Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-05-25
COMMISSARY IN CHINA.
Manner of Feeding and Caring
For the Various Troops.
AMERICANS HAD THE BEST CAMP.

Ours Was the CIeanest and Best Poo
Heed of AlI-RatiOns of Japanese,
British and Russian TroOps-Supe-
riority of American Mules and
Transportation Arrangements.
The report of Captain Thomas Frank
lin of our cOmmissary corps gives a
very interesting account of the way
the various troops were fed and cared
for during the campaign of the allies in
China, says the Washington CORE
spondent of the New York Post. The
Japanese had rice. bread, dried fish and
tea, which they supplemented by the
use of the sheep and cattle the country
produced. They also had American
canned meats, but these were not used
freely. The British white troops bad a
ration similar to ours in quality and
quantity, but not so varied or flexible.
They used tea instead of coffee. The
British Indian troops had about three
quarters of a pound of flour, about one
pound of rice, one gill of vegetable oil,
salt and once a week pound of fresh
meat, bone and all. The Sikhs ate only
mutton or goat. but the Mohammedans
ate everything except pork.
The Russians had little besides a
black bread and soup. They were CIV
en- quarter pound cans of some sort of
meat preparation at intervals, much in
the same way as the Japanese used
American meats. They had the finest
cooking arrangements, though, of any.
Upon springlesS wagon was mounted
an iron furnace under a semiSpherical
boiler, water jacketed. The boiler was
fitted with a tight cover, and the whole
was very strongly and compactly built.
Into this they put all the materials for
soup or stew that they possessed-and
nothing came amiss-screwed down the
cover, lighted the fire, and away went
this perambulating soup tureen with it's
company. When they made camp, all
they had to do was stack arms and
then march past the soup machine, the
cook opening a faucet and each man
receiving his ration of hot, well cooked,
thick soup. The assistant cook in the
meantime was chopping up a loaf Of
black bread with an ak, and each man
got liberal chunk.
The camp arrangements of the differ
ent nations varied as much as their "a
Kept the cleanest and best policed
camps. All garbage was promptly re-
moved and buried in pits at a distance
and other offal lined or covered with
dry earth daily. The British kept fair
Iy clean camps, but in a spasmodic
way. They would let them get dirty
and then turn a thousand coolies loose
in them and do a weeks cleaning in
fNun
immediate quarters clean, but were not
at all particular concerning their sur
roundings. The Russians and French
paid little attention to camp sanitation
and but for the cool weather in Septem-
Der would probably have had a hard
time. On the other hand, the Germans
kept their camps very clean and guard
ed the health of their men by the most
stringent rules, but withal had the big
Gest sick report of any.
The American transportation ar
engagements seemed to have surprised
the foreigners. We used light wagons
loaded with from $500 to 1000 pounds
so as to defy the muddy roads. One
man cared for four mules, and each
mule hauled from 700 to 1000 pounds
of stores. The other armies depended
OH WHICH 1OdQS OF only
500 pounds per animal, and each ami
NAL required one man to care for it.
The way our mules followed the bell
mare excited general interest. A herd
of 80 mules would be turned loose and
kept under control by two or three men,
and when in harness they could be
driven without any change of speed
over a crowded road or through the
labyrinthine streets of Chinese cities.
The Japanese had many fierce little
stations, with shaggy names and bulg-
ing eyes, serving as pack horses with
panniers, each led by soldier. Be-
sides these they had a multitude of
small one horse carts, consisting Of a
light platform with neither sides nor
ends, mounted on two small wheels.
The Russians had carts also, larger
than the Japanese, with fiaring sides
and ends and drawn by Manchurian
ponies of great strength. The British
had number Of active, vicious little
pack mules, led tandem, three in a
bunch, a cody leading the head mule.
The burdens were held in place by an
ingenious apparatus with loops and
hooks, but the load did not stay on if
the mule trotted or acted foolish. The
same army had also at first number
of wooden carts, which proved useless.
Afterward some very good carts, steel
built. arrived from India and proved
serviceable. The French, Italians and
Austrians had no transportation ex-
cept what they picked up in the coun-
try. The Germans were similarly lack
ing until late in the season, when a
large number of military baggage wag-
ons reached them. But these wagons
were not nearly the equal of ours in
shape, capacity or strength and re-
quired two teamsters to our one.
All the foreigners appear to have
paid more attention to the appearance
of their uniforms than our troops did,
but to have been less sensibly dressed.