Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-05-23
Eat Your Rati0ns.

Eat Your 3ati0ns.
Inc following interesting editorial on
| lhe subject of army rations is taken
| from the Boston TRANSCRIPT:
Under the caption, why not use
army rations?" the Herald suggests
| that while the militia is taking it's tour
| near nome 1t is good time for it to
| break into army methods. 1T is not i'm
posslple 1t says, that the national
government may call for more troops,
| and in that event knowledge of army
ralonlnS would be found invaluable"
! But not only would it be of advantage
| Tor the troops to learn the proper man.
ner OF preparing army rations for food;
| 1t would be of inestimable benefit if
the men could become habituated to
army fare before leaving the State.
No man can feel like a real soldier
| so long as he is fed like a civilian.
When he takes the field the recruit
| VIII be obliged to give up roast lamb
and green peas, broiled live lobster
| pate de foie gras, pastry, butter and
| numerous other comestibles which had
seemed to him necessities. In place he
must settle down to a diet of salt
|
fresh beef, beans, rice, hominy, infre-
quent potatoes and bread, with tea or
coffee to wash it down. When it comes
to active service at the front. his menu
| will probably dwindle down to salt
pork, hard tack and coffee. The pork
| will be cooked or raw, according to
circumstances. and the coffee ditto.
| But the half of a tin canteen makes not
a bad frying-pan in which the pork
can be cooked, and it gives the con-
venience for frying hard tack and fried
hard tack is a delicacy that every SOL
| dier learns to love no matter how high
a civilian may turn up his nose even
/ at the thought of it. Or if you have
no frying pan or no fire. a slice of salt
pork between two crackers makes a
not unpalatable sandwich. But no sol
| der need to suffer on hard tack and
coffee alone. He will often grow fat
on this diet But the great thing is
coffee 1t is the soldiers best friend.
1t is the elixir of life 1t is life itself.
Ask any old soldier and see what he
will say.
.'Salt-petrecd beef. or salt horse" is
good if not spoiled by insufficient cook
/ ing. IT should be slowly boiled for at
| least sixteen hours. Even then one has
! to be hungry to banker after the lean
parts of it. The fat is the tid-bit. and
/ a soldier soon learns to make for it,
| The lean is easily mistakable for
mahogany or for lignum vitae even:
but it gives a relish to ones hard tack
| and in the absence of it's greater IA
| vorite, pork it is palatable in spite of
| its salinity and its tenacity. There isl
! nothing to say against potatoes when
! YOU get them, and almost everything
TO say in their favor. With Northern
| bred palates rice and hominy do not
/ cut much of figure. But beans,
! Volumes could be writ in praise Of
| beans, and without beginning to 10
/ them Justice Beans baked in the
earth. as the soldiers soon learns TO
| bake them, are a feast fiji for the gods.
! They are worth going to war for.
But we are wandering from the
point we wish to make. The sooner
the recruit becomes Injured Off that IS
the proper Word) to army rations, the
better it will be for him when he can
get no other food, except when ne
! buvs of the Sutler. And right here let II
he said that in the civil war the health
| lest and toughest soldiers were those
who lived on army rations, While the
| great majority of those who died ~
intestinal diseases were livers on sui
1cr's canned stuff. AS the army "a
| tions are well fitted for tOugheninS the
men who live upon them without m
Jury to the digestive organs, the soon
| or one becomes habituated to them,
the better Hence. we not only agree
! with the Herald that it would be Il
| gain for the troops to acquire knoWi-
/ edge of rati0ning, but we go a step III
! advance and hold that it would be or
immense advantage to the men who are
rationed.'
In connection with this subject. the
following letter from veteran OF the
Civil War, which also appeared IN the
| Transcript VIII be of interest:
The article entitled. Eat Your Ra-
tions'' in the Transcript of May Il.
contains so much sound practical sense
that | am tempted to relate my own
exDnrience of gov munt rations' as a
| s1,pplpinent to that article, pre1aclnS
nv remarks. however with beg par
don for the frequent use OF the person.
al pronoun i.
Whom | enlisted in 1862 | weighed 135
mounds. height five feet 1la inches,
with hard chronic cough, a hound :
| formation of stomach. Beans ana
cheese | couldn't eat coffee was poison,
| and. what was worse, no comfort III
smoking. After three years of goV
munt menu" With frequent desserts
of horizontal lead. / returned home
weighing 195 pounds, could digest
sbincle nails and smoke like tar kim;
! in fact | have been so Eillanousiy
healthy ever since that | have never
had the cheek to ask for pension
So let the dear boys who are leaving
rs. and of whom | cannot write dry
eved strike the hard tack early ana
often. Hard tack. pork and coffee.
cooked rations." SO called. God bless
the BOYS. one and all.
THE OLD ARMY HARDTACk
have eaten high banquets at Young 5
and at Parkers. -
I have reveled in blue points. baked trout
AMI spring lamb
Rut ali of those vianus fall fiat and in
Reside the sweet hard tack of dear Uncle