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252 A OEBMAJST COrPEE-PAETY IN 1862;
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
¦ ¦ ^ It Would Probably Be Difficult To ...
_: . Deep were the reverences , manifold the greetings , innumerable the introductions which succeeded in rapid course , till all hadt
arrived and taken their seats with the usual little flurry and protestation about questions of precedence , relating chiefly to the
one sofa which generally reigns in solitary grandeur at one end of a German room , and before which the round table is drawn up ,
while a widening circle of * chairs forms a great semi-circle on the other side . In the little lull that succeedsstockings in various _^
, stages of progress appear from every pocket , embroideries , though in lesser numbers , emerge from every bag , and now a buzz succeeds _,,
in which everybody makes , with everybody else , comparisons of size / priceand colour , sprinkled with plentiful ejaculations
complimen-, tary . " Ach Gott ! wie schon ! "— " Ach , du grosser Himmel ! wie praehtig . ! " ( By the by , half an hour in any German society would
quite suffice to fill an English J . P . 's box with five-shilling fines , incurred , however , with the most _giiileless innocence of anything
_^ objectionable !) _: Then appears the coffee tray , brought in by a stout serving maid
with clean quilled cap , the invariable head-covering ( if any is worn ) of the class to whom hat or bonnet is by social sumptuary law a
forbidden luxury . ' Even the coffee apparatus looks strange to English eyes ; instead
; of the tall metal coffee-pot , - we find a white china substitute , resembling nothing but an overgrown mug with a cover and lip
, its sides being straight , its base circular . But if not picturesque , the arrangement is well enough designed
for use and comfort ; the great mug being placed on a round brass _> standa small oil-lamp keeps its contents perpetually hotwhich , _,
, , indeed is needful _enoiigh considering the space of time to elapse before its dismissal .
The plain thick white cups being filled and passed round , three or , four great plates or bread-baskets follow in their track , laden
with white bread and butter , ( the ordinary black rye bread being kept for domestic consumption ) dainty biscuits of sundry kinds
, , deliciously _crisjD rusks , and the famous " butter-kuchen " ( somewhat _resembling plain Bath buns ) which are made half an inch thick on
great flat tins , and then cut up into slips an inch wide , and some four inches long . The _plan being to help yourself to each of
these as they pass from hand to hand , each plate presents in two minutes' time materials to stock a small shop , _btit the plan is so far
good , that further passing is avoided . Then the buzz of conversation rises fast and furious ; praise is
. liberally bestowed on the cakes , notes are compared as to their manufacture , and I get my share of _qiiestioningwhether any such
, confections exist in the British Isles , the querists seeming rather discomfited and astonished to hear that there are one or two cooks
even in England , and still more that a few English ladies even
know something about the sacred mysteries .
252 A Oebmajst Corpee-Paety In 1862;
252 A _OEBMAJST _COrPEE-PAETY IN 1862 ;
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/36/
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