If the dinner company be so large that the hostess can not easily place her guests without confusion, have a little card on each plate bearing the name of the person who is to occupy the place. Plain cards are well enough; but the French design (they are designed in this country also) beautiful cards for the purpose, illustrated with varieties of devices: some are rollicking cherubs with capricious antics, who present different tempting viands; autumn leaves and delicate flowers in chromo form pretty surroundings for the names on others; yet the designs are so various on these and the bill-of-fare cards that each hostess may seek to find new ones, while frequent dinner-goers may have interesting collections of these mementoes, which may serve to recall the occasions in after-years.
6th. If the dinner is intended to be particularly fine, have bills of fare, one for each person, written on little sheets of paper smoothly cut in half, or on French bill-of-fare cards, which come for the purpose. If expense is no object, and you entertain enough to justify it, have cards for your own use especially engraved. Have your crest, or perhaps a monogram, at the top of the card, and forms for different courses following, so headed that you have only to fill out the space with the special dishes for the occasion. I will give the example of a form. The forms are often seen on the dinner-cards; yet, perhaps, they are as often omitted, when the bills of fare are written, like those given at the end of the book.
Bills of fare are generally written in French. It is a pity that our own rich language is inadequate to the duties of a fashionable bill of fare, especially when, perhaps, all the guests do not understand the Gallic tongue, and the bill of fare (_menu_) for their accommodation might as well be written in Choctaw. I will arrange a table with French names of dishes for the aid of those preferring the French bills of fare. I would say that some tact might be displayed in choosing which language to employ.
+--------------------------+ | MENU. | | ----- | | Dîner du 15 Février. | | ----- | | Potages. | | Poissons. | | Hors-d’œuvres. | | Relevés. | | Entrées. | | Rôtis. | | Entremêts. | | Glaces. | | Dessert. | +--------------------------+