Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-02-03
NEXT SUMMERS ENCAMPMENT.
Arrangements for Feeding the Null
titude of the National Guard.

tltuQe OF the National Guard.
To a majority Of the members of the District
national guard the principal subject which
troubles their souls and stomachs as spring ap-
proaches is ''what shall we get to eat at the
annual encampment." The men who were in
camp last year ask with the influence of great
experience behind them; the novices are Curl
Gus to learn the fate that has been waiting for
them within the age-blackened walls of old Fort
Washington.
Up to the present time no definite arrange
ments have been made by Gen. Ordway as to
camp cuisine, but a general plan has been out
lined and the probabilities are that but few
changes will have to be made in it. The prin-
cipal source from which sprang the good
humored discomfort associated with meal times
in the last encampment was the cooking and
serving. The quality of the food supplied was
OF the best and the supply was ample, but the
corps of French cooks was unequal to the task
OF properly preparing SUFFICIENT quantity OF
palatable nutriment. They were untitled in
many ways for such task. Their training
had been in a more fantastic school of cookery
than was suited to hungry soldiers and when
the rush came upon them they were wont, as
Sergt Maj. Corvaizier had It, Ito get ratified.
Then they failed to gauge. with any degree OF
correctness, the great American appetite. Ihls
was proven beyond cavil or controversy by the
production of a so-called fish chowder," the
mere memory of which is endowed with emetic
powers of a violent description. That night a
more than ordinarily large proportion of the
brigade satisfied its appetite at River View.
The arrangements for serving the food at the
last camp were the best that could possibly
have been made, and had the walters been men
of experience or had they been enthusiastic in
the performance of the duty assigned to them
the amount of friction would have been mate
rally decreased. No one could really be
blamed for the condition of affairs. Gen. Ord
way and his staff had done their utmost in the
several departments, and had they been under
stood and supported the kicking would have
speedily reached the minimum of force. 1t
was an experience that was necessary, and its
results will be seen in the satisfactory manner
in which the feeding arrangements will be car
ried out this year.
TAKING TURNS.
When a meal time arrives in this summers
camp the first regiment will fall in and be
marched down to the mess sheds. The colonel
will be at the head of the central table and the
members of his staff will be distributed like the
sheep and the goats, Oh his right and left hands,
respectively. Company officers will be at the
right of their respective companies, while the
'non-coms" will be properly distributed This
will insure order. The regiment will remain
standing until ordered to take seats A corps
of colored walters will then distribute the edi-
bles and the liquid until each man is satisfied
that too much of a good thing is enough"
Until the colonel Is ready the entire regiment
will remain seated. The lieutenant colonel is
to be stationed at the foot of the central table,
and as soon as his appetite and the respective
appetites of those around him are temporarily
out of existence he will notify the colonel Of
that fact. Then, If the colonel has had enough.
and if he is satisfied that no stomach has been
neglected, he will give the words of command
which will bring the regiment to its feet and
march it back to camp.
In the meantime the second regiment will'be
forming on it's parade ground and using lam
guage calculated to provoke a breach of the
peace because the first regiment is the first.
While the men who have eaten returning
to their tents and the men who want to eat are
moving at quick step in the direction Of the
mess sheds the walters will have cleared up the
debris and reset the tables. so at when the
unfortunate second arrives things will look
just as nice and clean they did before the
eating commenced. The order In which the
regiments will go to meals has not yet been
ranged, men in the second need not start
out to make arrangements for transfer to the
first" Stay where you are.
THE COOKING.
Who will do the cooking is a question that
can be answered now. dozen sturdy colored
men, experts, will watch the baking of the
bread, the browning of the beef and the boil
ing of the 'murphies; good, healthy cooking.
Coffee, which last year took up so much valu-
able range surface, will be brewed this time in
huge iron boilers permanently fixed near the
kitchen.
Last year the steward. who watched the cooks
and did his best to keep an eye everything
else on the reservation. dress parades and lady
visitors not excluded, was driven almost to
suicide and certainly to intoxicants by the ap-
parently endless procession of men who called
on him for food between meal hours. They
were on guard duty and could not eat when
their less busy comrades were struggling with
that which was either set before them or cap
tured from some weaker brother. Sometimes
these ex-sentnels got mouthful; sometimes
they didn't. This year there will be a table
kept continually set for the men who will be
unable to partake with their regiments.
special cook will supply it with food and a
special waiter will study to please.
The second encampment OF the District
national guard is going to be great affair.