The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-30
A CHEF WHO FOUGHT.
ERENCHMAN WHO SERTED THE
 LOST CAUSE
Az Cook and Soldier-The Life Story of vaiIoe-Prepared the Meals for Jof-
 fersOn Davis and Handled n Musket


 ness.
 Out at the home of the Little Sisters of the Poor in New Orleans one may find sitting in the sunlight on the upper gallery these days an old man, refined of face and wearing figured and tas- seled velvet cap, who will, if his pipe be drawing well when the visitor comes upon him, tell a life story which sounds like masterpiece of fiction. And in the telling he will, if he goes wrong at any point, be prompted by another fig ure, almost as ancient and fully as pic- turesque as himself-the heroine of his story.
 They are, these two, Jean Baptiste Vallee, chief de cuisine. aged 99 or whereabouts, and his wife, aged 80, and Irish, recently come to the home from St. Joseph, La., where all they possess ed was destroyed by the flames which recently swept that town. VI am cook,' said the old man to a reporter of. the Times speak ing in the squeaky voice of great age and in English that bears only slight accent, "and I have cooked for many years, and in many lands, and for mon archs and presidents and generals But I'm more than a cook. I am a soldier. My father marched with the Emperor, and his son marched with Lee. Though chef, have, I say, heard cannon roar and bullets sing, and now that I'm get ting old I'm fond of looking back over what I have done, and I cannot, I say, when I do look back. decide wherein my greatest glory lies-in the meals I pre- pared for MT. Davis or in the bullets I fired for General Lee"
 Having said this much, the old man is wont to relapse into silence for while and puff at his pipe till the smoke comes in clouds Then when that hap pens, he takes the stem from between his lips, clears his throat and resumes:
 T am getting old. I was born in Nor mandy 99 years ago.
 Some people say you are 103," his wife and prompter is given to declaring at that point, and a twinkle flashes in her blue Irish eyes as she speaks.
 At the interruption the old man shrugs his shoulders and says, address ing himself to the writer:
 People will talk, you know!"
 And the blue Irish eyes of the an- cient helpmeet twinkle again thereupon, and she observes. dryly:
 He's so vain!'
 Then, having said that, the old lady iapses into silence again, and Jean Bap- tiste vallee resumes his story:
 T was born in Normandy, as I said, D9 years ago, and when I grew to be a young man I was drafted into the army For I was discharged, and I made my way to England, where I cooked a meal--I forget who for, but for some of the nobility, And it was such a meal that they said to me, You shall cook for the Queen, and sent me to Scotland to do so.
 q went to Perth, and for 15 days I cooked and cooked, and when the Queen and Prince Albert and the royal party came such a dinner as they never saw before was ready for them.
 After they had eaten they inquired who the chef was. and when they found out, this one and that one said: T must have Vallee; Vallee makes life | . happy state
 T could not serve all of them all the time of course-not even Vallee could | do that-so I cooked little while for | each of them-two weeks here and two | weeks there, you know, and so on. But | they did not pay meme, Vallee. An!