The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1895-06-13
PRAISED THE COOK.
The Major Erpialns why lie Has No Prai.
for Culinary Artists.

for Culinary Artists.
Now, major, you must not praise
the cook in her hearing" Mrs. Max
said: "You will only spoil her and
make her demand an increase of
wages"
Not much" the major replied EN-.
phatically. II had a little experience
In that matter which taught me les.
son. 1t was before we were married,
my dear, and before | resigned. Our
regiment was with Gen. Howard,
chasing the Nez Perces Indians across
the mountains in Montana and Idaho,
One of our lieutenants had been sta.
toned at the Presidio in San Fran.
cisco, and the mess made arrange
ments with him TO bring a Chi
nese cook. My, how that cook could
sookl The beggar brought along in
some mysterious manner the most un.
expected things. | remember one day
we'd had a venison roast the day be-
fore-that adorable celestial gave us
senison stew with pickled walnuts!
All the officers in the mess appreciated
,his; but bless me! how they jumped
IN me when | said to the cook: Plenty
good stew, Chung, plenty good All
said | was fool"
"Majorl How could they?" said Mrs.
Max
'Oh, that's only mess-room talk.
Every body calls everybody fool at
mess dinner. Well, as | was saying,
all the boys said Chung would strike
for higher wages, get impudent OF
naughty, and leave il we praised him.
So they laid out scheme. Whenever
he brought in a particularly good
dish we were to turn up our
noses and make mean remarks.
That would keep Chung in
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 'pish" or 'tushr and
the last one threatened to throw the
dish away. Chung regarded that with
calm exterior, but after dinner he APP
peared swaddled in every one of his
jackets, and bade us good-by. We
were nearly frightened to death, and
asked what allied him.
You no like my cooking, me no
cook, that heather answered.
I'VE assured him we would try and
stand it, and he grinned and said we
could stand it for just ten 'dalla' more
per lunar month. OF course, we felt
silly, but there was nothing to do but
pay it to him. That made seventy dol
lars month. They were the biggest
lot of fool officers l ever saw. for they
insisted on their scheme. One day
Chung brought in a tenderloin of
mule"
Mule? Major!"
"Yes; we were down in the bad lands
then, hundreds of miles from any set.
tlement, and mule was pretty good.
You never happened to eat a young
mule, suppose? OF course not. Well,
he had seasoned the mule with kind
of little pepper he had found, and it
was immense. Then those fool boys
went through the same idiotic per-
formancc. The last one the dish was
passed to turned up his nose to his eye
brows and said: oh, blazesr"
'Major."
81 was not the man, my dear. Chung
nad watched the proceedings to the
end, silently, but when the remark
have quoted was made Chung turned
on his heel, and he, too, said
Major"
mo, not major but the word you
object to. After dinner he appeared
again, all dressed up in his Sunday
clothes, and bade us good-by. We re-
monstrated, but it did not work. We
threatened and he pretended not to
understand. Finally we asked him how
! much. "One hundred dollar month, 9"
answered Chung, with never a ghost of
smile.
I'VE paid it. Since then I've believed
little praise to the cook, judicially
administered, approaches q in domes.
tic economy"
I'm sure" Mrs. Max remarked, after
a thoughtful observation of her finger
nails. which are very pretty, "rm sure
| don't see why you didn't advertise
for another cook. IN. Y. Advertiser.