1885 New Guide Hotel Bar Restaurant

TABLE DECORATIONS, ETC. 485 The following account of a scene in Sugar Work Deco- ration will no doubt prove interesting, as showing what is done by the principal confectioner in New York. A grand awe inspiring forest formed the background. There we find exquisitely modelled tall sighing pines, giant trees linked together in the bonds of friendship by strong chains of creepers, like the clematis, &c. This is covered with evergreen moss till it looked like festoons. The branches were snow laden and in the foreground is a par- ticularly pretty snow scene with a herd of deer kneeling— not lying down. Two or three wigwams, (or Indian huts,) are clustered at one side, — and creeping through the bushes are seen dusky Indian forms, creeping to see the deer at midnight on Christmas Eve, worship the Great Spirit.'* The snow on the tents, on the herd, on the men and grasses, &c., is represented by ground popcorn, and is a light beauti* ful imitation of the Beautiful Snow." Once before in this chapter I have alluded to dried grasses and everlasting daisies as table decorations. Let every one suit his employer's taste, (as I remarked in one of my jour- nalistic articles last season,) either in their style of cooking or decorations. I personally dislike those gaudy flagrant masses of rainbow hue that are only fit for a casino of the tenth rate — not for the tables of a good hotel, restaurant, club, or those of the nobility and gentry. May I suggest to country chefs and restaurant keepers, that hart's tongue ferns, and feathery evergreens, primroses, and violets, may be gathered at a small expense by sending children into the woods. A nice jam tart, a few sweets, or a stray penny, will bring you some far prettier table decorations than all the money spent over grasses, that have been dyed with Judson's dyes, not that I deprecate the dyes, only their abuse. I say nothing about the introduction of begonia and