The Washington times., 1904-06-05
Spotless Kitchens and Pantries Are Scenes
of Intense Activity From Morn Till
Night, and Ali Are Kept
Constantly Busy.
Constantly Busy.

~ I'D you ever wonder, you Wash
ington housekeepers who spend
- summers at the great hotels
of mountain and seashore how the
complicated problems OF housekeep-
ing on this gigantic scale are met?
II has sometimes been said that every
man on earth knows two things beside .
his own business: how to run a news
paper and how 10 keep a hotel; but
both these things look easier from the
outside than from the inside.
The secret of successful hotel-keepins
may be summed up in one word-system,
The system varies more or cess with the
size and situation Of the hotel, but
really. when all the big hostelries Of the
seaboard and mountain resorts are con-
sidered together, the variations are in
considerable. Things are done on much
the same plan in all Of them. If you
want a phrase for the system, IT IS
specialization OF industry. Nobody IS
required 10 be a Observation-Disclosures. The
cook does not have 10 wash dishes, and
the waitress has nothing to DO with the
cooking. The manager has no time 70
teach varied industries to green hands.
a few hours spent behind the scenes
AT a hotel in the White Mountains. fav-
ored by Washingtonians and which &C
commodities anywhere from 800 TO loo
persons, reveals a complication of en-
Payments which all dovetan into one
another. The swinging doors which lead
from the dining room open into an i'm
mense pantry. Its walls are lined with
shelves fun OF china, glass and silver.
On one side is a long sink. where half p
dozen or more women wash dishes. and
beside IT Is a table at which two men
scrape dishes all day long.
Castles of the Kitchen.
They are the pariahs Of the pantry
The mattresses have nothing to do with
them. The chef. and the steward, and
the cooks. and the manager, have moth
ing 20 do with the Mattresses. EXCEPT in
tie way Of business. The mattresses also
hold themselves aloOf from the Iaun-
dresses and scrubwomen. who make up
a society by themselves. They can dc
II, for there are enough Of them-thirty
or. forty, TO say the Ieast The wait
resses number siXty-fve, and very neat
they lock in their black and white uni
forms with their perky little caps. They
sit in one corner Of the pantry when Off
duty, reading. gossiping, or doing en-
broidery. Now and then they have to
lend hand al Smelling peas or hulling
Strawberries. early in the summer. when
there IS not much TO do. But in the
height Of the season they are on the 20
from O'Clock in the morning until 7 OF
IN the evening. with a short rest in
the middle Of the day. and they have
no time for extra duties. They are
clannish, the Mattresses, and the man
ager who keeps them up 10 their work
In the pantry. or the head-waiter who
looks after them in the dining room.
may have his hands fun 81 he happens
TO be tactle5s or prejudiced, or above
al. II he has favorites.
Where do the mattresses come from?
More than sixty I'm this one hotel, and
tho town is made up Of hotels In the
aovels they are country school teachers
and college students workingIto earn
money for more culture. Sometimes
his Is so IN real life. The chances are
that in "a big hotel about a third Of the
mattresses viii be girls of more or less
EDUCATION. Another third. perhaps, will
Dc girls from the factories and shops
d the city. Laid or" during the sum