The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1877-09-13
soldier, RafIons.

Turning 10 the British soldier, we
dnd In him the most dainty fed OF all
warriors, unless it was the SerYian In
last years war. If we are to believe
special correspondents, the rations OF
the Seryian soldiers were almost UNI
limited, and furnished a striking con-
trast TO the fare Of the frugal Turks,
An Okla, or two aud one-half pounds, OF
brown bread, half an Okla Of fresh meat,
together with a mOdicum of rice, meal
and paprika, was the daily ration, the
last-named cOmestible being employed
for making soup; the ~pot-Ou-feu, so we
were assured, was TO be found simmer
Ing In camp from early morn till noon,
and then only came of to make room
for the coffee kettle. The Servian
soldiery, TOO, usually had a ration of
spirits called sliyoyitch, or plum BRAN
dy, allowed them, and yet withal they
had no such powers Of endurance as the
maize-fed Turks. In this country, a
soldiers ration Is three-quarters of a
pound of meat and one pound Of bread,
which is supplemented in war time by
a quarter Of a pound Of cheese, together
with cocoa or tea, sugar, etc. In the
Crlmea, there was a standing order
that hot tea should always be kept
ready when practicable, so that the
men might partake Of it at any time,
and in the Abyssinian and Ashantee
campaigns the camps were never broken
up of a morning until the troops had
been supplied with a cup of warm cof-
fee for breakfast. Tea and coffee ex-
ercise the same effect upon the system
as wine and spirits, but their stimula-
tive action is less marked, and N COM
handing officers are enjoined never to
issue a ration of spirits except under
extraordinary circumstances, as in the
case of distr essing marches, or when
troops are engaged in the trenches or
up at the front. And yet, as we have
said, with this apparently liberal feed
ing, our men do not receive so much
actual nOurishment or heterogeneous
matter as the German soldier, whose
mainstay is the two-pound loaf of black
bread he receives daily, The meat,
bread, sugar, etc., received by British
soldiers In the Crlmea, yielded, we are
told by the royal commissioners, but
1882 ounces of nutritive principle,
while Germany gives her soldiers 1896
ounces, which is still further increased
when the latter are fed on such highly
heterogeneous diet as the pea sausage.
The Turks, poor as their food may seem
to us Dit being bread almost alone),
probably derive as much nutriment
from it as English troops from their
bread, meat and cocoa; for, weight for
weight, the Turkish ratiOns contain
more heterogeneous matter. If, too, their
meal is what is termed 'whole flour"
1t will, since it includes the husk, con-
tain more nitrogen still, and, like oat-
meal, be one of the most generous foods
Scotch troops, we fancy, would
be little the worse if fed solely on pOr-
ridge for a time. The reader may re-
member Lord Ellbank's retort on DR..
JOhnsOn's definition of oats as the food
of horses in England and of men in
Scotland Eyes," said he, "and where
will you find such horses and such
menS" A growing soldier, hard at
work all day at gun-drill, or other
laborious work, does not buy extra
meat when he is hungry, but foregoes
his beer at the canteen for another
pound loaf, thus approaching in his
diet very nearly to that of the German
warrior, who, we have shown, lives
almost entirely on bread and enjoys
the most nutritive fare. AT the same
time 1t is necessary to bear in mind
that the conditions under which a man
lives must guide the nature of his food.
A mar inhabiting a cold climate such
as ours requires more animal food than
he would if he lived in a country nearer
the Equator, and British troops, we
fear, would lose much of their energy
if fed altogether on farinaceous food.
But, as we have striyen to show, it is
not alwaysa so-called liberal diet which
affords the soldier the greatest quantity
of III triment.-E English Paper.