The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-04-17
Wadsworth Dispatch,
PUBLISHED sEMi-weEkLY
So 90 Fer Annum.
GIVING OUT TIE POTATOES.

Sometimes, said the old sol
der, 1--WE got considerable many
potatoes and then again we wouldn't
have any at all for weeks, very
likely nothing but hard bread and
coffee and pork and may be corned
beef, and perhaps beans, but wheth-
81 we got them often or seldom po-
tatoes were always more or less of
IL luxury.
1T was likely to be known in the
company when We had potatoes.
When we had something the men
didn't care anything about, or some
thing that we had been having right
along, it might be that not more
than half the men would get into
line at the cooks tent or at the fire
when the call sounded. There was
SUR to be enough-there might be
some men who wouldn't want their
ration ct all-and you would see
men struggling across the company
street toward the fire singly and, lat
er, carrying their tin plate and NOV
ing leisurely. No hurry. They were
quite willing to take their place at
the end of the line, and, in fact, they
didn't try to get there until the line
had been pretty nearly all served,
50 that they wouldn't have to wait
long, and they wouldn't have cared
much if it had been all gone when
they got there. But On days when
we had potatoes it was different.
Then the whole company turned out
promptly and formed in line, single
file, the right resting on the cooks
tent and the whole line moving for
ward as the men got their rations.
There was no greater test of a
cooks management than the way
in which he gave out potatoes, and
the man who could do this to the
satisfaction Of everybody was a
good deal Of a man. Is was impos-
sible to give everybody exactly the
same quantity, hut an effort to get
as near to this as possible, a spirit
of fairness, was recognized instant
ly and nobody expected more. The
potato he got might notbe sc big
by a quarter as the one he saw put
on the plate of the man ahead of
him. but he said nothing. Somebody
had got to have the other potato,
and it might just as likely have
come to him.
But something o than fair
ness was required to giveout the po-
tatoes successfully. A man had got
to keep the run of what he had
given out and the number of mel
supplied and have some idea of the
number of potatoes left and of the
number of men to come. He could
give himself some margin by issu-
ing the big potatoes generally first.
On a pinch. along at the end, he
could give out to three or four men
a single one of the biggest of the
smaller potatoes instead of two.
But he must know whether there
were any men who had not come
vet and whether they were likely
to turn up or not, and he must keep
the run of all these things without
stopping to think. as he forked up
the potatoes from the camp kettle
and put them on the plates held out
to- him by the men as they passed.
And generally he came out just
right. More than once / have known
him to put the last potato on the
last mans plate.
but he did not always bring
things nut with that nicely. l have
known as many as three men on the
end of Al line to be left without any
potatoes-all gone. Well. now, there
was a situation-no potatoes issued
for a month before and none likely
% be Issued for month again. Here
| they syt y. all the other men in the
.ornp2ny eating potatoes at that
minute and noile tor them. You
cant very well describe just how
they did feel, hut they never said a
word. They looked at the cook and
he cook loekcd at them. II was q
niqcsiculation. and that was ell
here was To it. The cook had given
| )ut h;s uwn potatoes and had none
or hiilself. nltlethree men walk
ID dawu the company street, iook-
NO neither TO the right nor to the