Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-11-20

afterward. If he takes a hurried glance
about him, that he has seen some Of the
wonders of Il hotel basement. In any event
he Will be projected hastily and without
ceremony UP a stairway, through a dark
passage and elected out "a side door. There
Is little TO the method. For
some. however, 1t viii prove TO be the only
plan.
The second way is TO get a letter TO the
steward from the manager. II ii is not
the busiest hour with the steward. and
he feels 50 inclined. he viii give you a
pass and show you the door. the starr
door. After that YOU must look out for
yourself and for anybody coming toward
you from any direction.
sightseeing III a hotel basement is at
tended by difficulties. /, IL II realm of half
lights and no lights. I deafcning noises
temperature and moving objects in the
gloom. The sightseer VIII fiatten himself
against a wall in a narrow hallway TO
avoid Il man trundling a truck. He VIII
catch a severe cold between the boiler
room with the thermometer at lG1 and the
ice plant ut a.. He Will come to stepping
of places in the dark. stop at unexpected
brick walls and stumble up steps where IL
should be level. He win be stared at Gu
riOusly by men with blackened faces and
laundry girls over their machines He will
do well after these experiences if he has
not been tangled ZIP in the labyrinth and
Is able 10 ind his way out without a
guide
Down I'm the StoreroOm.
The storeroom of a modern hotel con-
tains delicacies for the table not to he
found on the shelves OF grocery stores or
even in the wholesale houses. The million
aire who would have them for his harder
must go to the importer. The steward of
a hotel imports his own fancy groceries.
lie knows the names of exporters in for
oign countries as well as Il travelling mar
knows the trade"
Would you have stangusparqel Imported
asparaGusb at 81 per order? Turkish pre-
served roses: crctes de coo Crooster combs:
bar lu due tgooseberrics preserved ia
Quot VRafl1 in Att EArN.gR n fhn .Ehatl
InClangc from Moinz am Rheinc: anchoGs
from Bordeaux They are to be seen in
The original packages bearing foreign
them. Spaghetti from Italy. Frankfurt sau-
sage from Germany. picked chestnuts from
hungary. pitted cocktail olives from Africa
and spices from the East Indies are ar
ranged row upon row. The choicest and
Tarcst fish which are to bc found in the
remote waters OF the globe are brought
TO tempt the appetite of the jaded epi-
cure.
The Travelled connoisseur who relates
tales of rare Favored dishes discovered
in the ciiscurity of unhcard-of hamlets to
which they are indigenous. or in Bohemian
resorts of civilized cities where they served
10 crafty half civilized and wholly unac-
countahle tastes, must stand in awe of the
knowledge and experience of the faster,
the steward who orders the bewildering
array OF imported edihleS that line the
huge rcfriGcrators and siorerooms. 1t
is not So much of a caTicature to picture
him as the epicrire whose weight and govt
49, ma 90 ~ "i'' 49,
There WIS a time. remarked the hotel
steward. when the most perfect way Of
preserving food was by canning il. You
may have heard Of the Missouri
farmer who had lived like his father and
grandfather on hoc-cakcs and sow-belly.
lie discovered mineral deposits on his farm
md en}a n for SlOO.U0a. When he got the
money his 2ld-time friends crowded about
him Al the conner grocery anu conSratu-
lated him ON his luck.
What you goin' ;"r do. jim, now Yer
got a heap ter spend" asked one.
Mall. ~fcllers. drawled ,!.e old man with
"A smile of anticipation. i 5 0se I'll live
on canned truck the rest of my life
with refrigerator freight teamerS and
refrigerator cars the era of canned truck
is passing away. Just look i'm here
He swung open the heavy door of a room.
the side OF which was a row of refrigera-'
Tors. The first contained fruits. fresh and
in jars. one hotel in Kansas city put up
1850 quarts Of fruit and ~ gallons of pre-
serves this year. The second contained
game. plovcr. quail. sage hens, jack Snipe.
mallard. teal. squad and pheasants. The
third contained poultry. oysters. clans and
Holsters: the fourth fresh meat. the FIFTH
milk and cream: the sixth fresh vegetables.
lettuce, asparagus, celery. watercress and
others. Overhead were the cooling pipes
incrustcl in frost. Everything WIS order
~ and clean. \ match could he lighted ON
tue woodwork, so free from moisture
WAS IL.
The stock Of goods would invoice 5000
or mere any day Of the year. just before
the new tariff law went into effect one
Kansas city hotel bought $500 worth of tea.
An SNND STOCK Of surplus emma Is Kept Oh
hand.
ii an apple or "A pound of butter We're
taken 10y ANY one OF the scores of employees
who handle the articles of food ii would
lie detected. The system of books and req
uisitions in the various departments
makes il possible To trace everything from
the time Of it's receipt until il is consumed.
Afttr leaving the storeroom a visitor
begins To form 4 new opinion of a modern
hotel. If his relation with 1t heretofore
has been that oil a guest h. will no longer
think Of II as a place Of convenience in
which TO eat and sleep. He will define it
IN his mind as a place where people work.
II he has viewed il in ti" light of the mes
scngcr boy and The haUEcr-on as a plaC"
where neUul" loaf, OF the rounder as the
place with the seductive Turkish bath and
a late morning call. Of the tamale man
as the towering perspective of lights
against the night sky. or Of any other man
who never grasped tn" fact that tn. vital
ity Of The hotel is buried I'm the part un-
II a. a place where people work.
In the boiler Room.
In the boiler room. a veritable stoker's
hold. men shovel coal hour after hour into
the furnaces and drag forth cinders fiery
hot onto the hot floor. They shovel be-
tween a brick wall lined with steam pipes
and an iron wall with flames behind II.
The average of coal consumed j. about
forty tons day. with n iG0 horsepower
,anaritv. The boiler rooms are the lungs
ard the hot water pumping room is the
heart of the hotel. Warmth is sent