Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 262, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1914 — Page 2

JULES EGG BOY OF ASTOR HOUSE

Story of Remarkable Rise of Young Frenchman in New York City. Developed Great Business of Importing Delicacies From Europe and Retired a Millionaire Several Times Over.

By RICHARD SPILLANE.

In the days when that squat, gray pile known as the Astor house, in lower New York city, was more famous than it Is now, there came to it ifrom over the sea a tall, bright-eyed •youth with a letter to the chef. As •the big, fat and usually good-natured •chef read the letter he scowled. It was the same story. Every one in France who knew him, and some who did not, seemed bent on recommending people to him for work? He was overrun with applications. “I can do nothing for you, promise nothing for you,” he exclaimed excitedly. “Cooks? Assistant cooks? •Bah! We have more in America than we need. We shall have all there are in France if this thing keeps up. Every Vteamer brings a lot, and such cooks!' Most of them cannot cook the “I can cook an egg,” said the boy. "Poof!” said the chef. "You know not what you say. To cook the egg is a gift. Any fool can make the'omelet, shir or boil or fry the egg, but to cook the egg exquisitely, so it ravishes the eye, stirs the feeble appetite to health and desire, brings joy to the stomach and makes man feel like a god—that—that is art!” "I can cook an egg,” the boy repeated. The fat chef shrugged his shoulders. “There are 200 ways of cooking the egg,” he declared. “No'man can day truly he can cook the egg until he knows them all.” “I can cook an egg,” said the boy for the third time. \ The calm repetition of the statement was an irritation and a challenge to the chef.

"We shall see,” he declared impulsively. He took the youth to the kitchen and left him there for trial. That is how Jules became egg boy at the Astor. Epicures Appreciated Jules. There used to be a democracy about the old house that was delightful. Gay iboys of finance, law and the trades gathered there to feast or to frolic. {They had the tastes of epicures, but, sad to relate, ordinary or much abused digestive apparatuses. Soon after the arrival of Jules they discovered remarkable merit in omelets, shirred eggs and other things that came from his department. When the palate said “No” to other food it would appear grateful in its greeting of one of his delicacies. ; “Tell Jules it is for me,” would be the request of a railroad magnate, a judge, the head of a hardware concern. The egg boy seemed to learn the tastes and caprices of the regular patrons of the house with wonderful rapidity. Maybe it was not so much in catering to individual appetites as in the daintiness and delicacy, not only in the cooking, but in the serving of everything he prepared. He would not let a thing go from his hands unless it was perfect. Jules had a soul above eggs. The chef discovered after a while that the youth knew as much about boiling, baking, grilling, frying, stewing and all the other ways of cooking meats, fish and fowl as he did about a souffle that would appeal to the appetite in a way to make the worst dyspeptic believe there still was joy in living. He could make a soup that was nectar, and sauces as prepared by him put on a new dignity. Henri, the chef, blessed the day the egg boy came to the Astor and never could be dissuaded from the belief that it was due-to his own rare judgment that Jules was secured by the famous old hotel.

Did Not Work by Rule. Jules worked by no rule. Why should he 7 Back in Alsace, for hundreds of years, his forbears had been cooks. He needed none of the latterday aids to the lords and ladies of the kitchen. He scorned the oven thermometer. He knew when all was right. He loved to teach others, but somehow the others never could get the same results as Jules. He could take the simplest of foods and do wonders with them. He delighted in making stews, plebeian though they are considered. They came to think in the Astor that stewing was an art unknown until Jules came to them. He was radical. The great secret in stewing, he always declared, was in cooking the meat In its own Juices. Next, to achieving miracles with the stew, hie did marvels in the way of braising, which is a combination of stewing and baking. One of the peculiarities of Jules was that he rarely worked with a very hot fire. He believed that cooking at a high temperature was not only wasteful of fuel, but not good for the meats. He thought it was better and more economical to cook longer and at a lower temperature. Above all things, he was scrupulously neat. Cleanliness is desirable to a superlative degree in the handling of the things we eat. Jules was a treasure. Every one about the Astor appreciated that fact

It wa's a sad, sad day, then, when he announced to Henri that he was going to leave. The chef almost had a fit. It was unthinkable that Jules should go. The kitchen would be desolate without him. Henri would be desolated. What would the long-time patrons of the hotel, who had come to lean upon Jules, eay and do? Was it money? Was Jules not content? No, it was not money, and every one was kind and good to Jules. But his art called him elsewhere. He never would be the real master, never would know supreme satisfaction until he was in command of every branch of his glorious profession. He wae going to take a post-graduate course in the pastry line. Everything else of the kitchen he was supreme in. A few years would round him out as a finished artist.

Became a Pastry Artist. Jules went to a famous pastry cook’s establishmenL He went to learn and he remained to teach. Within a month he was creating things in the pastry line that the great pastry cooks perhaps had dreamed of, but never had been able to produce. There were some great pastry artists in kitchen. They were men of Paps, Berne, Strasburg and Berlin. No City of the world produces greater and better cooks than Strasburg. , Jules came from Strasburg. "There still was another branch of the culinary art for him to take the highest courses In. It was the shellfish. Just as a student sacrifices position and time, so he sacrificed his position again and went to Glen Island to work a few years in the cooking of crabs, oysters, clams and lobsters. Those were the golden days of the most beautiful island of Long Island sound. Each year Jules broadened -in view and broadened in knowledge. He was ambitious. He was frugal, as most Frenchman are, but he longed to be wealthy. There is a good living in the kitchen, but not riches or ease. They did not pay cooks as much in

those days as they do now, .either. When an association of French cooks was formed to raise the standard in this country, and incidentally to make some profit out of the importation of the rarest and most delightful of French delicacies, Jules was asked to take charge of the agency that the association established. He jumped at the offer. He saw in it an opportunity to do good for his fellow cooks, and at the same time get business knowledge he otherwise could not obtain. The prospect seemed excellent to him for the association to do great good. He worked hard and faithfully, much harder and just as faithfully as he had labored as a cook.

His One Hard Year. There is a difference between working for one boss and fifty. Every mother’s son who was a member of that association had' his own peculiar ideas as to how Jules should conduct the business, and each one of them gave orders to him. It did not matter how great the conflict in orders was, Jules was to blame. He put in the hardest year of his life trying to please all the members and wound up by pleasing none. Then the association decided to give up the Importing business and confine its attention to social matters. Jules was almost heart-broken, but the trouble in that association was the best thing that ever happened to him. He determined never to work for any boss except himself. He had $2,000, a wife and child. Against the advice of his wife and friends, he risked that $2,000 by buying a house in Thirtyfourth street near Seventh avenue. The $2,000 was only a small payment on the purchase price. There was a mortgage with interest enough to ewamp him unless he made money,, fast. But he had courage. He took over thp importing business of the association and devoted all his energy and fine spirit to pushing 1L Various times he had to rake and scrape and borrow to meet the interest on the mortgage* to pay duties on the goods bo j»purt«d, or to meet the drafts of

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

the shippers. He lived above the store —that is the way they do in the old country—and he scrimped and saved and tried to be cheerful. His friends advised him to move to cheaper quarters, but Jules wafi Obstinate. There were horsecars in Thirtyfourth street in those days, but before Jules had been there two years they were supplanted by electric cars. Simultaneously Thirty-fourth street was transformed. Property values jumped amazingly. Jules eold put his house at a profit of SIB,OOO and moved to Forty-second street, close to Seventh avenue. With the SIB,OOO and the profits that were beginning to come from his business he was able to buy to greater advantage, to carry a bigger stock and generally push his trade. He got the business of Delmonlco, of Sherry, of Martin, of every big restaurant in New York. Incidentally he began to assume a new importance. men and great restaurant men wEo wanted to open new establishments and to obtain the best of cooks went to him for counsel. He went abroad occasionally to look over the men of Strasburg, Berne, Zurich and Paris. When he called them to America they came. O

Built a Great Warehouse. One day Oscar Kammerstein came along and took a look at Jules’ Fortysecond street establishment. Mr. Kammerstein saw more than Jules’ place. He saw a theater on its s*te. Jules sold the building at a profit of $20,000 to the great theater builder and operatic impresario. Then, he went into Fortieth street. The neighborhood was not gopd. but that did not matter. He put up a great warehouse of about ten stories. It is the greatest of its kind in America. Prom the cellar to the roof, with the 1 exception of the offices and the living quarters of Jules and his family, it is filled with jellies and -cheeses, caviar and pate de sols gras, cordials and remarkable pastes, confections such as only the rich can as-

"I Can Cook an Egg."

ford, anchovies and pickled nuts, stuffed fruits and rare vegetables, smoked and dried meats and fish that cost enough to make a person gasp, bar le due and olive oils, essences, and a thousand other things that many persons think are necessities, but which the world would be better if it did not use. Rare is the ship that comes across the eea that does not bring somethingTo it. The money that has been made in that house is fabulous. Jules has retired now. Only a few know him as the egg boy of the Astor.' Today he stands as one of the most prominent Frenchmen of New York. He seems to have dropped into the place Henry Maillard once occupied in the French colony. Like Malllard be has been president of the Cercle Francaiee Harmonie and head of the great French hospital. Wealth has poured in on him until he has become a millionaire several times over. He is vice-president of one of the uptown banks. The big dividends he gets each year from the company that now manages his business provides money, enough to look after all his charities and let him do a little business on the side in real estate. He. has made all. his money between Thirty-fourth and Forty-second streets, and he has thei most supreme confidence in that strip! of New York. He buys and he sells,, buys and sells. He never has had ai loss. I America's Debt to Jules. I No man has done more to rafse the art of cookery in America. There, scarcely has been a great hotel built' anywhere In the United States within' the last twenty years whose proprle-i tor has'liot consulted him about/the arrangement of the kitchen or the selection of the culinary staff. With all hie'prosperity, with, all the dignity that money and position and age give to a man, Jules still loves to cook. He has all "the enthusiasm and a far wider appreciation of his art than he had when he was the egg boy of the Astor. (Copyright, I*l4. by the McClurs, Newspaper Syndicate.)

GERMAN TOWN DESTROYED BY ARTILLERY FIRE

View in Hohenstein, East Prussia, after it had been destroyed by shells during a fierce artillery duel between the Germans and the Russians. • '■

BRITISH SOLDIERS TELL STORIES OF THRILLING EXPERIENCES AT FRONT

English Cavalry Gave Good Account of Itself at Mons, Cutting Through Much Heavier Mounts and Heavier Men Than Its Personnel Contained—Vivid Description of Naval Engagement Off Helgoland.

London. —A noncommissioned officer in the dragoons has sent to a relative a fine description of the work being done by British cavalry. “All our men, in fact *the whole British army, are as fit as a fiddle, and the lads are as keen as mustard. There is no holding them back. At Mons we were under General Chetwode, and horses and men positively flew at the Germans, cutting through much heavier mounts and heavier men than ours. The yelling and the dash of the lancers and the dragoon guards was a thing never to be forgotten. We lost very heavily at Mons, and it is a marvel how some of our fellows pulled through and positively frightened the enemy. We did some terrible execution, and our wrists were feeling the strain of heavy riding before sunset. With our tunics unbuttoned, we had the full use of our right arms for attack and defense. “After Mons, I went with a small party scouting, and we again engaged about twenty cavalry, cut off from their main body. We killed nine, wounded six, and gave chase to the remaining five, who, in rejoining their, unit, nearly were the means of trapping us. However, our men dispersed and hid in a wood until they fell in With a squadron of the and so reached camp’ in safety. After that a smart young corporal accompanied me to reconnoiter, and we went too far ahead and were cut off in a part of the country thick with uhlans. As we rode in the direction of two wounded men were limping along, both with legs damaged, one from the Middlesex and the other from the Lancashire fuslleers, and so we took them up.

. Cure a Grand Sportsman. “Corporal Watherston took one behind his saddle and I took.tfce other. The men were hungry, and tattered to shreds with fighting, but in fine spirits. We soon came across a small village, and I found the cure a grand sportsman and full of pluck and hospitality. He seemed charmed to find a friend who was English, and told me that the Germans were dressed in the uniforms of British soldiers, which they took from the dead and from prisoners in order to deceive French villagers,, who in many places In that district had welcomed" these wolves in sheep’s clothing. We were warned that the enemy would be sure to' track us to the village. The cure said he would hide the two wounded men in the crypt of his church and put up. beds for them. It has a secret trap door, and was an ancient treasure house of a feudal lord, whose castle we saw in ruins at the top of the hill close by. “Then he hid away our saddlery and uniforms in the roof of the barn, and Insisted upon our making a restchamber of the tower of his church, which was approached by a ladder, which we wore to pull up to the belfry as soon as we got there. He smuggled in wine and meat and bread and cakes, fruit and cigarettes, with plenty of bedding pulled up by a rope. We slept soundly and the owls seemed the only other tenants, who resented our Intrusion. No troops passed through the village that night. In the morning the cure came around at six o’clock, and we heard him say mass. After that we let down the ladder, and he came up with delicious hot chocolate and a basket of rolls and butter. “Our horses he had placed in different stable* a mile apart, and put

French ‘fittings’ on them, so as to deceive the enemy. He thinks we are well away from the main body of the German army moving in the direction of Paris, but will not hear of our leaving here for at least three days. But I cried; ‘Cure, we are deserters!’ The old man wept and said: ‘Deserters; no, no—saviors, saviors; you have rescued France from the torments of slavery.’ “However, we have now secured complete disguises as vateurs —baggy corduroy trousers, blue shirts, boots, stockings, belt, hat, cravat, everything. to match —and, as we have not shaved for two weeks, and are bronzed with the sun, I think that the corporal and myself can pass anywhere as French peasants, if only he will leave all the talking to me. One thing I must tell you. “The two wounded soldiers don’t wish us to leave them, because I am interpreter, and not a soul speaks English in the village. So we" have explained to the cure that we shall stay here until our comrades are able to walk, and then the party of four will push our way out somewhere on horseback and get to the coast. The sacristan at once offered to«be our guide, and it is arranged that we take a carrier’s wagon which travels in this district and drive our own horses in it, and pick up two additional mounts at a large village on the way to the coast.

French People Very Kind. “We must get back as soon as ever we can. Nothing could be kinder, than the people here, but this is not what we came to France for, and hanging about in a French village is not exactly what a soldier calls ‘cricket.’ “You cannot imagine how complete the Germans are in the matter of rapid transport. Large automobiles, such as the railway companies have for towns round Harrogate and Scarborough, built like char-a-bancs, carry the soldiers in batches of 50, so that they are as fresh as paint when they get to the front. Butrin point of numbers I think one of our side is a fair match for four of the enemy. I hope that the British public are beginning to understand what this war means. The German is not a toy terrier, but a bloodhound absolutely thirsty for blood.”

Corporal F. Wiskin, of the Ninth lancers, in a letter to a friend, describes the action in which the cavalry took part on August 24. “This last two weeks (he says) we have" had it very hard. For the past ten days we have had about fourteen hours’ sleep, and, of course, we do not feel up to much. We had a terrible day last Monday week, when we charged the German guns. We were under heavy shell fire for five hours, and could not move. The longer we stayed trying to get cover the more guns worked round our flanks. We were in a real death trap, and I, thought my last day had come. It was hell on earth, we had nothing to do but to run the gauntlet three times. During those Yew hours I had four different horses, each being shot under me, but I escaped without a scratch.” Tells Story of Naval A member of the crew of H. M. SI Southampton, which played such a valiant part in the fight off Helgoland, writes to his parents as follows: “We started the first thing in the morning, when we had a brush with two destroyers. It was misty and

they were practically invisible, but I believe they were hit twice before disappearing in the mist. After that we turned and steamed out of it, but were recalled by an urgent wireless message from one of our ships which was In difficulties. Of course, the ship was immediately turned, and we proceeded at full speed to the scene of operations. “The enemy turned out to be a three-funneled cruiser, somewhat larger than us. We immediately opened fire at a range of 10,000 to 13,000 yards. The enemy replied and steamed away from us, but eventually we ran parallel. “Things began to look lively, as we were putting shells into her at the rate of five every ten seconds, and sixinch Ivddlte at that. The shells have a terrible effect, and fumes from them kill anyone within a range of 60 yards, while they set on fire everything near them. Presently she was seen to be on fire, and a few minutes afterwards, a beautifully-placed shell put ‘paid’ to two of her funnels. All amidships was now a raging fire, and the end came when her mainmast .went by the board. We immediately ceased fire and altered our course, going close to her. Ship Out of Commission. “My—! What a sight she was! The fire amidships had made two of the funnels redhot, and flames and smoke were pouring out of her. Her port side was like a sieve. Every gun was smashed bent, some looking round corners, some on their sides — in fact, her whole upper deck was chaos. “The forebridge was a tangled mass of ironwork, while the wire stays from the foremast were swinging in the air. What she was like Inside, “heaven alone knows. “We passed within two ’ hundred yards of her, and the only living beings on the upper deck, were one man on the quarter-deck and what looked like a couple of officers standing under what had been the forebridge. Many of them had jumped overboard, and, of course, were rescued, but these only totaled seven officers and 79 out of the crew of 400 or 500. "After this heavy firing was heard ahead, and we shot off again. The enemy this time was another cruiser similar to the previous one, and steaming in line, we repeated the operation, only she blew up and sank before anyone could be saved. While this was going on another ship approached and gave us a broadside, which was replied to with interest, to the effect that she left suddenly for a previous appointment in a sinking condition, it is believed, and in flames. This makes three ships in about one hour’s actual fighting. “After this we shot away out of the danger zone, and proceeded to home and safety. When we came in all the ships manned the side and cheered like madmen.”

WAR WOUNDS HEAL RAPIDLY

Antiseptic Treatment and the Velocity of Modern Bullets Aid Recovery. London.—The rapidity with which the wounds of soldiers are healed, and the practical absence of blood-poison-ing cases, has been a surprise in view of |he "deadly effectiveness” of the mooern army weapons. "The antiseptic treatment of wounds almost Immediately after their Infliction has a great deal to do with the fact that cures are effected in such a short time as has been demonstrated in the London hospitals," said one' of the physicians in attendance upon the wounded. "While surgery has made wonderful strides in the last decade, the results might have been different were It not that the antiseptic preventive measures have been applied. ~ "Another important reason lies In the fact that the bullet fired from a modern rifle travels with such velocity as to obviate the danger of a ragged wound.” '* - s