The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-18
PLENTY OF MEAT, BUT NO SAW.
Quartermaster Quells a Mutiny In
Southern Volunteer Regiment.
lChica On Inter. Ocaanl

! kOuiCd5O iAlCI OCCcill.J
| A United States army Quartermas-
| ter, whose rank entities him TO wear all
manner of gold and silver lace with
his full dress uniform, came home on
! furlough the other day, and told this
story as illustrative of some of the
troubles a man meets in catering TO
volunteer troops
In Mississippi camp was a regiment
of southern men, unframed, and al
most unorganized. Well said the
quarterrnaster, when that regiment
came into camp on hog train my men
nearly died laughing. They We're the
gawldest, awkwardest lot of clodhop-
pers that ever was. [ halted the col
onel, and, taking him aside, said:
!" Now, look here colonel you and
your boys can have anything you want.
There's a plenty here, and all you have
to do will be to send your wagon down
every morning, and you'll get all that
you need-fresh meat, fresh bread, veg
etables, and all the requirements that
you want
"One day 1 was surprised to receive
a letter from the chief commissary,
asking me what in all-fired-cannon-
balls was the matter with me and my
department. It went into some TWEEN
ty-five particulars that were not very
pleasant to read, and attached to the
document was a string of letters that
would reach the length of box car. In
less time than it takes to catch pig
by the tail, l had learned from this
document that this regiment of noun
taineers had not had an ounce of fresh
meat since coming to camp. L gathered
from the number and character of the
letters attached that about every man
in the regiment that could write had
complained to Washington, and had
not contented himself with calling me
by my proper title. In short, they had
accused me of being every kind of a
criminal known to this century, and
we'll, l really couldn't repeat all of the
epithets and charges without doing
damage to your feelings.
II was innocent entirely. Every
morning that regimental wagon had
been loaded with beef just as the other
wagons had, and I was hot. 1 got on
my horse and went around to that
camp on a run. The colonel was there,
glum as a stone jug. He wouldn't even
respond to my not too deferential sa-
Lutte and 1 went at him baldheaded.
Look here, colonel said 1, what
does this mean?' and L handed him that
forty-foo letter.
Mean?' said he, mean? 1t means
that there's a dashed mutiny on foot.
1t means that my regiment is dis
graced, that I'm disgTaced, and that [
can never hold my head up again
among my own people. 1t means
how the blank do I know what 1T
means? / tell you to settle your own
business?
Now, colonel 1 said, let US be
quick This complaint says that you
have given your men no fresh meat
since you came here. You know as
we'll as I do that meat has been de-
livered to your wagon every day. Now,
l want to know what has become of it.
want to know it quick
'WeH,' said the colonel, if that's all
you want, I'll tell you. We amt got
any meat saw'
II took another drink, and the col
onel, for politeness' sake, did like
wise.
"'No meat saw I exclaimed No
meat saw? And you made your men
eat salt meat and made EN- mutiny and
get me in a hole because you didn't
have anv meat SAW
THE colonel pursed his lips cooked
his head to one side, and, squirting
at me. remarked:
carlate that this guv-ment I'M
dertook to equip this regiment proper,
an it amt done it. We never got any
meat saw. These here commissaries
sent us a lot of meat without a saw at
our state camp. We couldn't cut the
iliCdI we COulQu edl Tile ulcdl,
an | just lowed that the guv-ment
could go to- with its meat till it give
us a meat saw, an if you want your
meat you can go fish it out of tibet
horse pond along the road
Il got my men on the telephone, and
had two wagonloads of meat yanked
over to that camp in about five min
utes As soon as it appeared with two
of my meat saws in each wagon, all
signs of continued mutinV disaDDeared
and I'll bet that there wasn't man in
that regiment that night woh wasn't |
stuffed like Thanksgiving turkey.
That evening, also, my men found
twelve quarters of beef at the bottom
of that horse pond"