The age-herald., 1899-01-06
OSGOOD TELLS OF
 'EMBALMED" BEEF It Was Not Issued to the
 Soldiers. SIMPLY AN EXPERIMENT
Admitted That Meat Used Was Covered
 With GreeniSh Mould.
BUT IT WAS PARTICULARLY GOOD
The Troops Preferred the Refrigerated Product to the Beef Killed on Hoof- Better Than That Which Was
 Served in Regular Army.

Washington, January 5.-Colonel Henry B. Osgood, commssary of subsistence, who served with General Miles at Tampa and at Camp Thomas and Santiago, was before the war investigation commission today.
 Colonel osgood said that the rations throughout the war were as good, if not better, than those usually issued to the regular army.
 The beef, he said, was particularly good, better than any he had ever eaten at an army post. It was the first time, he ex- plained, that he had ever seen the refrig- orator beef issued in the army, and it was far better than the contract beef he had generally had at various posts.
 He said that he had under him butcher of twenty-two years experience, who cut and issued the beef, and this man was der strict orders never to issue a pound of bad beef.
 Were Many Complaints
 Colonel Osgood explained that there were many complaints as to the appearance of the meat. It had the green mould or ''beard' on the surface, as had been ex- plained by other witnesses. This was re- pulsive looking, the witness said, but the meat underneath was perfectly sound and was really prime beef, much better, in fact, than any beef killed on the hoo.
 Witness corroborated the testimony of Major Duncan Harrison that after the men who disliked the appearance of the refrig- orator beef had had a short experience with meat on the hoof they were glad to get back to the American meat. He cited one instance where a board of survey of the Second United States volunteers had condemned a lot of beef and reported it rotten The contractor protested to Colonel Osgood that ths1efrigerator beef was good, and brought steak cut from one of the condemned quarters. The steak was kept twenty-four hours longer off the ice and then served to the board that had condemn ed it. They did not know the antecedents of the meat and pronounced it perfectly fine.
 General Beaver said: Colonel Osgood, it has been alleged before this commission that beef sent to Santiago was prepared in some way with chemicals to preserve it. Can you tell us anything on that hand or why any one should use chemicals on meat when it was apparently SO easy to pre- serve it in refrigerators?"
 Beef Treated With Chemicals
 "Yes, I can tell you good deal about that. The meat treated in that way was not the property of the government or any of our contractors. I was aboard the Comal one day and Colonel Weston, chief con- missary showed me four quarters of beef hanging in the sun, which he said was process beef.' It was prepared at the request of an inventor named Powell, who claimed that he had discovered chemical preparation that would keep in hot cli- mate without ice. It was purely private experiment and issupd to ba troops. Probably the fact that this beef was there gave start to all this talk of chemically-prepared beef.
 In connection with Colonel Osgoods ex- planation of the process beef experiment 1t can be stated that the inventor of the chemical preservative brought the matter to the attention of the war deparment be- fore the outbreak of the Spanish war and offered to sell the formula and process to the government. It was considered by the commanding general, the secretary and the commissary department and the war department declined to accept the scheme