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November, 19 2 0 
A formal decoration for a refectory table is a long panel-like arrangement of corn, fruit and flowers, leading up to two 
tall candles. Fruit as a decoration is especially adaptable to the Thanksgiving table, whether formal or informal, because 
of its color, fragrance and varied contours 
with the grace of an Aubrey Beardsley drawing. 
Trailers of various kinds are lovely, and for the 
less formal effects the woodland grace of laurel 
or mountain ash would be charming. Chestnut 
burrs with their satiny brown linings would 
combine with bright yellow leaves to provide an 
abundance of beauty to the informal dinner. 
But the richest note of woodland decorations, 
perhaps, is bittersweet, with its cunningly 
twisted stems and its red beads in their artful 
settings. Only red candles should go with this, 
to mark the color, and the rough yet pleasing 
hues of Spanish pottery complete the effect. 
It is not every flower that can come to the 
feast of plenty, for there are certain flowers 
which belongs to its observance, and some so¬ 
phisticated hothouse blooms which would not 
serve at all. Not a novelty, but a most satisfying 
color scheme is provided by combining golden 
fluffy chrysanthemums with the dead brown of 
oak leaves. The candle shades could carry out 
the color scheme, and flat 
arrangements of marrons 
glaces would be a tempt¬ 
ing touch, and grape¬ 
fruit could begin the 
meal in perfect harmony 
with the scheme. Pop¬ 
pies, those silky short¬ 
lived flowers, have been 
the harvest flow T er from 
time immemorial, long 
before they suggested the 
line about reaping Au¬ 
tumn, asleep beside her 
sickle, “drowsed with the 
fume of poppies.” Like 
lovely parasites, they 
shine out redly among 
The lordly yellow globe of the 
garden may brim with a heap of 
burnished apples, delicate pears 
and the hanging clusters of purple 
grapes 
the wheat and fall with it before the sickle, and 
so, although they toil not, they are a harvest 
flower; ever since the time they were so esteemed 
by the goddess Ceres as millinery they have 
been a legitimate Thanksgiving decoration. 
For Thanksgiving is an old festival which 
For the square table a massed arrangement of fruit forms the central theme of 
a pleasing design, and from it are laid delicate etchings of trailing vines 
one celebrates in the light of these candles, and 
in the perfections of the menu and in the flow 
of table talk; nor is it fair to allow to the Puri¬ 
tans the credit for originating being thankful. 
With all due allowance for the five deer and 
the wild geese which they consumed with the 
assistance of Squanto and other red gentlemen 
in stripes and deerskins, it was very likely an 
over-serious affair, begun at a very early hour 
with prayers. It is likely that earlier givers of 
thanks were much merrier over it, even the 
long-ago ones who never knew Christianity nor 
predestination. So it seems only fair to sug¬ 
gest a table with the horn of plenty for the 
center, large, golden and gracefully curved, and 
pouring in classic profusion the fruits of the 
vine and tree. Tiny horns of plenty could spill 
out little marchpane fruits at each place, and 
candle-light could glow golden through gold 
silk shades. This would be a formal decora¬ 
tion and would prove an effective design. It 
would, doubtless, also 
propitiate the goddess 
and ensure good harvests 
for next year. 
Thanksgiving is a 
pleasant time, a time of 
wished returnings and 
journeys’ ends. The 
child that is in every 
man sometimes looks 
backward to Christmas a 
little wistfully, but we 
are all happy at the 
prospect of the Thanks¬ 
giving table, deftly ar¬ 
ranged and tempting to 
our eyes as well as our 
palates. 
