Show AS AN ARMY BATION Beans Briefly Considered by an Old Army Veteran New York Sun Take it altogether said the old soldier I think I liked beans the best of any army rations Hard bread of course was essential and we expected to get that anyway but I am speaking now of the comparative com-parative luxuries on the army bill of fare I should prefer corned beef if that issued in the army had been uniformly uni-formly of a desirable quality But often it was of a hardness more lIke that of quartz and of a saltiness past belief by those who have never tried it Salt pork well fat salt pork even of the best quality is not desirable asa as-a steady diet of food and we got more salt pork than any other meat and it was most always not of the best In fact no old soldier will ever forget the salt pork of the army But his recollections recol-lections of it will not be surrounded by an aurora borealis of delight Not everybody liked beans but according ac-cording to my notion they were the best of army rations all things considered con-sidered If we had a piece of pork to put in the kettle so much the better But we had salt anyway and bean soup with hard bread to break into it and a cu of coffee made a meal that had decided elements of hopefulness hopeful-ness in it It is true that sometimes when we had beans day after day for days together to-gether some of the men would get tired of them But you would grow tired of ortolans wouldnt you if you had too many of them I always used to be glad when we had beans and to this day I like now and then a dish of bean soup and I never eat it without pleasant recollections recollec-tions of the army |