The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-08-10
AsHost Of Beef Eaters.

Before many days the armies Of the
United States will be recruited up to
beef-eating capacity Of about 600 big
steers day. Beef has always been
an important article of diet to the
soldiers Of this country, as well as OF
English soldiers, but never in Alnerl-
can history has beef been so widely
distributed and in such excellent con-
dition as just at present. The army
in Manila. which will soon number
20, 1000 men, is eating beef every day
that equals and probably excels in
quality the beef furnished to the best
hotels in this city, and Manila is under
a tropical sun and nearly 1000 miles
from San Francisco.
"The refrigerated beef for the SOL
diers at Manila" said Commissary
General Eagan, "comes from Sydney,
Australia. 1t is the only portion Of
supplies for the commissary depart
ment that is not furnished from this
country. 1t nearly broke my heart to
let the contratt for that beef TO the
Australias. Ihave been surrounded,
added Gen. Eagan with deliberation,
'sby agentsrepresenting foreign canned
goods and foreign products. They
had the tables about my office piled
high with samples. Some of them
brought me condensed foods, claiming
that chunk as big as my little finger
could sustain soldier for three days.
[ turned them all away. Enough is
produced on American soil and sold
by American business men to feed the
officers and soldiers now in the field.
Gen. Eagan has not received the
bill for the beef that goes to Manila
yet, and is unable to state exactly
what the total cost will be, although
he knows pretty nearly, but the
Australians can supply the demand
for beef in the Philippines more
cheaply than could be done from this
country. From Sydney to Manila is
something over 3, 800 miles, about half
the distance from San Francisco to
Manila.
Refrigerated beef, a luxury un
known to soldiers Of the civil war, is
also furnished regularly, uot only to
the soldiers in the American camps,
but to those in Cuba. Late last week
ship left New York loaded with 5000
tons Of subsistence stores. She stop
ped on the way at Newport News,
where she was heavily loaded with re-
frigerated beeffor the soldiers in Porto
Rico. Gen. Miles troops will hardly
have landed on Porto Rican soil, near
" l 300 miles from Newport News, be-
fore this shipload Of provisions will be
there for them. The refrigerated beef
for Cuba and Porto Rico costs the
Government 9.37 cents pound. l'The
United States pays cash for its COM
missary stores, !" says Gen. Eagan,
'sand the Government prices for the
best article in the market are the low
est. Idefy any large business man to
show that he can purchase for less
than the Government pays
The army ration provides that beef
shall be given to soldiers at the rate
Of pound and quarter day. If it
becomes impossible to furnish them
with fresh beef at any time pound Of
boneless timed roast beef is substitut-
ed. If the soldier prefers it he can
have pork or bacon a portion of the
time instead of his beef. Experience
with American troops shows that they
prefer their ration of beef seven days
out of every ten. On the remaining
three days they generally want pork
and bacon, not necessarily for use on
those days, but for use all the time in
their cooking. The pork is handy in
cooking beans and the bacon also
serves several other purposes.
A little figuring will show what an
enormous quantity of beef our armies
demand at present. Within few days
the total strength of the regular and
volunteer armies will be 287 900 men.
The daily consumption of beef by this
number of men at the rate of a pound
and quarter day would be 357 ,750
pounds or almost 18O tons. The COM
missary department is very exacting
about the quantity of beef furnished,
and no carcass will be accepted that
does not weigh when closely trimmed
down at least 800 pounds. That re-
quires pretty big steer. 1t will be
readily seen from these statements
that ahout, 600 head of cattle = dav arc
required to meet this enormous de-
mand. And yet the commissary de-
partment is sending refrigerated beef
almost daily to points that are fully
II 900 miles apart. This fact alone
gives some adequate idea of the vast
amount of labor expenditure entailed
in feeding an Washington Post.
mans wisdom is his host friend