Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-03-15
EXPENSES OF A DINING CAR:
Costly Service Maintained For the Conven-
ience of Travellers.

ience of Travellers.
A modern dining car of the most ap-
proved pattern costs $l5 600 to build
Next come the kitchen utensils the table
furniture, the silvCrware and linen, aver.
aging about SO, 900 worth to a car Each
car must have a steward, who usually gets
500 IA month, and n head cook, who values
himself mt SIS month There must also
be one or two assistant cooks and three or
four walters Three hundred dollars a
month is the very smallest outlay for
wages while the cost of raw food mate
rial, breaking Of dishes and the board of
employees is about $4,000 per month ad-
ditional. An average five days run costs
very nearly 5000 for food and service, SO
that it would take 40 persons at every
meal on the run to pay the daily expenses
without allowing anything for interest on
the Investment or for wear and tear Oh the
furnishings. The kitchen of dining car
contains every convenience except room.
There is a range capable of doing all the
boiling, broiling, baking and stcwing for
hundreds of people, yet occupying com
parativcly no pace at all. There is board
for the carver, a bin and table for the
baker and sink for the dishwasher, with
shelves and impcrishable supplies, all in
an area Of by IL feet at most. Every
inch Of space is carefully utilized. Under
tho car is the cellar or refrigerator, where
ice, beet mutton, poultry, milk, butter
and other pcris Arble supplies are kept.
The steward, who is in charge of all
fhis, must be a good guesscr To be sure,
the dining car is run on the principle that
no money Will be made anyway; that one
II.
road does; that the traveller must therefore
have the best in the market for fair
price, and that it is better to throw away
unused and spoiled material at the end of
n trip than to run out of some necessary
on the way. Yet l imagine that tho
steward who has the lowest average of
wasted food stands highest in his employ
er's 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 tho
Commissary department. The chef buys
the necessary supplies, but the steward has
to turn in an inventory of them at the
starting point, and also a statement of
what has been used en- route and what is
left at the end of the run. There Is no
method Of estimating the exact number of
meals that will need to be served during
the run, particularly II 1t he a 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 81. % 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 longer journey every
berth in the sleeper may be occupied, and
yet the dining car may be practically ten
antlCss, 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. r. the steward
goes through the train Oh il tour of inspCe-
ton or in giving his first call for meal
he must note the number of lunchboXes
and guess from the faces and dress of the
passengers how many orders he will have.
But even his best Judgment will be far out
of the way, for the lunChbox may be for
the next days light repast, or some of tho
best dressed passengers may not have de-
cidcd whether patronizo the dining car
or not.-Kate Fields Washington.