Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-21
NATIONAL DEFENSE PROBLEMS
III-Iessnns of the Mar Con,r,,issar,r
.ar-CornrniSSary
By Frederic J. Haskin

quarts. The front truck carries 200
extra rations in addition to the daily
quota, feed for the horses and a con-
siderable amount of miscellaneous ma
terial. The hot water immersion
method of cooking is used on nearly
all the field kitchens and the same
stew can be kept hot and palatable for
three days in succession.
How Cooking Is Done
Food for cooking is placed in the
copper receptacles at night and early
In the morning and there mellows into
succulency. Arrangements are made
whereby the men on sentry duty may
NIL their canteens with steaming hot
| coffee at any time. AS the canteens
are constructed on the thermo plan,
the coffee remains hot for a number of
hours. A multitform spigot makes it
| possible to fill six TASKS simultaneous
| ~, thus saving much time.
The total weight of such a field
Kitchen is only about 5000 pounds and
1t is so constructed that 1T can follow
even a rapid advance of cavalry. 1t
does not smoke, it is practically noise
less and the fire-boX consumes any
kind of fuel, from wood and coal to
peat. All the covers may be hermeti-
cally sealed and the entire kitchen can
be transported across a very rough
field at a gallop without drop of the
1quid contents spilling out.
The whole field kitchen is painted
neutral hue, similar to that of the
uniforms worn by the troops, and even
the separate utensils (ladles. spoons,
knives, etc., are so designed that they
will not reflect the light. At a COM
partively short distance, therefore, the
field kitchen is practically invisible,
even on a bright day.
The vegetarian idea and the theory
that men can be we'll fed on condensed
or capsuled foods find no support in
the modern commissariat. Good red
meat and plenty of 1t is the slogan of
! those who feed the armies and the
fighting men have been given beef and
broth ever since the war commenced.
Foreign laboratories have turned cut
capsules that they guarantee to con-
| tain as much nutriment as a pound of
beef; they have produced tablets which
are claimed to be the equivalent of a
loaf of bread-but the military experts
will have none of them.
Need of Something Filling
| A soldier, they say, wants quantity
as well as nutriment. You cannot
satisfy the ravenous hunger of a man
who has been fighting in all sorts of
weather with capsule and tablet,
even though you tell him that he is
eating the equivalent of a full meal.
He wants something filing. There
fore the menu of bread and meat,
meat and bread, with hot coffee as a
stimulant. ....
| The work of bringing the food to
the men in the trenches has presented
number of interesting and difficult
problems to the commissary depart
ment and many are the deeds of braV-
cry performed by the cooks or walters
during the winter campaign when the
trenches were only few yards apart.
Famine in an isolated trench was
easily possible. Upon one occasion,
for example, cook saved an entire
company of infantry by filling large
shell with the compressed sausage
which forms staple portion of diet
in the field. and firing this shell. with
the aid of small cargo of powder, so
that it fell within short distance of
the hunger-ridden trenches. 1t was
the dug-out and, when the projectile
was opened, the sausages were found
to be in excellent condition.
| One of the cooks attached to the In
dian troops, fighting with the allies, is
also credited with removing all his
clothing on a very dark night and
wriggling his way toward the advanced
trenches where his compatriots had
been hanging on grimly without food
for two days, because of the terrific
fire from the enemy's batteries. The
Indian cook carried on his back large
sack, painted black, which contained
a goodly supply of the rations he knew
his mates would like best. and 1t is
probable that his courage in crossing
the fire-swept zone was all that saved
this portion of the allied troops from
disaster.
When the records of the war are
+; finally compiled 1t is thought that
there will be as good an array of the
names of cooks and commissary en-
ployes upon the lists of awards for the
Victoria Cross, the Legion of Honor
and the Iron Cross as of any other
branch of the services. The cook
would appear to play very humble
4 role in the theater of war. but he is
directly responsible for the well-being
and health Of the men who battle for
their country, and Uncle Sam is
learning from the foreign armies
many lessons as to how he may be
helped in his vital work.