The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-10-20
PRAISE THE COOK.
An Experience that Taught tho Major n
Lesson in Domestic Economy.

An Experience that Taught tho Major
Lesson in Domestic Economy.
Now, Major, you must not praise the
cook in her hearing" Mrs. Max said.
"You will only spoil her, or make her
demand an increase in wages"
Not MUCH" tho Maicr replied en-
phatically. 81 had little experience
III that matter which taught me a. les
con. 1t was before we were married.
my dear, and before | resigned. Our
regiment was with General Howard
chasing the Nez Perez Indians across the
mountains i'll Montana and Idaho. One
OF our lieutenants had been stationed
at the Preside i'll San Francisco, and
the mess made arrangements with him
to bring Chinese cook. My, how that
cook could cook! The beggar brought
along in some mysterious manner the
most unexpected things. l remember
one day-we'd had a vcnison roast the
day before-that adorable Celestial gave
us venison stew with picked walnuts!
All the officers in the mess appreciated
this, but, bless me! how they jumped
on me when | said to the cook: 'Plcnty
good stew, Chung, plenty good All
said l was Il fool"
"Major! How could they?" said Mrs.
Max.
"Oh, that's only messroom talk. Every
body calls everybody q fool mt a mess
dinner. Well, as l was saying, all the
boys said Chung would strike for higher
wages, get impudent or naughty, and
leave if we praised him. So they laid
out scheme. Whenever he brought
i'll particularly good dish we were to
turn up our noses and make mean re-
marks. That would keep Chung in q
proper and -lowly spirit, and generally
promote harmony and discipline. The
next day he gave us some mountain
quail roasted in envelopes of bacon, and
really, my dear, wish your cook could
roast quail like that. The boys all
said ugh! or 'pishT or 'tushp and the
last one threatened to throw the dish
away Chung regarded that with calm
exterior, but after dinner he appeared,
swaddled in every one of his jackets, and
bade us good by. We were nearly
frightened to death and asked what
allied him.
on no like my cooking. me no
cook that heather answered.
eve assured him we would try to
stand it, and he grinned and said we
could stand il for Just ten 'dolln' more
per lunar month. OF course we felt silly,
but there was nothing to do but pay it
to him. That made seventy dollars ~
month. They We're the biggest lot of
fool officers l ever saw, for they insisted
on their scheme. One day Chung
brought in tendcrloin Of mule"-
Mule, major"
Eyes, we were down in the bad lands
then, hundreds of miles from any settle
ment, and mule WAS pretty good. You
never happened to eat young mule, l
suppose? Of course not. Well, he had
seasoned that mule with kind of little
pepper he had found, and it was i'm
mense. Then those fool boys went
through the same idiotic performance.
The last one the dish was passed to
turned his nose up to his eyebrows and
said, oh, hellr"
"Majort"
81 was not the man, my dear. Chung
had watched the proceedings to the end
silently, but when the remark l have
quoted was made Chung turned OH his
heel and he, too, said"-
"Majorf"
"No, not Major but the word you
object to. After dinner he appeared
again all dressed up in his Sunday
clothes and bade us goodby. We re-
monstrated, but it did not work. We
threatened, and he pretended not to I'M
derstand Finally we asked him how
much.
Zone hundred dolla month, answered
Chung, with never ghost of q smile.
I'VE paid it. Since then I've believed
little praise to the cook judiciously
administered approaches G in domestic
economy"
"Pm sure" Mrs. Max remarked. after
a thoughtful observation of her finger
nails, which are very pretty. "Im sure
don't see why you didn't advertise for
another cook. New York Sun.