The San Francisco call., 1899-03-05

specifications were to be returned to
the cOmmissary offices issuing them,
even if the defect was not discovered
until the food reached the company
camp.
Major Lee took up the cross -examin-
alton and developed the fact that there
had been at times complaints as to the
beef, and that in one case 500 pounds
of beef had been condemned. Witness
said he had three official complaints
of the beef at Jacksonville.
Il understood you to say" said Ma
jor Lee, that you had never had
single complaint as to the refrigerator
beef If l am wrong l would like to
be corrected.
You are, sir" replied the witness.
What I said was that [ had handled
1920, 600 pounds of refrigerator beef al
Savannah without any complaint. The
complaints were made at Jackson
Vile"
Lieutenant Colonel Curtis Guild of
Boston, who was attached to General
Fitzhugh Lees staff as inspector gem
eral of the Seventh Army Corps, said
in opening that he had already been
before the War Investigating Commits
sion, and had two very careful reports
on the subject, one by order of In
speCtor General Breckenridge, both of
which were on file in the War Depart
ment He submitted to the court that
these reports, being accurately COM
piled from official data, would be bet
ter evidence than he could give off
hand.
I'VE will, of course, call for your
official report to the War Department"
said Colonel Davis. But" he added,
very positively, your testimony before
the War Commission will. of course.
not be available for us
Witness said his experience at Jack
affNt~H 70
had personally inspected many cars,
finding very few sides of beef to the
whole of which any exception could be
taken. OF the canned roast beef he
had unOfficialy condemned $4,000
pounds. which had been transshipped
from New Orleans before it was de-
livered to the army in Jacksonville.
He explained that a large shipment
of canned roast beef had arrived at
Jacksonville in very offensive condition
He had picked out offensive smelling
cases, amounting to $4,000 pounds, and
called in the Jacksonville Health Of
| ficerS. who condemned ii as public
nuisance. thus giving him the right to
destroy it at once in the public crema-
tory. Armour's agent, who was on the
ground. asked leave to telegraph his
/ home office, and quickly received word
from his firm that it would be very
glad to take back the whole shipment
and furnish good beef in it's place. This
was done The beef had been sent to
New Orleans by Major West. the COM
missary, but there was no stamp or
other means on the packages to tell by
what army officer the beef had been
inspected and accepted. 1t was
stamped by the Bureau Of Animal In
dustry.
Witness had subsequently made in
spections of Texas beef Killed in Cuba
in the past few months, reports on
TAeavN raT-f
ment He had made chemical analy-
ses and archaeological examinations
of the canned roast beef used in Cuba,
and had made personal comparisons be-
tween refrigerator beef, native Cuban
cattle and Texas beef killed in Cuba
which had not been in cold storage.
His experiments had been exhaustive
and conducted as fairly as possible
with reference to practical conditions
His own opinion was that the best meat
our troops could get in the West Indies
was American cattle killed and refrig-
Grated in Cuba as near as possible to
the spot where it was to be used.
Quartermaster Sergeant Sullivan of
the Ninth Massachusetts had been
through the Santiago campaign and
came to the stand full of the memories
of canned and refrigerated beef. The
former, he said, the men barely tasted
/ The latter he started in to describe as
a strange and greWSOme article, unlike
anything he had ever seen. He said 1t
had a "deathly SMELL" Here he col
lided with the recorder, who insisted on
having a strict definition of a "deathly
smell" Witness got as far as saying
that the "deathly smell was different
from the smell of a decomposing body
but here the recorder demanded a state
ment of the mechanism of decomposi
ton and a list of the gases which would
be evolved The witness thereupon
went to pieces and reduced the whole
statement to saying that "the beef was
very bad" and on this he refused to
be shaken.
The witness list having been ex-
hausted the court adjourned until 10
o'clock Monday.