, 1899-02-21

sooN SbotS III ~
The court was comfortably quartered
in the old meeting Dom of the war in
vestigating commission in the Lemon
building, with accommodations for rep
resentatives of the press associations
aid the local papers.
Calls of ceremony on the president
and the general commanding the army
occupied a large part Of the forenoon,
and Immediately thereafter General
Nelson A. Miles appeared az the first
witness. He and three other army Off
GERS summoned as witnesses were ex-
amined and disposed of before the court
closed its session at 8 o'clock.
General Miles testimony. of course,
was the feature of the days proceed
ings. Colonel Frank Micheler, his
chief of staff and a gentleman in citi-
zen's clothes who took a seat by the
fireplace and gravely watched the
course of proceedings. retiring with the
general as silently as he had come. &C.
companied the general to the court
room.
General Miles appeared in fatigue
uniform, rather striking in its contrast
with the display of scarfs, bullion and
buttons on the full dress uniforms OF
the court. He submitted to the Ques-
tioning of Colonel Davis, recorder OF
the court, with equanimity, except for
a flash OF mingled indignation and irony
when he informed the recorder that he
was o compelled to report to the
commissary general Of the army.
This was in reply to a question as to
whether or not he had reported to the
commissary department the fact that
complaints had been made to him as to
the quality Of meat being issued to the
troops. An instant later General Miles
resumed his cool and carefully consid-
cred replies to the inquiries of the
court.
AS indicated by a letter of the ad5u-
ant general, read by the recorder for
the information Of the court, the scope
of the inquiry was limited to the allie
CATIONS of General Milese before the
war commission as to the quality Of the
army beef, and the matter purportine
to have been furnished to the public
pres by the same official"
Only two interviews were called up
by the court, the first an interview with
a New York Journal representative ear
ly in the beef controversy, In which
General Miles was quoted as charging
that certain chemicals were used IN
the preservation Of the army meet, and
another OF the New York Herald, I'M
der date OF February /, covering about
the same ground.
General Miles was slow and care
full in his replies to the recorders ques-
lions on this point. He called atten-
he was credited in the interviews with
refusing to answer certain questions
and insisted that these ~refusals should
be given due weight in considering the
questions to which he did reply.
He said, in the case of the interview
of Feb. 1, that he had a letter from the
man who wrote the story offering to
swear that General Miles had refused
to be interviewed and that the whole
story was made up in the Office from
the writer's knowledge OF the facts.
Notwithstanding this, when his final
answer vas asked as to the authenticity
of the interview, General Miles did
not specifically deny 1t, but merely said
that 1t did not quite fairly represent
his WI opinion in the case. The same
qualified denial as to the Journal inter
view Of December % was made, leaving
the witness on record as not assuming
any responsibility for the newspaper
statements, but tacitly admitting that
there was a good deal in them with
which he agreed.
The trend Of questions put TO the
other witnesses of the day indicated
that 80 long as they agreed with Cen
eral Miles as to the quality of meat
furnished the troops IN the field, the
only criticism OF their position the
court had to make was why they had
not taken some Official steps to have
the matter reanedied at the time.
In every instance the reply was that
the circumstances In which the army
was placed, In a sickly foreign country,
With a large amount of fighting and q
great scarcity Of transportation on
hand. recluded the possibility OF any
such action. In each the question was
pushed no further on this line.
It was aid after the court adjourned
that Dr. Daiy. whose original "embalm-
ID bssc' report was the genesis Of the
|meat conkTovsrsy. probably would APP
psar & tpUorvows sansion.
TbMoving - ssAdAag q ~ ssdG.
wAssh ~ ~ 3sbs,u6sd alrsady, Col