the breakfast things. Always, if possible, provide _fine_ and
_dry_ table-salt, as many persons are much disgusted with that which is
dark, damp, and coarse. Be careful to keep salad-oil closely corked, or
it will grow rancid. Never leave the salt-spoons in the salt, nor the
mustard-spoon in the mustard, as they are thereby injured. Wipe them,
immediately after the meal.

For table-furniture, French china is deemed the nicest, but it is liable
to the objection of having plates, so made, that salt, butter, and
similar articles, will not lodge on the edge, but slip into the centre.
Select knives and forks, which have weights in the handles, so that,
when laid down, they will not touch the table. Those with rivetted
handles last longer than any others. Horn handles (except buckhorn) are
very poor. The best are cheapest in the end. Knives should be sharpened
once a month, unless they are kept sharp by the mode of scouring.

_On Setting Tables._

Neat housekeepers observe the manner in which a table is set more than
any thing else; and to a person of good taste, few things are more
annoying, than to see the table placed askew; the tablecloth soiled,
rumpled, and put on awry; the plates, knives, and dishes thrown about,
without any order; the pitchers soiled on the outside, and sometimes
within; the tumblers dim; the caster out of order; the butter pitched on
the plate, without any symmetry; the salt coarse, damp, and dark; the
bread cut in a mixture of junks and slices; the dishes of food set on at
random, and without mats; the knives dark or rusty, and their handles
greasy; the tea-furniture all out of order, and every thing in similar
style. And yet, many of these negligences will be met with, at the
tables of persons who call themselves well bred, and who have wealth
enough to make much outside show. One reason for this, is, the great
difficulty of finding domestics, who will attend to these things in a
proper manner, and who, after they have been repeatedly instructed, will
not neglect nor forget what has been said to them. The writer has known
cases, where much has been gained by placing the following rules in
plain sight, in the place where the articles for setting tables are
kept.

_Rules for setting a Table._

1. Lay the rug square with the room, and also smooth and even; then set
the table also square with the room, and see that the _legs_ are in the
right position to support the leaves.

2. Lay the table