Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-01-17

them to the front. Witness said that
the transportation, the pack trains used
before the wagon trains were unloaded,
were under the direction of the COM
handing general, with orders to get
ammunition and stores to the front,
preferably ammunition, but there was
in his opinion no reason why the med
ical stores should not have reached the
front.
The medical corps were" said he,
denied nothing when it was possible
to give it TO them"
Gen. Humphreys said medicine chests
belonging to many surgeons were not
landed with the troops as they should
have been. Tons and tons of regiment
al property were landed in some cases,
but not the surgeons medicine chests.
Why. he could not understand. Asked
if all the supplies were landed by July
10. Gen. Humphreys said he could not
say. Il don't know what was taken
with the expedition" said he, land I
don't think any one knows. This was
the result of the confusion when every
thing went by the board. In the first
instance | directed all the hospital
stores TO go on the Cantiago, Iroquois
and Seneca, but when they did not
com we loaded what came to the piers
at Tampa. No one knows exactly what
arrived
He said he had seen only one order
directing a single division hospital TO
join the expedition. Gen. Humphreys
explained that almost everything dur
ing the first fortnight after the land
ing was done on verbal orders or tele-
phone. There was little paper at hand.
Asked about the failure to unload
some of the transports which arrived
at Santiago after the surrender, Gen.
Humphreys said hat the vessels were
not unloaded because there were plen-
ty of supplies on shore for. the army
and his orders from Secretary Alger
were to allow nothing TO interfere with
the movement of troops north.
Asked about his experience with re-
frigerated beef, he said the first he
saw was at Santiago. THE trouble
was, there was o much of it," he
said, but what l saw was pretty good.
l think it was all good when landed
at daylight each morning, but l know
nothing about its condition when it
reached the troops. l heard some of it
spoiled
How about the timed roast beef"
THAT, l know. did not give satisfac-
ton, possibly owing to the intense
heat"
Did you hear an intimation hat it
might have been chemically treated?"
Il did not. In a joking way. | heard
that Armour had extracted the juice
from the roast beef for his beef eX-
tract"
Captain Homer F. Aspinwall. quar-
termaster of the Manitoba, which car
ried the refrigerated beef that was
dumped overheard on the return voy-
age from Ponce, testified that the beef
was tested when it was placed on board
ship. His engineer, be said, was ia
miliar with the shiAment of beef in
the transatlantic trade and was a lit
tie about the temperature of
the refrigerator. 1t was new business
to him (Aspinwall.) The engineer said
1t was impossible to get the tempera-
ture of the boxes" below SO Fahren-
heit. The average temperature of the
trip was "a. He arrived at Ponce Au-
gust 10 and ran aground. While
aground n of the pipes choked and
he temperature in the boxes went up
to 40. The pipe was chicken four
hours. At Mayaguez he opened the
boxes for the first time. There were
1000 troops there. The beef was good.
AT Ponce, Col. Smith, chief quarter
master, agreed to take 5000 pounds a
day. By mistake the lighter came for
the first installment of meat at five
O'Clock in the evening instead Of five
IN the morning. 1t was kept ashore
over night and issued. There was one
complaint that a portion of the meat
had spoiled. 1t vas buried by order
of the surgeon. But the rest was good.
Major Birmingham, of the hospital at
Ponce, said it was the best beef issued
to the hospital. No further beef was
issued at Ponce. With the quantity
used aboard ship about $4,000 of the
300, 600 pounds of beef were issued. Two
days before he reached New York the
steward reported that he was obliged
to cut away a third of each quarter in
the boxes which had spoiled and threw
it overheard.
He said the officers aboard ship CON
tinued TO use the meat. He heard no
complaints, although he would not
have been surprised had there been
tOHlpldlllS. AT NEW 10TH ne FeDOrteQ
the beef spoiled. A board of survey
was appointed and condemned the
beef OF September II. He received or
ders not to dispose of the beef until he
got instruction from Swift Il Co. He
thought there was more beef aboard
than could have been consumed by the
troops in Porto Rico before some of it
spoiled. He heard no intimation that
the beef had been chemically treated.
Gen. Gilmore had told him when he ar
rived at Ponce that they did not want
the beef, that they could get plenty Of
beef in Porto Rico. He heard many
complaints among the soldiers about
the character of the fresh beef issued
to them. 1t was slaughtered in the
morning and often issued while the
flesh still %quivered. He felt annoyed
because the beef from his own country
was being refused and the bulls OF
Porto Rico accepted.
TO MARRY TONIGHT.