KITCHEN CABINET, a kitchen fitting in the shape of an enclosed dresser, fitted with doors, drawers and special containers, designed to economize space and to save labour by giving order and handiness to many materials and supplies. The kitchen is the workshop of the home, and any appliance which will make it more efficient is essential equipment. Although American in origin, the early American kitchen cabinet was an adaptation of the German kitchen cupboard, but included a kitchen table. The first American kitchen cabinets were brought out about the beginning of the twentieth century in the Middle West.
Most kitchen cabinets are made of wood, either oak, ash, birch or chestnut, but some of the higher priced cabinets are made of steel. Most kitchen cabinets have containers for flour, sugar, bread and cakes. The upper section is designed for food packets, groceries, crockery, etc. An extending porcelain top table is usually fitted, and in the lower sections are drawers for towels, cutlery, bread and cakes, and a cupboard for pots and pans. Kitchen cabinets are sometimes designed to incorporate addi tional units or sections, further to centralize the equipment of the kitchen. These units are placed on either side of the cabinets to hold such appliances as cooking pans, china and oven ware. KITCHEN EQUIPMENT: see HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES. KITCHENER, HORATIO HERBERT KITCHENER, EARL British field marshal and statesman, was the son of Lieut.-Colonel H. H. Kitchener and was born at Bally Longford, Co. Kerry, on June 24, 185o. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1868, and was com missioned second lieutenant, Royal Engineers, in 1871. In 187o his parents were living at Dinan, and Kitchener volunteered for service in the army of the Loire. He was soon invalided out, but the love of France which impelled him remained. As a subaltern he was employed in survey work in Cyprus and Palestine, and on promotion to captain in 1883 was attached to the Egyptian army, then in course of re-organization under British officers. In the following year he served on the staff of the British expedi tionary force on the Nile, and was promoted successively major and lieutenant-colonel by brevet for his services. From 1886 to 1888 he was governor-general of the Eastern Sudan, with head quarters at Suakin. In 1889 he commanded the cavalry in action against the dervishes at Gamaizieh and Toski. From 1889
to 1892 he served as adjutant-general of the army. He had be come brevet-colonel in the British army in 1888, and he received the C.B. in 1889 after the action of Toski.
In 1892 Kitchener succeeded Francis Grenfell as sirdar of the Egyptian army, and three years later, when he had completed his predecessor's work of re-organizing the forces of the khedive, he began the formation of an expeditionary force on the vexed military frontier of Wady Halfa. The advance into the Sudan was prepared by thorough administrative work on his part which gained universal admiration. For the events of the River War see EGYPT, MILITARY OPERATIONS. Kitchener's work was crowned and the power of the Mandists utterly destroyed by the victory of Omdurman (Sept. 2, 1898), for which he was raised to the peerage as Baron Kitchener of Khartum, received the G.C.B., the thanks of parliament and a grant of £30,000. Before Kitchener left the Sudan he went with an escort up the White Nile to Fashoda, and explained to Colonel Marchand that the French flag could not be hoisted in the Khedive's dominions. After Omdurman was taken by the Anglo-Egyptian forces under General Kitchener, the seat of government was again transferred to Khartum. It speedily arose from its ruins, being rebuilt on a much finer scale than the original city. In 1899 the railway from Wadi Halfa was completed to Khartum, and in 1906 through com munication by rail was established with the Red Sea.
Little more than a year afterwards, while still sirdar of the Egyptian army, he was promoted lieutenant-general and ap pointed chief-of-staff to Roberts in the South African War. (See TRANSVAAL : History.) In this capacity he served in the cam paign of Paardeberg, the advance on Bloemfontein and the subse quent northward advance to Pretoria, and on Roberts's return to England in November 190o succeeded him as commander-in chief, receiving at the same time the local rank of general. In June 1902 the long and harassing war came to its close, and Kitchener was made a viscount, received a grant of L5o,000 and the Order of Merit. His method of wearing down the guerrilla resistance of the Boers was severely criticised then and after wards. But when the Boers submitted Kitchener's influence was felt in the moderation of the peace terms.