The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-02-21
GEN. MILES
TESTIFIES.
General Of the Army Before the
"Embalmed Beef" Probers.
he MoDIFIEs ONE STATEMENT.

he MODIFIEs ONE STATEMENT.
Instead of SAYING "Preteuse OF EN-
pertinent lie should Have said "On
the Theory of an Experiment''--No
intention to Gmpute Fraud toAny One
Washington, Feb. 21.-The Miles court
Of inquiry yesterday made a good stare
in its work General Nelson A. Miles
appeared as the first witness. He and
three other army officers summoned as
witnesses were examined aud disposed Of
before the couuf closed its session. These
officers were Lieutenant Colonel Van
Horne, OF the Thirteenth infantry, Lieu
tenant Colonel Charles w. Minor, Of the
Sixth infantry, and Major Henry Jack
son, Of the Third cavalry. General
Miles testimony, OF course, was the
feature OF the days proceedings. Col
onel Frank Michler, his chief of staff
and gentleman In citizens clothes, who
took a seat by the fireplace and gravely
watched the course OF proceedings, re
firing with the general as silently as he
had come, accompanied the general to
the court room.
General Miles appeared in fatigue uni
form, rather striking in contrast with
the display of scarfs, bullion and but
tons on the full dress uniforms OF the
court. He submitted 10 the questioning
OF Colonel Davis, recorder of the court
with equanimity, except for a fash OF
mingled indignation and irony when he
informed the recorder that he was not
compelled to report" 60 the commits
sary general of the army. This was in
reply to a question as to whether or not
he had reported to the commissary de
partment the fact that complaints had
been made to him as to the quality OF
meat being issued to the troops. An in
stant later General Miles resumed his
cool and carefully considered replies 20
the inquiries of the court.
As indicated by a letter Of the adju-
tant general, read by the recorder f6g
the information of the court, the scope
of the inquiry was limited to the allie
cations Of General Miles before the war
commission as to the quality of the army
beef, ''and the matter purpOrting to
have been furnished to the public press
by the same official" Only two inter
views were called up by the court. the
first an interview with New York Jour
nal representative early in the beef con
troversy, in which General Miles was
quoted as charging that certain chemi-
Gals were used in the preservation OF the
army meat, and another Of the New
York Herald, under date Of Feb. /, COW
ering about the same ground.
General Miles was very slow and care
full in his replies to the recorders ques-
tons on this point He called attention
to the fact that in both instances 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. that he had
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 general knowledge of
the facts. Notwithstanding this, when
his final answer was asked as to the au-
thenticity of the interview General Miles
did not specifically deny it, but merely
said it did not quite fairly represent his
own opinion Of the case. The same quail
ifed denial as to The journal interview OF
Dec. % was made, leaving the witness
on record as not assuming any response
bility for the newspaper statements, but
tacitly admitting that there was a good
deal Of them with which he agreed.
In answer to a question OF Colonel
Davis, General Miles said ne thought
his use of the words "pretensc Of expert
ment' was unfortunate and he disclaim-
ed any intention to impute fraud to any
one. "As far as indicating fraud" he
said, II wish to state that no such in
ference was intended, 1t was perhaps
an unfortunate expression and had my
attention been called to it | might have
amended it to say 'on the theory OF an
experiment. As n matter of fact. 1t was
an experiment, and a very costly one"
General Miles did not recollect whether
DR.. Days report was volunteered or
whether he had been ordered to investi-
gate and report on the meat It was
general talk among the officers at Ponce
that the refrigerator beef must have been
subjected to some chemical treatment to
make 1t keep for - hours. DR. Days,
however, was the first official report.
General Miles read long summary OF
100 letters received by him at army head
quarters, giving the various terms in
which the army meat was characterized.
These included ''embalmcd,' "decom-
posed, injected" poisoned Spoiled
and the like
The trend Of the questions put 10 the
other witnesses Of the day Indicated
that so long as they agreed with General
Miles as TO the quality Of the meat fur
nished the troops m the field the only
criticism of their position the court had
to make was why they had not taken
come official steps TO have the matter
remedied 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
| hshting and great scarcity of trans
portation on hand, precluded the possi-
| hility OF any such action,
Our watch repairing and our prices are uu
equalled. Orkin's iewelry store. If
Two Trainmen and Miner Killed.
Scranton, Pa. Feb. 2l.-James Bry.
den, of Carbuudale and Charles Brady
of North Scranton, trainmcu on the
! Delaware and Hudson railroad, were