Evening star., 1898-08-06
HOW THE MEN FARE
Quality Of Food Depends on the Com
pany Cooks.
GREAT IMPROVEMENT At CAMP ALGER
Captain Little's Work in the Sub.
sistence Department.
SELLING SURPLUS RATIONS

Biscuits for breakfast, soft homemade
bread for dinner and doughnuts for supper.
served with good coffee, fresh meat. meaIy
potatoes and pickles. This is the diet on
which some of the men at Camp Alger are
preparing to endure the hardships of gar
rison duty in the Philippines or at Ha-
yana
Such bill of fare does not tally very
We'll with the stories published in many
| newspapers recently of the bad food issued
to the volunteers, or with the reports sent
In TO Washington by some of those volun-
teers who are just low fighting for their
countrys honor out at Camp Alger; but
for the soldiers at least the bill of fare
Will speak a great deal louder than anv of
the men who sit about camp and grumble
because they are too lazy to help make
their company mess all that their fancy
ST 81 ggests For the truth of the matter is
that not one, but many. of the companIes
IN camp eat meals like those indicated in
the first sentence, prepared from the same
ratlons as the hard tack and coffee meals
Vi Whlcn the stay-at-homes have heard so
HtuCI' lhere Is, OF course, some reason
Tor this discrepancy, but it is a reason that
is bit hard to discover
Capt. LittIe's Task.
Long before half the regiments now in
the I'd Corps had been ordered to Washing
ton, when the regiment from the District
OF Columbia and that from southern Ohio
We're the only detachments in camp, a tall.
dnasSumlng sort of man came into camp
to report to some one the department
commlssary of subsistence. His name was
plaln John Little. and he was a captain in
the litn Infantry. Some one gave him a
room in the old Manor House, near the
District camp, and then Captain Little set
TO work. Prior to his coming the men had
nEed hand to mouth 0r well nd
the department commissary of subsistence
mad plenty to do to get things Strengthened
out How it was all done, carloads of
supplies brought to Dunn Loring, meat
bought issued and inspected and contracts
completed for fresh bread every day all
within about ten days-no one could under
stand until he heard that the head of the
department worked until after IL o'clock
at night and began work again at ) the
next morning. sFrom that time to this an
adequate supply of good, wholesome food
for all the enlisted men in the I'd Corps has
never been lacking. The work has broad
ened out considerably: there were at one
time 23,GOO men to feed, instead of less than
1000. The camp has spread over half the
county, the various regimental commands
have been sent from time to time away
from the camp on practice marches, and
Captain Little has become major and has
been giyen an assistant and two clerks;
but none of these happenings have even
affected the issue of commissary supplies
Selling Surplus Rations.
AS the subsistence department is conduct
ed at Camp Alger no one man could eat
regularly all the food included in his ra-
tons Whenever any one suffers from lack
of sufficient food the fault lies further down
the line. The supplies issued are fresh
beef, pork, bacon, corned beef, -four hard
tack, cornmeal baking powder beans,
peas. rice hominy, canned tomatoes, coffee,
tea, sugar, molasses, cane sirup, vinegar,
salt. pepper, soap candles, salmon and
matches OF the edibles in this list each
company quartermaster receives more than
his men could possibly digest. When any
one fails to get enough it is usually the
result of waste in the kitchen. 1t is un-
usual, in consequence, to hear any
complain of not getting enough to eat. On
the contrary, most of the company quar-
termasters save great quantities of all the
supplies named and sell them back to Major
Little.
The army encourages this sort of frugal
ity by conducting an exchange at each
depot of supplies. Company cooks save on
corned beef, hardtack and coffee, and get
onions, macaroni, white sugar, prunes. or
anything else. in return Perhaps the best
part of it all is that the men always get
full weight and good quality. and can buy
without calculating the freight charges, for
the government pays the freight.
The Camp Stoves.
Two appliances of rare practical value
are brought to the aid of the company
cooks, the "Buzzycot oven and the Yer
mont field oven Both are big Sheet iron
contrivances that do splendid work. You
can fry. broil, stew and roast in "Buzzy-
cot over one fire. The Vermont oven is
used almost exclusively for baking bread
and biscuits
With such tools and such supplies It is
easy to see where the responsibility belongs
for good company cooking and 70 determine