ever to handle a dish. In a smaller house where he has no assistant, he
naturally does everything himself; when he has a second man or
parlor-maid, he passes the principal dishes and the assistant follows with
the accompanying dishes or vegetables.

So-called "Russian" service is the only one known in New York which merely
means that nothing to eat is ever put on the table except ornamental
dishes of fruit and candy. The meat is carved in the kitchen or pantry,
vegetables are passed and returned to the side table. Only at breakfast or
possibly at supper are dishes of food put on the table.

=THE EVER-PRESENT PLATE=

From the setting of the table until it is cleared for dessert, a plate
must remain at every cover. Under the first two courses there are always
two plates. The plate on which oysters or hors d'oeuvres are served is put
on top of the place plate. At the end of the course the used plate is
removed, leaving the place plate. The soup plate is also put on top of
this same plate. But when the soup plate is removed, the underneath plate
is removed with it, and a hot plate immediately exchanged for the two
taken away. The place plate merely becomes a hot fish plate, but it is
there just the same.

_The Exchange Plate_

If the first course had been a canape or any cold dish that was offered in
bulk instead of being brought on separate plates, it would have been eaten
on the place plate, and an exchange plate would have been necessary before
the soup could be served. That is, a clean plate would have been
exchanged for the used one, and the soup plate then put on top of that.
The reason for it is that a plate with food on it can never be exchanged
for a plate that has had food on it; a clean one must come between.

If an entree served on individual plates follows the fish, clean plates
are first exchanged for the used ones until the whole table is set with
clean plates. Then the entree is put at each place in exchange for the
clean plate. Although dishes are always presented at the left of the
person served, plates are removed and replaced at the right. Glasses are
poured and additional knives placed at the right, but forks are put on as
needed from the left.

_May the Plates for Two Persons Be Brought in Together?_

The only plates that can possibly be brought into the dining-room one in
each hand are for the hors d'oeuvres, soup and dessert. The first two
plates are placed on others which have not been