A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



element, with a stew of vegetables and meat in 

 canned form, packed in a liquor or gravy, on which 

 he made experiments with the Franco-American soup 

 people, all the packers and other conservers bearing 

 carefully in mind that it must be palatable. 



I was in Montana on the night of Dewey's vic- 

 tory. My firm wired me that Gen. Weston had 

 asked to have me come to Washington, to help him 

 work out the canned bacon problem. In Kansas 

 City Kirk B. Armour joined me, and we went to 

 Washington, to find that Gen. Weston had been sup- 

 planted by the appointment of Gen. Egan as actual 

 commissary general, and that Weston had been sent 

 to Tampa, Fla., in charge of the southern base. It 

 is not my thought to criticize Gen. Egan. He was 

 wholly blameless as to the charge of embalmed beef, 

 but he made a bad mistake in not following Gen. 

 Weston's recommendation as to canned bacon, as 

 will be seen later. Everything was confusion in 

 Washington. Egan had not had Weston's expe- 

 rience, nor did he have Weston's commercial instinct. 

 I did not know any of Gen. Weston's plans, except 

 to surmise, but in the interview Mr. Armour and I 

 had with Gen. Egan we cautioned him about send- 

 ing uncanvassed bacon Into tropical countries. So 

 many things were happening, however, that It was 

 unheeded or overlooked. 



I followed Gen. Weston to Tampa, and found that 

 his problem was a statute specification which re- 



[60] 



