The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-10-21
Shrapnel Shells Do Not Spoil
His Salad.
|FIGHT We'll AND eat We'll
He Lost Is Of Mess Of As, but
Knew Their HerOism.
Latest Letter From Front by
william G.. Shepherd.
tBy william G. shepherd-)

sible for me to write reams about
shooting and killing If the officers
would let me. I am not permitted to
leave the town. or even to mention its
name in anything I write. because
cannot prove that what Information I
have will not get to the Germans.
But can write about Jules cooking.
It would do the Germans good to know
about 1t, and besides, any man who
says that cooking and eating are not
as important in warfare as shooting
and killing doesn'. know what war
fare is.
through wicket gate, which opens
on a pear orchard. and you're in Jules
kitchen. The kitchen he presides over
in Paris is sacred ground and you
could not enter it for love, nor even
for a lot of money. for Jules is chef
Of one of the greatest and finest res
taurants in the world. The mobiliza-
ton call in France lulled him down
from his high pedestal and brought
him to this pear orchard to cook for
IS officers.
Wears His Uniform.
Jules years his uniform, a blue coat
and red trousers. but he doesn't wear
the soldiers cap. Whoever heard of
chefs hat? don't believe the entire
French war department could get Jules
to try such an unheard Of thing.
The pear trees about his fireplace
are very old and very small and they
have been trained by generations of
nurserymen to grow in grotesQue pat
terms, like vines. on Queerly shaped
frames. Each pear is covered with q
paper bag which was tied over the bud
by the old gardener. in the French
'.Ah. for such fruit as that in Paris"
said Jules, as I stood by his big cop
per kettles one afternoon. mot a bit
Of dust. not even a raindrop has ever
tor had h. yr4~ - ~ n-y
the sunshine has penetrated the white
little paper home"
He shrugged his shoulders with
pleasure at the thought. The orchard
looks queer enough with the twisted
trees growing paper sacks OF fruit. The
Germans lived in this orchard for
eleven days. They may have sacked
Louvain but the splendor Of this
orchard seems to have overwhelmed
them. Now Jules and his French SOL
can let doll4r-9spiece pears alone.
Maybe the fruit will find it's way, after
all, to the swell restaurants of Paris,
London and Berlin. -.
Pots in Grape Vines. :,
Jules pots are under a grape or
chard. Huge clusters Of malagas
hang down over him as he works and
the steam from his morning coffee
settles on this in thick moisture.
which. for some odd reasons, seems
to make the coffee all the more won
derful. James II. Hare. the veteran
war photographer, who stumbled onto
the front with me, and had his cam
era and films taken from him, was
discovered the other day standing at
the wicket gate almost sobbing be-
cause he could not get a photograph
Of Jules in his grape-arbor-pear-or
chard kitchen. Jules kitchen is good
to see but it is better to smell. Today
he and three soldiers spent the fore
noon in working away with knives at
bushel Of ugly. dirty little potatoes
which had been dug from a garden
nearby. About five this evening
ing with ladle at two huge copper
pots. In one pot was a quantity Of
sizzling hot lard; floating, therein,
were slices Of potatoes which swelled,
under my sight, into puffy, round,
crisp balls. In the other pot was at
least a bushel of these same potato
bits. crisp and hot, which Jules was
ladling from the grease From time
to time he put raw potatoes into his
cooking pot.
Potatoes saute ?" I asked him.
$50 you call them in English. In
Paris we say pomme fruit This is
the best way to cook potatoes"
He tore a leaf from the roof Of the
kitchen. put a handful of the potatoes
| on it and gave me the lot
Eating Near Cannon.
could I do any better than that
in Paris?" he asked me. I started to
say mo-" but he gave himself the
same answer before did. BY dinner
time Jules had cooked enough steak
Il don't know how. only it was very
good-in the same grease in which
the potatoes had been fried, and by
the time we got through with the po-
tatoes and the steak. Jules brought
out a gigantic salad OF fresh lettuce.
with the vinegar and salad touched
up, in daring and artistic fashion.
with a bit of garlic. When this was
done his soldier walters served cheese
And then came coffee, which had sent
its steam up to the cold. fresh grapes.
Most of the time, Jules, in his blue
coat, his red trousers, his soldier
shoes and his chefs cap. stood look
ing on as If daring even the highest
| officer there-who happened to be
| part genera1-to say that something
| was the matter with the meal. In
/ truth, the only thing the matter with
it was that we all ate too much.
| made this complaint to Jules and he
/ said, 1T is music to my ears. the vail
Of a man with an overfull stomach
All this time, remember, the cannon
were booming and not far away. men
are killing and dying.
Have any of your mess been
II killed ?" I asked Jules.
Fifteen out of forty-five." he said
But I know they all fought well be-
cause they all ate well"
Old Mitchell County Man Dead.
II Beloit, Kan, Oct Ill. s. Peden, an
Il old resident Of Mitchell county, and
II veteran Of the Civil war. is dead here.
II He was born in Kentucky and served
| his country in Company F. Twenty
n r.