never picked up by a servant except with a rouged chamois. No
piece of silver is ever allowed by the slightest chance to touch another
piece. Every piece is washed separately. The footman who gathers two or
three forks in a bunch will never do it a second time, and keep his place.
If the ring of a guest should happen to scratch a knife handle or a fork,
the silver-polisher may have to spend an entire day using his thumb or a
silver buffer, and rub and rub until no vestige of a scratch remains.
Perfection such as this is attainable only in a great house where servants
are specialists of super-efficiency; but in every perfectly run house,
where service is not too limited, every piece of silver that is put on the
table, at every meal, is handled with a rouged chamois and given a quick
wipe-off as it is laid on the dining table. No silver should ever be
picked up in the fingers as that always leaves a mark.

And the way "moderate" households, which are nevertheless perfectly run
for their size and type, have burnished silver, is by using not more than
they can have cleaned.

In view of the present high cost of living (including wages) and the
consequent difficulty, with a reduced number of servants, of keeping a
great quantity of silver brilliant, even the most fashionable people are
more and more using only what is essential, and in occasional instances,
are taking to china! People who are lucky enough to have well-stored
attics these days are bringing treasures out of them.

But services of Swansea or Lowestoft or Spode, while easily cleaned, are
equally easily broken, so that genuine Eighteenth Century pieces are more
apt to see a cabinet than a dinner table.

But the modern manufacturers are making enchanting "sets" that are
replicas of the old. These tea sets with cups and saucers to match and
with a silver kettle and tray, are seen almost as often as silver services
in simple houses in the country, as well as in the small apartment in
town.

=DON'TS IN TABLE SETTING!=

Don't put ribbon trimmings on your table. Satin bands and bows have no
more place on a lady's table than have chop-house appurtenances. Pickle
jars, catsup bottles, toothpicks and crackers are not private-house table
ornaments. Crackers are passed with oyster stew and with salad, and any
one who wants "relishes" can have them in his own house (though they
insult the cook!). At all events, pickles and tomato sauces and other cold
meat condiments