The herald., 1898-11-12
CAURCiA OF THG
AOl,Y SEDiN <HDE

very important, cause of the trouble
was improper food. The staple of their
diet was beans and a poor quality Of
fat pork, called "sowbelly." In old
times beans and sowbelly We're given
to soldiers because they represented
highly condensed nutriment and would
remain good Indefinitely in any cli-
mate. But that was before the days
of the wonderful Improvements in pre-
pairing foods and putting them up for
convenient transportation. Raw beans
are the hardest vegetable on earth to
cook, and inexperienced volunteers
cannot prepare them properly. Why
should not the beans have been fur
nished ready cooked in cans? 1t takes
something like ten hours to boil raw
beans; the troops We're obliged to do
this, though it was declared by the
war department that they could not
be made to boil the water for drink
ing! Likewise, why furnish SOW
belly when good meat in cans could
be obtained for n little more money.
The lowest criminals in the prisons of
this country have been better fed dur
ing the last three months than our
soldiers. Is this because the Ameri-
can people are not willing to provide
good food for their fighting men? Well,
hardly. The people want their soldiers
to have the best of everything, but the
trouble has lain in the conservatism
and traditional economy of the war
department.
Think of the absurdity of $4,000 men
boiling raw beans for supper in a
camp, procuring fuel for the operation
and requiring eight or ten hours to
accomplish it, when the same vegeta-
BILE ready cooked and in a condition
healthful for eating could be obtained
in unlimited quantities from the can
neries. Such rations will sustain life
in a strong man, but they fail to be
sustaining the minute he is sick or
wounded, becoming repulsive and dis
gusting to him, as they would to any
unwell person. They are strong foods
for strong stomachs. Why We're milk
and butter not furnished to the soldiers
as a part of their rations? Simply be-
cause in old times milk and butter
would not keep, and for that reason
were unsuitable for rations. But
nowadays we know how to condense
milk and to put up butter in cans, so
that there is no longer any reason why
the fighting men should be deprived of
these necessaries.
| A captain in the regular army said
to the writer the other day that the in
Venton of the bicycle has been the
cause of the coming into existence of
| a thousand and enc little devices of
great value for condensing nutritious
foods into small and convenient COM
pass During the recent conflict the
| War Department has aVailed itself of
such things to only very slight ex-
tent. The soldiers have been provided
with green coffee, which they were
obliged to parch and grind before It
could be converted into the drink so
necessary in 81 campaign. This has
| had to be done over a crude fire Of
such wood as could be gathered for 1t.
! Why should not the coffee have been
furnished already parched and ground :?
In these times a varied and nutritious
diet is obtainable for troops, thanks to
canning and other processes, and there
is no good reason why Uncle Sans
soldiers should have been reduced to
/ beans, sowbelly and hardtack.
| Again, there is the question of uni
forms to consider. When the war
broke out, the government had no
proper uniforms for campaigning in