The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1894-12-28
THE DINING CAR,

"A modern dining car says Kate
Field, is of the most approved pattern
and costs SIS, 1000 to build. Next comes
the kitchen utensils, the table furniture,
the silverware and linen averaging
about $4,000 worth to- a car. Each
car must have steward, who usually
gets $Ioo a month, and head cook
who values himself at SIS month.
There must also be one or two as
sistant cooks and three or four walters.
Three hundred dollars month is the
very smallest outlay for wages, while
the cost of raw food material, break
age of dishes and the board of en-
ployes is about $3,o per month ad-
ditional. An average days run costs
very nearly 5000 for food and service,
so that it would take 400 persons at
$I.5o meal on the run to pay the
daily expenses, without allowing any
thing for interest on the investment or
for wear and tear on the furnishings.
The kitchen of a dining car con-
tains every convenience except room.
This is range capable Of doing all
the boiling, broiling, baking and
stewing for hundreds of people, yet
occupying comparatively no space at
all. There is board for the carver,
bin and table for the baker and
sink for the dish-washer, with shelves
and cupboards innumerable for dishes
and imperishable supplies-all in an
area of five by twelve feet, at most.
Every inch of space is carefully uti-
lized. Under the car is the cellar or
refrigerator, where ice, beef, mutton,
poultry, milk, butter and other perish
able supplies are kept.
The steward, who is in charge Of all
this, must be good guesser. To be
sure the dining car is run on the prin-
ciple that no money will be made
anyway; that one road must run it
because competing road does that
the traveller must, therefore, have
the best in the market. for fair price,
and that it is better to throw away un-
used and spoiled material at the end
of a trip than to run out of some nee
essary on the way yet l imagine that
the steward who has the lowest aver
age of wasted food stands highest in
his employers regard.
The first thing he has to do is to
make out the bills of fare for the trip.
These must be approved by the head
of the commissary department. The
chef buys the necessary supplies, but
the steward has to turn in an inven-
tory of them at the starting point, and
also statement of what has been
used en- route, and what is left at the
end of the run. There is 70 method
of estimating the exact number of
meals that will need to be served dur
ing run, particularly if it be short
one. Suppose it is to be made from
Washington to New York. Individual
methods of economy are very different.
While some prefer to pay $I.a5 for
the extra comfort of seat in parlor
car, there are others who think the
common coach good enough and
prefer to spend their dollar in the
dining car Again, there are some who
frequent both parlor and diner, and
others who care for neither. For a
long journey, every berth in the
sleeper may be occupied, and yet the
diningcar may be practically tenant.
ess, or the sleeper may be nearly
empty and the diner full of people
from the day COACH or it may be
crowded with the occupants of both.
As the steward goes through the train
on tour of inspection or in giving
his first call for meal he must note
the number of lunch boxes and guess
from the faces and dress of the pas
sengers how many orders he will have.
But even his best judgment may be
far ont of the way, for the lunch box
may be for next days light repast,
or some of the best dressed passenger:
may not have decided whether to pa