accordance with the rules of table etiquette. The rules of dinner
etiquette should be studied carefully and just as carefully followed, if
one wishes to be--and everyone does--a lady or a gentleman.

Perhaps the most important thing is one's bearing at table. Very often
you see a seemingly cultured gentleman in a hotel dining-room or
restaurant playing with the table silver or absent-mindedly clinking
glasses together. This may be overlooked in the restaurant, but at a
formal dinner it is essentially bad form. When the hands are not being
used, they should rest quietly in the lap--never should the elbows be
rested on the table. The chair should be neither too near nor too far
from the table; both are ungraceful and awkward.

TABLE SERVICE

The dinner napkin is from twenty to twenty-four inches across. It is
folded square unless the table is somewhat crowded, when it may be folded
diagonally (after having been folded square) so as to give more space
around the board. If the napkins are monogrammed the monogram should be
placed so as to be in plain view.

At a formal dinner the first course is on the table when the guests enter
the dining-room. It consists of oysters, a canape, a fruit cocktail,
grapefruit or something else of the same kind. Oysters on the half-shell
are served bedded in crushed ice in a soup plate. This is placed on the
service plate. A cocktail is served in a cocktail glass which is placed
on a doily-covered plate which in turn is placed on the service plate.
The silver for the first course may be on the table beside the soup spoon
or it may be served with the course.