es may be grouped.

A Well-Furnished Sideboard.

The sideboard should contain relays of knives, forks, and spoons, in
rows; glasses, dinner plates, finger bowls standing on the fruit
plates, as well as any other accessories that may be needed. At
another sideboard, or table, the head waiter, or the butler, does the
carving. If the room is small, this last may be relegated to hall or
pantry.

In luxurious houses the sideboards are often devoted to bewildering
displays of rare china, and cut glass, but in more modest domiciles
they are used simply for the needs of the hour.

Water carafes (water bottles) are placed between every two or three
guests. The table should be laid in time,--thus, if the dinner is to
be at seven, all things should be in readiness on table and sideboard
at six o'clock; this course preventing the slightest confusion. If the
dinner napkins are to be changed for smaller ones, these also should
be laid in readiness. All the cold dishes, salads, relishes,
condiments, etc., should also be on hand.

The most elegant tables frequently have a long mat, or scarf, of ruby,
or some other colored plush, with fringed and embroidered ends, laid
the entire length down through the center of the table. This affords a
charming contrast to the snowy napery, and sets the keynote of color
for the floral decorations. The center decorative pieces are now no
longer high, thus rendering a glimpse of the person opposite almost
impossible, but are low and long.

A mirror, framed in silver, may be set in the center of one of these
plush mats; and upon this artistically arranged floral decorations are
placed to be reflected in its polished depths. Where massive silver
table-wares are heirlooms in the family, they are used, despite their
height. Center pieces that are recent purchases, are usually of glass,
cut and jewelled, until their brilliancy is a marvel in the lamplight.

Table Decorations.

Where the resources of the dinner-giver are limited, the simple
decoration of a few flowers arranged in a fanciful basket, or a rare
old bowl filled with roses, is sufficient, and is far more indicative
of taste and breeding than many of the set floral pieces fresh from
the florist's hand, and speaking more eloquently of the size of his
bill, than of taste or appropriateness.

The fancy of the hour, and a pretty one it is, is for massing one
variety of flower for decorative purposes. Banks of crimson roses down
the cen