Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1894 — CAPITOL KITCHENS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CAPITOL KITCHENS.

A VISIT TO THE BASEMENT OF THE SENATE. '■ Ovens Which Will Roast Oxen and Gridirons Big Enough for Sheep—Gllmpaes of Our Bljg Brained Statesmen at the Dining Table. What Senator* Eat. Congress wants new kitchens. A committee of the Home has been appointed to investigate the matter, and the members are by no means satisfied with the dark rooms and old-fashioned cooking utensils with which the basement of that part of the Capitol is furnished. Tue restaurants of Congress do as big a business as any hightoned eating bouses in the 'United States. Nearly ati ousand people are fed daily at the tables of the House restaurant, and fully five hundred have their stomachs tickled by the appetizing viands dished vp in the restaurant of the Senate. The Senate of the United States recently put in new kitchens, and there is no club house in the world that has a better culinary apparatus. Our greatest statesmen are more particular as to their bills of fare than they are as to the bills before Congress. They want all the latest frills in the fashion of their di.-hes, and they use everything that modern invention can supply to help them in their cooking. I have spent some time this week in sampling the good things of tho restaurants and have made a study of the Senate kitchen. The latter cannot but bo interesting to the women of the United States. They are away down Under the ground. You go through Winding stairways into the sub-base-tnent of the Capitol. Tho kitchens, storerooms and bakeries of the Senate form one of the busi-

eet parts of the Capitol building. It takes about thirty employes to run them. You see white-aproned, whitecapped men everywhere, and there are cooks and dish washers, oyster shuckers and bakers, making up a corps large enough to run a big summer hotel. The main room of the kitchen proper is 15 feet wide by 100 feet long. It contains two ranges, each big enough to roast an ox, and it has patent steamers and baking machines here and there about it. In one corner is the bigge-1 soup pot in Washington. It will hold about two bushels of liquid and it is the size of the largest apple butter kettle. It is made of the brightest of red copper and it is used for keeping the stock for the making of the soup. Nickel-plated steam pipes run through it and tho liquid is always hot. A little further over there is a copper pot of about half this size, heated in the same way, in which the cranberry sauce and apple sauce which is eaten by these Senators is cooked, and near this is a patent turkey roaster. It •would make your mouth water to know just how good the turkeys booked by this process are. They are roasted by steam, and the roaster is’ a double iron box about as big as the average dry goods box, within the walls of which steam is conducted bv nickel-

prated pipes, thoroughly roasting the mallard ducks and the twenty-pound turkeys which are laid away within it. Another feature of this kitchen is the grill. It is a gridiron so large that you could lay the largest sheep upon it and broil it. This rests over a bed of red-hot charcoal, and the fire is such that the steak or chop can be well done in five minutes. This grill js kept going about six hours a day, and the juicy meat which comes from it has made most of the gray matter which you will find in the alleged brains of the Congressional Record. The dining rooms of these Senators are worth looking at. Their walls and ceilings are frescoed. They sit around the finest of damask cloths on chairs of oak, cushioned with green leather. Their dishes are china and their forks are of silver. The most of them prefer steel knives, and silver is only used for the cutting of fruit. The common dining room is apart from that used by the Senators, and there is a pie and oyster counter pre ided over by waiters. At there the statesmen now and then take a snack, but the most of

them are good livers, and they take a full meal at noon every day in the year. Funny to Watch 'Em. It is funny to watch them eat and to see “Upon what meat these our Caesars feed that they may grow so great." Take Don Cameron. He looks like a dyspeptic, and as he sits in the Senate he chews his red mustache as if he were hungry. He is as lean as a rail, and you would never suppose that he was one of the biggest eaters of the Capitol. He likes rich food, and he washes his lunch down every day with a pint of champagne. One of his favorite dishes is calves’ liver and bacon, and he smacks his lips three times a week over a chafing dish stew.

Senator Stewart of Nevada is another man who is fond of a chafing dish stew, and there is a baker's dozen of Senators who think that oysters served in this way form a dish fcr the gods. Senator Stewart cooks his oysters himself. He call for a dozen of the finest selects and these are brought to him at tbe table and a chafing dish is set before him. There is no water u-ed. The cy-tors are stewed in their own liquor in a large glass of the best sher-. ry wine, and in additi- n he puts in a big lump of butter and the yelks of two eggs, and then salts and pepers to ta-te. It is one of the richest dishes known to public men and is very productive of gout. Senator Hawley knows what is good, but he usually takes a light lunch. His favorite dish is chicken s up, and aftar this he bas a piece of apple pie and a glass of milk. If he has a friend with him he spreads himself out over the

whole bill of fare, but when alone his lunch is a light one. Senator Sherman is another pie eater. His favorites are apple and custard, and he always takes a glass of milk with .his lunch. Senator Frye lunches on apple pie and a cup of tea. Peffer of Kansas confines himself to a bowl of bread and milk or an oyster stew. Joe Blackburn and Arthur P. Gorman are both fond of goad living. Senator Hoar of Massachusetts has the reputation of being a light feeder. He is, however, one of the richest gourmands of the Senate, and he is fond of filling his round stomach with a chafing dish stew, and he dotes on sweetbreads served up in butter. There is nothing too good for Senator Wolcott. He wants his food highly seasoned and he is very fond of pheasants and other game. He likes a nice porter-house steak served so rare that the blood runs down its sides. He eats a big meal every noon and the day is cold indeed when you find wrinkle* in his stomach. All of these Western men live well. Hansbrough and Dubois want the best that the cooks can provide. Senator Perkins of California is a great feeder, and his colleague, Senator White, picks cut a half dozen dishes and eats them all. These men seldom dine alone and the average statesman likes company at his meals. Henry Cabot Lodge usually brings a party in with him, and Tom Reed, Julius Caesar Burrows and Doliver, of

lowa, come to the Senate and eat their lunches together. Senator Cush Davis is one of the big fish caters of the Capitol. He likes anything that comes from the water, and he feeds his brain on black bass five times a week. The New York Senators usually come to lunch together, and they are both good feeders, though Hill merely nibbles at the dishes he orders, while Murphy eats all of the best and lots of it. Power, of Montana, is a dyspeptic. He has no stomach to speak of, and he looks at his victuals with such a vinegar aspect that his milk has to be boiled before it is brought to him for fear it will sour. His regular lunch is a bowl of boiled milk and a plate of brown bread well toasted. He breaks the toast into the milk and dishes it up with a spoon. Senator Stockbridge, of Michigan, wants the best he can get, but he never drinks anything but water or milk. Turpie, of Indiana, lunches on oysters and wants fruit every day. Vance, of North Carolina, is satisfied with a sandwich, and Dan Voorhees eats enough country sausage and cakes to give any other statesman the gout. Wilson, of lowa, usually dines off a glass of milk and a piece of apple pie, and Roger Q. Mills can fill up his bread basket with chicken salad and feel like a king.

National Capital Notes. President Cleveland signed the Federal elections repeal bill, and it is now a law. The gold reserve in the Treasury Friday lacked but $6,256 of the sllO,000,000, of which it should consist. Miss Laura Houghtaling, of Asheville, N. C., a niece of Senator Stockbridge, died at hi> residence in Washington. Secretary of the Nany Herbert has appointed a board to examine Lieut. I’illett, of Portsmouth, N. H., as to his sanity. The distillers are laboring with the Senate Finance Committee to secure an extension of the bonded period, which they say is absolutely necessary. Col. David B. Henderson, of lowa, who lost one leg at the knee during the war, was compelled to undergo an operation' on the wounded member. He stood it well and is recovering rapidly from its effects. A bill is said to be before the House Committee on Appropriations having for its purpose the control of the National Soldiers’ Homes by the XYar Department. Veterans generally do not approve of the bill.

Carroll L. Riker, of Chicago, made a bid for the entire issue of b nds offered by Secretary 1 Carlisle. His proposition was of an extraordinary character and his bid was ignored by the Treasury Department. Riker has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a mandamus to compel Secretary Carli le to issua.sso,000,000 in bonds to him, according to the terms of his bids.

Chairman Blanchard gays that the river and harbor bill will probably n t be ready to report t > the House for at least three weeks. Speaking of the size of it he says that it will be a>very small bill, probably carrying about $10,000,000. There have been but a few improvements projected or now under way that have npt b;en advocated by the members in whose districts they are situated. AU this argument will not have much effect upon the committee, as the determination has been reached not to have any more new improvements provided for in this bill and to cut the appropriations for projects now under way to the lowest possible figure. 1

SENATORS PEFFER AND WOLCOTT.

IN THE SENATE KITCHEN

SENATOR STEWART’S CHAFING DISH.

THE NEW YORK SENATORS

SENATOR VEST AND THE OYSTER