Evening star., 1936-06-28

has met with no bareback
from friend or foe is oddly
~ enough the one where one
would most expect a backfre-the
recently installed all-electric cooking
range at the White House. Was the
painless installation of the most up
to-date equipment for the cooking of
meals in the United States today a
sign of the adaptation of that which
is new and different in Yankee in
ventions? Or, did the first lady, Mrs.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, very grad
ually and tactfully build up welcome
for this wonderful innovation in
realms domestic by publicising its
advent to an extent never before ac-
corded any type of kitchen equipment
in our land?
1t may be, when it was decided to
have the Presidents House" go glo-
riously modern and up to date on
kitchen equipment, that the manufac-
turers of the recently installed all
electric kitchen took leaf from past
experience by so skillfully rehearsing
the kitchen staff in the intricacies of
its operation as to avoid downstairs
rebellion similar to one which pre-
vailed when the first cook-stove was
installed in the White House during
President Fillmore's administration.
To whomever the credit goes, 1t
should be accorded in full measure,
for its forbear, the first cook-stove,
was the cause of such an incipient
revolution in the White House culi-
nary department that President Fill
more himself had to take a hand in
the matter before the White House
cook could be restored to peace and
harmony with the new regime which
the incumbency of that cook-stove in
her" kitchen involved.
For thirty years this colored deity
of the White House kitchen had man
aged to prepare delicious meals for
incoming and outgoing Presidents and
their families and guests before the
two open fireplaces which suficed for
all cooking operations. Their ar
of Spits, cranes, kettles on
legs. long handled pans, and other
such paraphernalia had probably been
little changed or augmented since the
days of the mansions first lady, Abb
gail Adams, whom you will recollect,
complained bitterly in her letters
home about the housekeeping incon-
veniences Of the presidents Palace"
Old Fireplace Remains.
One of these cavernous black fire.
places still survives as a potent re-
minder of other times and ways in the
original White House kitchen now
converted into a dining room for
White House servants. Its cooking
utensils with handles a full yard and
a half long and its oven set in the
wall from which live Goals had to be
raked at Just the right heat before
the days daily portion of bread could
be set into 1t to be baked, bear mute
testimony to the arduous and back
breaking work that cooking was in
those good old days" happily gone
their way.
Enlarged by remodelling operations,
the nearby lean-to cow-shed OF Presi-
dent Jackson's administration now
serves as a storehouse for choice
White House hams and modest sup
ply of wines. How changed, too, are
White House methods of keeping per-
ishable supplies Of food for the presi-
Dental table from those times when
the country clergyman and nearby
neighbor of a famous President de-
vised a make-shift thermos arrange
ment for keeping fresh in transit those
prints Of unsalted butter which Presi-
dent Jefferson SO enjoyed having sent
from his native Virginia.
There is another story, too. in the
stocking of White House larders over
the telephone as the result of the
comparison of catalogue food prices,
or from nearby wayside community
markets at Mrs. Roosevelt's instance
and suggestion, in contrast to those
days when Washington's Center Mar
ket, in the area now occupied by the
Department Of Justice, used to find
President Harrison making a personal
round Of its stalls, selecting the items
he most preferred on the White House
menus.
But to get back to that first White
House cook-sEove. The Fillmores, who
were responsible for its installation,
were quiet, cultured folk. Both had
been teachers in New York State be-
fore their marriage. OF inquiring
minds, they kept abreast of that
which was worthwhile in up to date
equipment, as well as in
scientific research. He was Vice Pres
ident under President Taylor long
enough to become conscious, with his
wife, that the White House was lack
ing in many comforts and conven-
iences which should set a national
precedent in household equipment.
Made Home Comfortable.
Succeeding to the highest Office In
the land upon the death of President
Taylor, the Fillmores quietly pro-