Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-03-30
CHICAGO HEARINGS CLOSED.
The Beef Court Finishes Its Labors In
the Windy City and Goes 10 New
York.

York.
Chicago, March 23.-The members of
the government court of inquiry fin
lsned their labOrs in Chicago yesterday
and left for New York last evening.
The testimony of Gov Roosevelt will
there be received, after which the
court will proceed to Governors island.
The evidence brought forth yester-
day consisted mainly of criticisms of
the canned beef and refrigerated beef
from soldiers who ate It and watched
its effects in Cuba and Porto Rico.
David Fleischmann. bell boy in the
Hotel Morrison, told of a visit to the
stock yards in the company of an un-
known man whose purpose he supposed
to be an experiment in the matter of
preserving beef by chemical treatment
W. Clark Marshall, the provision
specialist whose testimony was expect
ed to be sensational, threw no addition
nj light on the question, his evidence
being principally the expression of the
opinion that canned beef as now put on
the market is totally unfit for food
DIR. John G. Burne, of Chicago, who
was assistant surgeon of the Second
Illinois volunteers while the regiment
was at Jacksonville, stated that he had
condemned the refrigerator beef sew
eral times before it left the wagon
which brought it. He had also re-
turned some Of it to the cars. taking it
back in wagons. He had refused the
meat seven times in one month on ac-
count of the bad odor and bad taste.
First Lieut. Hedekin, of the Third
cavalry testified that the principal
meat ration in Cuba was refrigerator
beef. The complaint against it was
that it was rotten.
Col. Davis asked the witness if he
had any reason to believe that chemi-
Gals had been used in preserving the
refrigerated beef.
"The night after l joined my troop,
refrigerator beef appeared on the table
in the form of steak. Upon tasting it
| noticed that it had peculiar taste
which | had never noticed before in
beef. | ate heartily of it. That night
| became sick and | was unable to as
cribe the disease to any other cause"
W. \. Robinson, travelling represen-
tative of the chemical firm of Charles
PfiZer & Co., New York, testified that
he formerly had sold chemicals to the
packing trade. The witness said II
was within his knowledge that his firm
sells to packing houses large quantities
of boric acid and other chemicals, but
that so far as he knew such chemicals
were never applied to fresh beef they
were used for export pork.
Albert G. Manns, the chemist of Ar
mour q Co., testified that a large num-
ber of chemicals We're used in the
manufacturing department, but none
in the packing house except borax and
bOric acid, which were used in packing
some goods for the foreign market.
The witness stated that the refrgera-
tor beef sent to the army was shipped
in the usual way and that no chemicals
were used on it.
Clark Marshall said he haT been a
specialist in meat provisions since 1S4S.
although he had not been in any of the
establishments in seven or eight years
'Please explain the nature and char
acter of your experience with reference
to canned meats, more particularly
canned roast beef, so called" said Mai.
Lee.
81 have investigated and experiment.
ed in the matter since 1S4S. The pro-
cess of canning meat to-day robs the
meat of all its nutrition, leaving moth
ing but fibre. fat and gelatinc in the
can. consider it entirely unfit for
human food "