The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-01-23
Lewis and GROSVENOR
Renewed HOstilities Promised
on the Army Bill Debate.
FACTS ON EMBALMED BEEF
The Member From Washington VIII
Bad Meat Being Furnished the
Army - The OhiOnn to Champion
the War Departments had Cause.

Representatives in Congress are looking
forward with keen delight to the prospect
of renewed hostilities between the breezy
son of the West, Representative James
Hamilton Lewis, and General Grosvenor,
the white haired spokesman of the Admin
istration on the floor Of the House The
recent contest between them is said to
have been merely a skirInish compared TO
the battle royal that will come when Mr..
Lewis makes his anticipated attack this
week on the War Department in the debate
on the army bill. Mr.. Lewis had expe-
riences OF his own with embamed beef
during the war, though the Alger Relief
Board has so far not seen fit to avail itself
of his information, and he has promised
to apprise the House of them. Mr.. Gros-
venor has also special information in re-
gard to Mr.. Lewis, contributed by the War
Department, which he has promised TO
lay before the House as soon as Mr.. Lewis
has made his address. All OF which will
certainly contribute to the gayety of ma
tons.
During the war Mr.. Lewis acted as aide
on the staff of General Grant, and in that
capacity he says he discovered a quantity
of rotten and poisonous beef in the sup
plies furnished by the contractors for the
promptly condemned it and reported the
! matter to Washington. In reply he was
ordered to accept the beef and serve il to
the men. He refused to do so and finally
pitched the whole of it into the Norfolk
Bay.
This was months before the cutlery
against the beef arose. Mr.. Lewis reported
the matter to General Miles and is said to
have been the first to arouse the suspicious
bpr
ruption in the commissary supply bureau.
Mr.. Lewis had to pay the penalty of his
temerity when the elections came on. The
War Department, acting through its agents,
/ made virulent attack upon him. Letters
denouncing him as freak, an accident. a
crank, and vain bOaster without standing
We're published broadcast throughout his
/ district. The War Department sent out
word that he had never been connected
with the army at all, and that he was an
imposter and liar. Then. with charac-
( teristic effrOntery. they attacked his right
to his seat in the House on the ground
that he had served in the army.
While in the thick OF this contest let
ter which purported to be from General
Grosvenor was published in his district
Mr.. Lewis was shocked by its tone refused
to believe that it could have been written
! by General Grosyenor. who was his per-
sonal friend. and telegraphed to him ask
( ing him to keep his hands off of his fight.
1t was this telegram that General Grosven-
or, in defiance of the usual courtesy that
prevails among gentlemen. took occasion
to read TO the House the other day.
General Grosvenor hearing garbled ac-
count of Mr.. Lewis answer To this false
| letter, telegraphed to him to quit pegging
away at him, 10 which Mr.. Lewis replied
that he was not pegging at the general.
/ but was simply denying that that gentle
man had called him liar.
Here the matter rests at present, but no
one who knows the parties imagines that
il will be allowed TO remain so. During
the debate on the army bill Mr.. Lewis, it
| is said, intends to tell the House what he
knows on the beef subject. What infor-
nation General Grosvenor will lay before
it in reply is not known, but is believed
to consist OF the old charges that Mr.. Lewis
was not officially connected with the army
during the war. As General Grosvenors
manner the other day indicated that he
thought that his reply would be crushing
1t seems possible that the information is
| prepared according to well known Al
| gerian methods.