It is bewildering, if one has any intention of buying, to examine the assortment of spoons, knives, forks, etc., displayed at the silversmith’s.

There are ladles for soups, sauces, gravy, and cream; shovels for sugar and salt, and scoops for cheese; tongs for sugar, pickles, olives, and asparagus; spoons for sugar, jelly, fruit, sauces, salads, vegetables, and macaroni; slicers for ice-cream, cake, and jelly; knives for fish, pie, cake, and fruit; forks for fish, oysters, pickles, olives, salad, and asparagus; scissors for grapes and raisins; crackers and picks for nuts; and rests for the carving knife and fork.  Some of these are really useful; some as little so as many of the hundred and one novelties designed particularly for wedding gifts.  But in neat and careful serving it is essential to have a soup-ladle, a gravy or sauce ladle, a pair of tongs or shells for block sugar, a slender-tined silver fork for pickles, a plentiful supply of large and medium-sized spoons, a carving-rest, a crumb-scraper, and at least one broad silver knife and fork, which if occasion requires may do duty at several courses.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST.

In offering a second portion of anything do not remind one that he has already been helped.

“Can’t I give you another piece of meat or pie?” “Won’t you have some more tea or pudding?” Expressions like these are frequently heard.

It is in far better taste to say, “Will you have some hot coffee?” “May I give you some of the salad?” “Let me help you to this choice portion.”

We trust none of our readers will regard this suggestion as trivial.  For, concerning kindness, we know that perfection is no trifle.  It is the essence of that second commandment which we are divinely told is like “the first of all the commandments;” and it cannot be attained without assiduous attention to all the minor words and the common acts of life.

“Among all the Cook-Books this will certainly take its place as one of the very best.”—­THE CHRISTIAN UNION

* * * * *

MRS. LINCOLN’S

BOSTON COOK-BOOK.

WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO IN COOKING.

BY MRS. MARY J. LINCOLN,

FIRST PRINCIPAL OF THE BOSTON COOKING SCHOOL

NEW REVISED EDITION, including 250 additional recipes.

With 50 Illustrations. 12_mo_. Cloth. 600 pages. Price $2.00.

* * * * *

A SELECTION FROM SOME OF THE MANY NOTICES BY THE PRESS.