The times., 1899-07-02
THE TELEPHONE COOK.
An Innovation Introduced by ,
Clever Chinese Chef.

An Innovation Introduced by
Clever Chinese Chef.
In San Francisco where cooking and the
matters pertaining to the kitchen are the
subject of more thought than in the East,
there has been introduced what is known
as the kitchen telephone, and it has been
voted such an unqualified success that no
weIl-appointed house in California is with
out a hello machine" in its kitchen.
The maid of all work and the kitchen
fairy of the Pacific Coast is a Chinaman.
This peculiar feature of the far West has
not yet come into favor in the East, but
those Americans who have tried it say
that there is no superior to the pig-tailed
chef, and that the addition of an almond
eyed president of the kitchen realm is a
distinct advance in the direction of over
coming the national complaint of dyspep-
sia.
But to send the cook out to order the
dinner was found to be accompanied by
various drawbacks. The tradesmen were
disposed to guy the Celestials; the Ce-
lestials were not averse to paying visit
to the nearest fan-tan game when sent On
an errand, and the troubles that followed
in the train of this dereliction of duty were
almost too numerous TO enumerate. So the
Californian housewives set about to dis
cover some means of communicating with
the provision dealer, the grocery man, and
the fruit merchant without the necessity
of sending a messenger to them, and the
telephone was the result Of their eogita-
tions.
1t took long time to get the Chinese
cooks educated Up to the idea that the
telephone was a perfectly harmless inven-
ton. Every Chinese cook in the West
had not read that Confucius speaks OF the
use Of the telephone in deceiving the guile
less Chinaman OF thousands OF years ago,
and it required a special meeting or the
Chinese cooks at which the story was read
to them, to convince them that the god OF
the telephone would not visit his wrath
upon their heads if they dared to exercise
him in the way suggested by the white
employers. The story, told by an intel
ligent Chinaman, who was pressed.into the
service by the California women when they
were endeayoring to educate their cooks
up to using the telephone, went on to say
that the priests of the time of few thou
sand years before Confucius had two tenn
Piles, in one OF which the confession of the
Cinnamon would be received. Then the
confessor would be told to go post haste
to the ether temple, where the second
priest would grant him absolution. While
the Chinaman was covering the space be-
tween the two temples the first priest was
hard at work telephoning the substance of
the confession to the second one, so that
by the time the Chinaman arrived at the
second temple his story was ready to be
reeled of to him until he was compelled
to grovel before the supernatural being
who possessed such powers OF diyination.
Since the innovation described the Pa
cific Telephone and Telegraph Company
has gone among the %, 600 Chinese in San
Francisco, many of whom are wealthy
merchants. and has induced so many of
the Chinese to subscribe that a telephone
exchange has been established in China
town, which is the only one in the United
States