The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-08-29
A SOLDIERS HOME.
GOVERNMENTAL HOUSEKEEP-
ING ON A GIGANTIC SCALE.
Preparing the Meals for Five Thou
sand lnmates-A Hash Ma
chine Run by Horse Power
Mess Hall Scenes.

Mess Hall Scenes.
On shady avenue in Dayton, Ohio,
opposite long row of brick barrack:
stands three story brick building, with
a pillared portico along the front, which
is the Soldiers Home, sustained by the
United States Government. This build
ing contains the two dining halls, on the
first and second floors respectively, each
9Ox13O feet, together comprising an area
exceeding half an aero. In the rear OF
this is the kitchen, large, irregular
apartment, lighted from the sides and
from above, and with floor space enough
to accommodate a mass meeting.
The bakery, bread room, dish depart
ment and refrigerator are also under this
roof. No pantry is n ceasary, as the food
is kept in separate rooms, shclVcd to the
ceiling to hold each days portion.
The Goddess of Liberty is a thrifty
housewife, and starts the domestic
machinery at o'clock in the morning.
At that hour the kitchen and dining
room are opened and 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 day from the gen.
eral kitchen, and from 400 to 500 at the
hospital. Imagine the work necessary to
prepare Friday breakfast, with seven
barrels of mackerel, tifty-four bushels of
potatoes and $50 gallons of coffee to be
cooked and promptly served at 6.
There are thirty men in the kitchen
department 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, MOI do they waste time 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 ad-
mits nothing short Of perfection.
Across one end of the kitchen IS q
range twenty feet long. This is used
exclusively for cooking meats, and the
quantity of roast beef for one dinner,
about $500 weight, or. nearly three entire
beeves, is easily Accommodated.
One side of the kitchen is lined with
huge iron pots or corPsrs, heated by
steam for cooking vegetables. On the
opposite side is a row of stationary coffee
boilers, seven in number, each holding
from sixty to hundred gallons, and all
filled and emptied twice day the year
through. Here is the way coffee is made
at 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 receptacles 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 clearing.
The hash machine is run by four
horse power engine. This machine has,
in addition to the usual bewildering
number of cog wheels and levers, i've
sharp blades which work very quikly
in shallow revolving cylinder contain.
ing the hash. Nine hundred pounds OF
corned beef and thirty bushels of potatoes
are required to make the morning meal.
The chopping takes three men and the
above mentioned machine forty-five
minutes to turn out. the necessary amount.
All the eatables for this family are
supplied on the same gigantic scale. A
statement of the quantity OF food required
at the home has Falstaffian ring which
might well make prudent chronicler
hesitate unless supported by Official
figures. Forty-fve pounds of tea every
night 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 week.
Forty sheep are taken from the
slaughter-houses to the range on each
day that mutton potpie 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 yesti-
bule, one might almost say, to the vast
cvens which open into it. AT the time
of my visit it contained, as principal fur
niture, long table completely covered
with very appetizing pies. The baker
Informed me that the whole number for
one days dinner (of which but small
proportion was to be SEEM required
twelve barrels of apples for tho filling,
three tubs of butter for the upper and
three tubs of lard for the lower crust.
The dining-room, or mess-hall, as you
must call it if you would be truly mill
tary, is a well.lighted apartment, with
vistas of wooden tables, white and
smooth from daily scrubbing, and like
all the appointments of this household,
clean enough to cheer the soul OF the
typical New England housewife. On
the second floor is another room SINH
iarly fitted up. The tables in each room
accommodate at one sitting 100 men,
but as that is about one-fourth of the
actual number to be fed, they have to
be filled twice at eacn meal. A short
time before the dinner hour all is quiet
and orderly, the stools in rows
and the tables empty, except for
the salt and pepper standing guard
in the middle of each. A few
men lounge idly about, and one cannot
help thinking they must have forgotten
that 1000 hungry veterans will bes!ege