a glass of plain Vermouth, or a Vermouth cocktail, as an appetizer. White servants are particularly to be recommended for the dining-room.

They then sit down to a repast, served in the following order (assuming of course that the table is set for a banquet):

No less than three, or more than five, oysters on the plate of each guest (with celery on table if in season). The oyster plates and forks are removed. Next serve the soups, with a grated rusk, plain roll, or French bread. Hors-d'œuvres, or whets, are now in order. Next serve the boiled releve; then the heavy entrée; after which serve the light entrée. Your guests will now expect the punch Roumaine, after which serve a good Russian cigarette (if gentlemen only). Then the roast joint; after which serve the game. the light salad, with a plain French dressing. Next the sweet entremet. The table should now be cleared; cheese and hard cracker offered; then the ices, with cake, etc., confectionery, dessert, coffee, liquors and cigars. The ap

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