The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-14

Today the McAlpin serves-by the en- thusiastic recommendation of M. Pan chard-a military luncheon" which Is duplicate of the noon meal which Uncle Sam dishes up for his boys. The price of this meal Is 50 cents, and 1t is the highest compliment which Broad- way can pay the army's camp and field mess.
 In fact, the day of civil war hardtack and Spanish war embalmed beef is long gone" Emergency rations, of course, the soldier must carry to tide him over bad situations where the enemy fire Is hotter than the bake ovens behind the line. But for feeding his armies in bar rack and trench, Uncle Sam has become a domestic scientist who thinks in terms of nutritive values and psychologist who realizes that the stomachs digestive juices will not respond unless the palate telegraphs it's approval to the brain.
 Never before in the worlds history have commanders of troops realized how absolutely an army moves on its stom-
 ach." It would not be going too far to say that unit in motion Is organized around the commissariat. Closer than
 the artillery to the infantry, or the aviation division to either, comes the group of rolling kitchens" which, their great kettles boiling merrily all day. go mule drawn into action behind the marching men. Soup is simmering, beef is stewing, the classic beans are heating as the doughty cook wagon bumps along.
 When the company halts for noon the
 efficient cook is ready to announce
 "dinner is served" In appearance it's
 as simple as the organization of dining
 car service, and in actuallty many times as complicated.
 In the months to come, when our American rolling kitchens" are perched reasonably out of range on a scared field somewhere in France and our boys from home are emptying their plates of a generous helping of "t'l
 Rancho" stew, they may lift their bull letproof helmets to the printed con- soler, comforter and friend which has followed them to the trenches-the
 manual for army cooks, issue of 1916. As matter of history. the present volume of official recipes is about a dozen years old, It has been collected l from many sources by man wise men adorned with uniforms and backed l by general orders; but It's choicest and best originated in the instinctive, | inimitable methods of Aunt Diana, who concocted her champion waffles i by "jes tastin.'"
 1 In fact, large majority of the good and fine points in Uncle Sam's
 daily menu for his Sammies is due 70 I an old eommissary sergeant of Fort | Riley His name was Dunne, and he
 was one of those "born to the grid- dle." who has the same advantage over the ordinary aspirant to kitchen honors that Kubelik had from birth
 over the little girl next door
 ] He was not man of education in the ordinary acceptance of the word, l but he was a first class army cook. On scraps of wrapping paper or old l bills he kept copy of every recipe he I had ever tried. These were edited by l Colonel Holbrook, then in command at Fort Riley, and published in little book called Methods of Handling l Army Rations," which has developed into the Manual for Army Cooks" the 1 textbook in the army schools for cooks and bakers started in 1900 by Com. Gen. Sharpe, now quartermaster gen eral. And a perusal of its contents after sampling the results of it's coun-
 sel, leaves one little sympathy with the
 words fitted years ago to the bugler's s l regular mess call:
 | Soupie, soupie, soupfe.
 I Without single bean!
 Coffee, coffee, coffee,
 Without drop of cream!
 Piggie. piggie, piggie,
 Without a streak O. lean!
 N There is legend to the effect that E there are several amusing musical K diatribes against the army food. but
 nnsstioHiNf of officers ana men at the