I 



THE GREAT WAR IN THE ZONE OF THE ARMY. 333 



4. A brick or cement floor was most desirable in a kitchen and 

 whitewash and tar hberally appHed at least helped as an appetizer. 



5. Cooks should be cotnpelled to wear white caps and aprons in 

 the rest area. Dirty cooks mean dirty food — and generally a " full 

 garbage pail." 



6. Menus should be varied and stews should not figure on more 

 than 3 days in the week. Meat should be stored in meat safes and 

 " quarters " should be hung, haunch down, and covered with burlap 

 or muslin bags. 



We labored with the generally acknowledged defect that the 

 culinary art in the United States had declined. " Canned stuff " was 

 offered as the solution, but with all its virtues it can never replace 

 art. Besides it is at least debatable whether a preponderance of 

 canned foods is more desirable than a fair representation of the 

 dishes "that mother used to turn out." But the great, the crying, 

 sin was the capacity for enormous waste of food material " not 

 equalled by any country on earth," an Americanism we carried 

 with us to Europe. Our Army manfully struggled with this gen- 

 erous failing and certainly improved the situation, but it was only 

 by persistence that real saving was accomplished. 



Latrines. 

 The ideal latrine for troops under ordinary conditions was the 

 deep pit and flyproof box seat. Even the English acknowledged 

 this, but it should be from 10 to 12 feet deep. The seats should be 

 cleaned inside and outside daily and blackening of the pit with lamp 

 black and crude oil is desirable. The trouble was we could not get 

 crude oil. Burning out of pits was also impossible ; there was no 

 mineral oil " to waste." Hence the American Army devised their 

 own latrine, a cross between the American and a French commodity. 

 It was simply a deep pit rimmed at the surface by two-by-fours 

 with a platform covering it in. Every two boards were nailed down. 

 The intermediate one was loose and could be removed by a handle 

 or a pole fixed perpendicularly in the center. Thus there was no 

 seat, the simple concession of the French to economy. It was fly- 

 proof when the loose boards were replaced. The British, on the 

 other hand, provided what was for most cantonments, in France, the 



