The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1897-04-01
WING dur THE

|er we got them oft po-
Fatoes were always more or less of
luxury.
1T was likely to be known in the
Rmpany when we had potatoes.
2n we had something the men
care anything about, or some
that we had been having right
might be that not more
f the men would get into
be. cook S tent or at the fire
the call sounded. There was
TO be enough-there might be
men who wouldn't want their
On at all-and you would see
Struggling across the company
PIT toward the fire singly and, lat
arrying their tin plate and NOV
Ieisurely. 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,
SO 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 cook S
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 OLA man. Is was impos-
sible to give everybody exactly the
same quantity, but 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 not be SO big
by 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 more than fair
ness was required to give out the pc
tatoes successfully. A man had got
to keep the run of what he had
given out and the number of men
supplied and have some idea of the
of potatoes left and of the
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 whetheN there
were any men who had nds como.
yet 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 out with that nicely. I have
known as many as three men on the
end OF a line to be left without any
potatoes-all gone. Well, now, there
was a situation-n5p potatoes issued
for month before and none likely
to be issued for month again. Here
they were, all the other men in the
company eating potatoes at that
and none for them. You
can't very well describe just hoy
they did feel, but they never said a
word. They looked at the cook and
the cook looked at them. 1t was a
miscalculation, and that was all
there was to it. The cook had given
out his own potatoes and had none
for himself, and the three men walk
ed down the company street, look
ing neither to the right nor to the
left, and to their tents, and ate hard
bread on day when all around
the camp was filled with luxury"
New York Sun.