The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-03-03
Beef W0rn1u And PUtrid
WAL TIERS ATE IT AND BECAME
VIOLENTLY ILL,
The Most Sensational Story of the Beef
Yet Heard-Other Volunteers
Corroborate It.

Z l.
snl and when / found out what was the
matter, it was the can Of hcef i'll my
shirt. | found the can was cracked in
one corner-and oh, sir, it was awf1ll.'
His first experience with the refrigera-
tor beef was on the San Juan Hill. July
21st The beef was nearly all Of it
mouldy and most Of it tainted 50 that
the men were sicken,-d by eating t. On
the voyage home the men could eat liltle
but hard tack and co fec.
''Then we started home, sir" s&,d
Dwyer in cnoclusion. ''ard when we got
to Montauk Point the Massachus etts
Aid Society rescued MS from the Com
missary Department"
Lieutenant Newton Putney, another
Sixth Massachusetts man followed. His
story Of the voyage of the Yale to Porto
Rico agreed substantially with that of
Lieutenant Taylor. the tomatoes being
bad, the canned meat worse and bacon
being issued without any facilities to
cook it. So far as he knew the line off
| GERS complained to their Colonel, but
nothing came of it.
| On shore the men complained of the
Ecanned roast beef, but they were in the
habit of kicking and witness paid little
attention TO it, till going into the interior
with six men on detached duty they took
two-thirds of their meat ration i'll cam
ned roast beef and haI TO throw 1T al
away.
Quartermaster Sergeant NJ. w Leth-
bridge, of the Second New York, whose
service had all been in the United States,
said his experience with the refrigerated
beef had been quite satisfactory.
OF the canned beef, he had handled
about 1,200 pounds for his company.
Only about 40 pounds of this was ever
used. a large amount was condemned
by a board of survey, and of large
number of apparently perfect cans he
had personally opened one in five was
absolutely putrid, while none of it was
wholesome and fit to use.
Lieutenant John s. Sewell of the reg
uar army, who served as Major of the
First volunteer engineers, and who was
aboard the transport that carried Clar-
ence Walters TO Porto Rico, testified that
there was no canned beef aboard this
transport to his knowledge. There was
canned corn beef in cans such as were
described by Walters as containing can
ned roast beef. He recollected Walters,
but the latter never had complained to
him of the ration or of his treatment
while in the service. On the contrary
Walters said he had been very wei
treated.
Private Stubblebine, of the Seventy
first New York, said he had been made
sick three times by eating roast beef and
thereafter avoided it as much as he
could. He was shown some of the fresh
ly opened cans of beef on the table and
coi1 in 10 yyh n
he had seen in Cuba, but was some
what better meat
OF the refrigerator beef nearly all that
he saw was tainted.
Guy p. Vistinski. of the First volun-
teer engineers, had been three months in
Porto Rico and had only ate canned
roast beef once. 1t made him sick.
There was one brand Of canned corn
beef that also made the men ILL., but
another brand they could eat. They
only got little of this sort.
X. G. Miller, of Rochester. a machin-
ist by trade, and private of the Eighth
ONO, had had large experience with
canned roast beef while camped in
Cuba. His testimony was clearer and
more assured than that of most of the
enlisted men. About one-thira of the
canned beef was fit for use and the rest
condemned. One half the refrigerator
beef had to be buried and of the rest
very little could be said to be good The
men were hungry and ate it.
DIR. Maxwell Christine, of Philadel-
phia, the witness who was supposed to
have seen the chemical preparation OF
meat in the packing house of Swift-&
Company, in Omaha testified that while
IN Omaha last year he had been through
the slaughter house Of the Swift firm
and had seen a man with a canula on
the end of a flexible tube showing it in
to sections of meat and injecting them
with fluid. He did not know at the
time what the fluid was or whether the
meat being treated was corned beef.
pork, or refrigerator beef
He paid little attention to the matter
at the time, but when the discussion
over ''embamed beef arose he deemed
it his duty to write TO General Miles.
telling him what he had seen. He did
not say in his letter that it was beef
which was being injected. but said mere
~ tnat it was ''meat" He had regard
ed this communication as confidential
but it had gotten out and brought him
a great many letters. Among others was
letter from a man in New York sign
ing himself Wentz and asking if DR..
Christine knew that the injection pro-
cess he had witnessed was the regular
way of corning beef and hams, as the
injection with picking fluid reduced the
period of picking the meat by several
weeks.