Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1888-08-24
SOLDIERS DEPARTMENT.
AT A SOLDIERS HOME.



ans Mt Dayton, o.
The pivot on which an ordinnr,
; household turns is the kitchen. Thi
may not be fact that IL flatters oui
souls to acknowledge, but 1t seems K
be universally true. AS we eat, so nc
cordingly do VIC sleep, converse, man
age our children, write poetry and dC
works OF charity. Let us then look in
TO the back premises, as it were, o
Government housekeeping, and see how
the goddess manages her household
whom she Is not sitting in brown study
on gold dollar. On one of these shady
avenues in Dayton, o., opposite a lons
row OF brick barracks (by no means n:
ugly MS the name implies) stands n three
story brick building, with pillarcd
portico along the front, which is the
Soldiers Home. This building contains
the two dining halls, on the first and
second floors respectfully, each 90 by
1870 feet, together comprising an area
exceeding half an acre. In the rear oi
this is the kitchen, a large irregular
apartment, lighted from the sides and
from above, and with floor space
enough TO accommodate mass meet
ing.
The bakery, bread-room, dish depart
ment and refrigerator are also under
this roof. No pantry is necessary, as
the food is kept in separate rooms,
shelved to the ceiling to hold each day
portion.
The goddess is thrifty housewife
and starts the machinery at o'clock
in the morning. At that hour the
kitchen and dining-room are aired, the
steam turned on in the range, and the
regiment of help begins the days work.
Breakfast is served at 6. An average
of 1000 men are fed three times n day
from the general kitchen, and from 400
to 500 Mt the hospital. Imagine the
work necessary to prepare Friday
breakfast, with seven barrels of mack
erel, 81 bushels of potatoes and $50 gal
promptly ut 6.
There are 80 men in the kitchen de-
partment under the direction of the
chief cook and his assistant. Some
prepare vegetables, others cut the
meat and the bread, still others make
the coffee. They do not interfere with
one another, nor do they waste timo or
labor or food. There are no grease
spots on the floor, no unwashed cooking
utensils, no visible dishcloths. 1t is
the true military order and neatness
which admits nothing short of per-
fection.
Across one end of the kitchen is n
range twenty feet long. This is used
exclusively for cooking meat, and the
quantity of roast beef for one dinner,
about $500 weight, or nearly three en-
tire bceves, is easily accommodated.
One side of the kitchen is lined with
huge iron pots or coppers, heated by
steam for cooking vegetables. On the
opposite side is a row of stationary cof-
fee boilers, seven in number, each hold
ing from sixty to one hundred gallons,
and all filled and emptied twice a day
the year through. Here is the way
coffee is made ut the Soldiers Home:
First, the boilers are filled with water
and the steam turned on under them;
then, while the water is heating, the
ground coffee is measured out of the
bins and put into perforated tin recep-
tacles the size and shape of washtubs,
one of which fits into each copper. This
is on the principle OF the French coffee
pot, which requires no egg for the clear
ing.
The hash machine is run by four
horsepower engine. This machine has,
in addition to the usual bewildering
number of cog-wheels and levers, five
sharp blades which work very quickly
in n shallow revolving cylinder con-
tanning the hash. Nine hundred pounds
of corned beef and thirty bushels of po-
tatocs are required to make the morn
ing meal. The chopping takes three
men and the aforementioned machine
forty-iive minutes to turn out the neces-
sary amount.
All the eatables for this family are
supplied on the same gigantic scale. A
statement Of the quantity of food re-
quircd at the home has n Falstaffian
ring which might well make prudent
chronicler hesitate unless supported by
official figures. Forty-fve pounds of
tea every pight for supper!
Seventy-fve gallons of milk are used
each day at the general kitchen and as
much more at the hospital. Seven hum
dred gallons of Irish stew are prepared
for breakfast once n week.
Forty sheep are taken from the
slaughter-houses to the range on each
day that mutton pot-pie is served and
eighteen barrels of flour are baked into
bread and consumed every twenty-four
hours. This reminds me of the bakery,
which naturally fills an important role
in the Government menage. A large
room redolent with odors of fresh
bread, pies and cinnamon cake forms a
vestibule, one might almost say, to the
vast ovens which open into it. AT the
time of my visit it contained as princi-
pie furniture long table completely
covered with very appetizing pies. The
baker informed me that the whole
number for one days dinner (of which
but n small portion was to be seen) re-
quired twelve barrels of apples for the
filling, three tubs of butter for the up
per and three tubs of lard for the lower
crust.
The dining-room, or mess-hall, as you
would call it ify you would be truly mill
tary, is a well lighted apartment, with
long vistas of wooden tables, white and
smooth from daily scrubbing, and like
all the appointments of this houshold,
clean enough to cheer the soul of the
typical New England housewife. On
the second floor is another room SINH
larly fitted up. The tables in each
room accommodate at one sitting LOO
men, but MS that is about one fourth of