The times., 1899-09-17

maker. THE most popular pie" he con-
tinued, is the apple. with the mince and
peach second and the lemon, cherry,
prmpkin, and strawberry all in bunch for
third. You can average them daily os
follows and you viii not miss the mark:
Apple, 5000; mince, 1900; lemon, cherry.
Strawberry, and pumpkin. 1900 each;
prune. custard. huckleberry, blackberry,
apricot, cocoanut, and pineapple. LOCO
each; grape, cranberry, rhubarb, currant,
500 each; sweet potato, 500; damson. 800,
and crab apple and gooseberry, 200 each
This is the dull season for pie. the
peaches. watermeions, grapes, and other
fruit in the market making the business
quiet. but wait until October and then,
with the cool weather, business begins TO
pick up but the time when the pie-nla-
ker's business is brisk is in April, May,
and June II seems as though the people
want 10 eat all the pie they can before the
hot weather sets in, and during the three
months mentioned we frequently have to
work over time, but by July 4, fruit has
begun to be plentiful again and not over
2e, 600 pies are eaten a day in Washington.
Pastry for Congress.
Congress always eats good many
pies; at least the members of the House
of Representatives do, for We always send
$50 big pies day there, making 750 pieces
of pie a day. The Senators have Their
pies made by their own baker, but l am
told they consume as many If not more
than their colleagues in the House.
.'All this pie habit has grown up in
Washington in the last filteen years, for
in 1854 / viii wager that not over i,000
pies a day were sold in Washington. OF
course, there were more homemade pies
in those days, but the professional has
about driven the pies that mother made
out of the business. and YOU will find that
nearly every man who eats pie in these
DAYS eats at noon. and that's when the
piemaker gets in mis- work with his able
assistant, the dairy lunch man.
This pie yarn / have been spinning you
] may seem a little strong, but come back
1 into the factory and / will show you the
| pies TO back il up with" said the baker,
ana he led the way into the rear OF the
office. BY actual count, there were TWEEN
ty-five people making pies and 1t was late
in the afternoon and the rush OF, the day
was over. Five big men were kneading
dough and passing 1t in large chunks over
to four other men who, with dexterous
turn CT the hands, pat the lower crusts IN
the pans. and passed them over 10 three
girls, who, with big dippers, poured the
prepared fruit into the pan and then hand
ed them to four men who put on tne top
layer OF dough, stamped the name OF the
variety OF pie on them and slowed them
away in big racks. AS fast as the racks
were filled, they were rolled away by boys
to twc big brick ovens where the baker
passed them inside upon a revolving plate,
run by machinery and regulated to suit the
heat OF the fire; but so timed that when
the pie had made the circuit OF the oven
and reached the door again it was done
and was taken out by a boy; constant
stream OF ingoing undone and outcoming
done pies being kept up. The average pie
was baked in about FIVE or six minutes.
( An almost countless number CT racks of
finished pies stood at one side of the room
and the piemaker said they had been baked
within the last two hours. There were
only 1900 Of them. or ] 500 pies an hour
or twenty-five a minute, he said, and he
would have 10 add 10000 or 1900 more
to supply his trade.
The father OF all the pie merchants in
I, Washington was the late Frank r. Ward.
who made over 100000. principally out of
pie, but later lost il all. Ward in 1873
opened small dairy lunch room, the first
one In Washington, in the basement ar
/ e29 Street northwest. He sold only pie,
/ biscuits, and milk and an Cd emp oye of
I his said il was some time before Ward
would sell pies At arst he started with
/ not over six pies. but his pie business
/ fourished SO that he was soon selling