Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08

Written for The Star.
1t takes a pretty penny to run the COM
bined six by twelve kitchen, the half-as-
large pantry, the most diminutive of buffet
bars and the none too large dining room
on wheels popularity known as railroad
dining car.
An eastern railroad. which operates nine
dining cars in summer and six the rest of
the year, spends about eighteen thousand
dollars a month provisioning the cars. This
is at the rate of S216,o00 every twelve
months. The meat bill stands to average
about s4,4Oo every thirty days; the liquor
bill, $s,10o; the grocery bill, 1920, and SO
on, down the line, to the toothpicks put
up in little antiseptic packages of two.
Amazing figures perhaps to the lay
mind" said the superintendent of this
roads dining car service, but what
spend is a mere bagatelle when compared
with similar expenditures by some of the
trunk lines Take the - naming one
of the favored roads between New York
and Chicago. Il know that l am within
the truth when | say that its service is ten
times as extensive as ours. Hence, its
yearly bills for foodstuns and all sorts of
fire water aggregate approximate iy, 81, $780,
COO"
The cost of construction of a dining car
varies from $4,000 to $4,000 according to
the eiaborateness of it's interior finish; the
travelling public these days demand luxu-
rious cars. To equip car for service takes
several more thousand dollars out of a COM
pany's treasury,
The linen must be of the best quality
double damask. Each car must have three
changes of linen-one in the car, another
in the laundry and the third in the store
room. Al 1919 a change, this item totals
$l.647. 1t is an exceptional housewife who
spends as much money fitting up her entire
house when she begins housekeeping. The
complement of crockery and glassware
costs, at wholesale, S225: the silver, only
fifty dollars short of an even thousand;
the kitchen utensils sis2, and miscellaneous
equipment. $3.50. Thus, the initial cost of
equipment aggregates the respectable sum
buffers pantry and dining room Just
dreams If you could spend an equal sum
on them?
Heavy Renewal Percentage
Please to remember that this Is the initial
cost of equipment.
On account of cramped quarters A dining
car can carry just so many dishes Neces-
sarily, these are used over and over again
in the course of a single trip. The greater
the handling the greater the breakage. chip
ping and cracking. dining cars compile
ment of bread plates is five dozen II three
or four of these plates are not broken or
otherwise damaged on trip. it is a lust
cause for some wonder. At least II per
cent of cars croekery and glassware has
70 be rencWed every year. On one car the
oIead ana dinner plates We're renewed ten
times last year.
The percentage Of renewal Is so high be-
cause only perfect dishes are allowed to
remain in service. At the end OF every trip
the dishes are Inspected for cracks and
chips, and the fainteSt crack or smallest
EMP IS sufficient to lead to a d!sh's CON
demnation- 1t IL turned in at headquarters
and exchanged for a perfect dish taken
from the large stock always on hand To
this stock new hogsheads of china are add
ed every week
As soon as piece of linen shows a d.
minuLive hole that a housewife could deft-
~ mend and no one be the wiser In all
Likelihood 1t is condemned and thrown aside
to be given to hospital or other Charitable
institution The demand for new linen
IS so heavy that napkins. for example are
Issued in lots of twenty-five
IL cost the RAILROAD first mentioned Sc 800
last year to renew linen on its nine cars.
napkins, at $50 a dozen and an even hun
dred dozen tablecloths. The bill for nev
cFucktfy ana glassware in the same period
vas S9'5go Like the condemned linen, the
discarded dishes are turned over to de-
serving charitable institutions.
The cost Of silver renewal is not so heavy
as one might he led TO suppose from a
knowledge of the extensive purloinine of
stricted space which brings every diner
under the eye Of the conductor. keeps down
the loss materially. The silver item is
usually the smallest one in the yearly re-
ne wal bill
Stocking a Car for a Trip.
The cost of stocking a car for a trip va
rles, OF course with the trips length and
the amount Of travel. Some cars are stock
ed for two days, others for three and forr
-q1r
taught tue dining car service lust what
amount of travel should be provided for
on every run it is not a difficult matter In
determine what shall be placed in the kItcb-
Ell ana the buffet of each car.
10 iced a special party of III persons t1,,,
days and half, food and drink valuad -
itt'3l were placed aboard the dina, :
tached to the train. Eight meals u-aro
served. Supplies for a month for -
running daily between New York ana ~
falo and serving two meals a dav 80,
SSttu-a daily average of $40 '''"4eu
Right at this point Il should no ,,s,o
pltln that the prices q dining cav $500
pays Tor Its supplies are far below those
which are familiar 10 the AVERAGE bo-,o
vile, All canned goods, such as fonna -.
ana peas, are contracted for in the antnn,n
when the market is glutted throuoh 60,
pet''iNe D'duing, and the meats and most OF
the vegetables are also secured by vtarIt,
contracts The big foodstuf houses .ffai Il
over themselves TO do business with the
u4nlnB car end OF railroads railroad 10
pretty sure and prompt pay-and as a re-
suit the choicest of meats and best grades
OF canned goods are secured at figures that
would seem ridieulously cheap to the small
buyer.
What constitutes the stock of carr
Wen, popular diner running bet
Buffalo and the metropolis carries forty
one kinds of wines. liquors and bottled
waters, fifteen meats, six varieties of Ash
twenty-five vegetables and fruits and a
miscellaneous list of t2S things loosely
labeled groceries on the reauisition for
fresh stock turned into the eommissary by
the cars conductor at the end of each
trip Under this heading come canned
goods, spices, condiments, flour. tea coffee
yeast. crackers. sauces. breakfast foods.
ice cream. lard, butter caviar, milk. eggs
by the hundred, chop frills-everything that
is used In cooking. plain and fancy, and
for cleaning UP the muss afterward--lye
soaps. silver polish, brushes and meps
If the average good housewife In proud
possession of an old-fashioned roomy
kitchen were called on to stow away to-
morrow a stock of provisions costing. say
one hundred and fifty dollars, she would
doubtless ask helplessly, But whereu
find room for II alI?o Yet in his exf2
kitchen and his haif-as-Iarge pantry the
dining car chef manages very nicely 10
carry his stock and still have room In
which 10 store kitchen utensils, eroekery.