The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-03
BREAD ron 10000 MEN.
Ihe Army Bakery in Operation at
Camp Thomas, Chiclzamauga.

camp Thomas, ChicIzamauga
Chickamauga Letter in Philadelphia Times
glance bestowed upon the outside of
the rather unpretentous frame building
adjoining the railroad siding where a car
load of flour Of the Mountain City Milling
Company of Chattanooga, is discharged
daily to be made into bread for the army
of over $1,000 men congregated here causes
look of incredulity to fit over the face
OF the visitor at the thought Of some 30 500
loaves of bread being baked each twenty
four hours and delivered to the hungry
troops Yet such is the fact, and this one
story structure which is worked both
night and day, not only is making and
baking $4,000 loaves of bread a day, hut
under forced pressure can turn out 5000
and even 1000 loaves a day.
AS the visitor enters the building proper
from the open sheds in front where thou
sands of fresh light, hot and smoking
loaYes Of bread are cooling upon long low
tables about six inches from the board floor
novel sight presents itself 10 his view
and he Is kept busy lodging the continu-
Gus stream of black and white bread boys
rushing and tumbling out of the building
from the ovens holding fast to large pans,
each one containing twelve loaves of
beautifully baked appetzing bread.
once inside the first thing he observes
are two large dough mixers at one end of
the building, one having a capacity of five
barrels OF flour and the other six at each
mixing. At the smaller one Of the Two
a man is just emptying a bucketful of
yeast weighing eight pounds into the enor-
nous jaws of the mixer, while behind him
a me oh 6aa ri "a
white forty -eight-pOund sack of -four al
ready opened and prepared to follow the
yeast as soon as it has been thoroughly dis
solved in the twenty-four buckets of
water, which helps with the aid of the
giant steel kneaders to make the five bar
rels of flour dough.
From the larger mixer another force of
men are removing the dough and half fill
ing long, deep and narrow movable
troughs 9x3x12 feet slightly wider at the
top than the bottom and thoroughly greas-
ed
Just beyond this three kneaders &re
working away, elbow deep, on several
other troughs which have been standing a
while and are in danger of overlooking
from the seductive working of the Self
Raising Yeast
Immediately behind the men thus en-
gagged and covering the entire center of the
building are the immense ovens, where all
this bread is cooked, and as the firemen
go along the line of furnaces, opening and
shutting doors, raking the fires, and let
ting out flood of light and heat, every
body's, attention, even to that of the hands,
Is arrested for the moment Right after
wards, with a warning shout to the people
below, the bakers from the other end of
the building commence shooting down a
slightly inclined plane with iightning-like
rapidity immense consignments of freshly
baked bread, which are quickly and
deftly caught on the fly, as it were, by the
boys and carried out to cool in the sheds
with the remaining twenty odd thousand
loaves already there.
Finally. in all corners of the building
wherever space Will permit bakers and
helpers are busy weighing out, kneading
and placing In pans well creased the auto
matically mixed dough- which Is to go in
to the ovens and make the bread for which
the commissary department has made a
reputation for excellence.
This vast establishment covering as it
dose nearly one-half an acre of ground is
divided into four sections in order to be
more expeditlously operated. One hundred
and twenty or more men are employed,
divided into two shifts of twelve hours
each and Of this number of men 72 are
bakers, "a helpers, watchmen, u bread
boys to carry bread and push around the
dough troughs, firenen and engineers
and or 8 clerks, each individual an ex-
one capable of doing the largest possible
amount of work allotted to him.
In order to enable the bakers to do their
work promptly and efficiently the night
and day shifts of thirty-siX men are divi-
ded into four sections of nine men eacn,
who prepare the loaves for the ovens and
carefully watch them until properly and
satisfactorily baked. And not one of the
least interesting sights is where one of the
bakers with light on the end Of a pole
fifteen feet long sticks II into the oven to
see and examine each pan of bread and
find out whether or not il is sufficiently
baked.
Viewed in the evening the delicious odor
of the freshly baked bread tickling the
nostrias and arousing the appetite, the net
altogether unmusical chanting and Groom
ing of the negroes as they rush about
their work, the rapid cutting and shaping
of the loaves of bread for the ovens from
the huge masses of dough by the bakers
and the glow of the furnace fires through
which move the workmen, silent as spect-
res, form a scene not to be easily forgot
ten.
Within a stones throw of the bakery is
the cold storage meat warehouse of Nell
son, Morris & Co., Of Chicago. who have
the contract of supplying meat 10 the
camp. and with the Issuance of $1,000
pounds of fresh meat per day, TO the vari-
Gus commands in camp, which empties
three refrigerator cars per day. nobody can
complain of a shortage in the meat ac-
count. This building is worth a visit, al
though not to such a great extent as the
bakery. as a great deal of meat Is taken
directly from the cars and loaded on the
various reglmental commissary wagons
and driven straight TO the regiment, but
the cold storage warehouse is used for the
storage of butter. eggs and meats sold to
the soldiers, and 1t makes up in interest
that which il lacks In size.
Emile lola has been drawn out by a
,.nrrr- Garrnn 2, ,uor,nan who has hean r,rrit-