SSENTIALS.

DINING, SOCIAL HOUR, GAMES.

No social recreation is complete without dining. And yet the least
important part of this meal should be the taking of food. It is a
serious fault with the modern social that too much attention is given to
the variety and quantity of food, and not enough to merriment in taking
it. To be successful, the social company should gather as early as
possible; the first hour-and-a-half should be given to greetings and to
social levity of the brightest and wittiest sort. If one has an ache or
a pain, a care or a loss, let it be forgotten now. It is weakness and
folly continually to be under any burden. Here every one should take
a genuine release from seriousness and earnestness in weighty and
responsible affairs. Let all, except the serving committee for this
evening, take part in this strictly social hour-and-a-half. When the
late-comers have arrived and have been introduced, and the people have
moved about and met one another, almost before the company are aware of
it they are invited by the serving committee to dine. Usually all may
not be served at once. Now that the company has been thinned out, the
older persons having gone to the tables, short, spirited games should
be introduced in which every person not at luncheon, should be given
a place and a part. At this juncture it is not best to introduce
sitting-games, such as checkers, authors, caroms, or flinch, for the
contestants might be called to take refreshments at a critical moment
in the contest. With a little attention to it, appropriate games may
be introduced here that need not interfere with luncheon. Fully half an
hour should be spent at each set of tables, where at the close of
the meal, some humorous subject or subjects should be introduced and
responded to be those best fitted for such a task. Almost any person
can say something bright as well as sensible, if he will give a little
attention to it beforehand. While the second and third tables are being
served, let those retiring contest at games of skill, converse, or take
up other appropriate entertainment directed by the everywhere present
entertainment committee. By this time half-past ten or eleven o'clock,
some who are old, or who have pressing duties on the next day may want
to retire. If the serving committee have been skillful in adjusting
the time spent at each table to the number of tables, etc., by eleven
o'clock the serving shall have been completed. Now, th