Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-09-26
EVENING STAR.
fHE HABITS or THE ALLIED TROOPS
Il E In TURKEY ~. .-..

An6 h001ICS OC IhE ALL1 I'D JH0OPi
j. .E .ssi IN TURKEY ~ -.-.
A CLUE TO TIIE RECENT RAW AGES OF THt
Z ~rrarc1 d. a. CHOLERA. 49,, ts.ss .-
I'VE find the following graphic descrip.
tion of the manner Of fife Of some of the
French and English soldiery at the East,
In one of the letters from the seat of war
to London journal. We can hardly
wonder, after reading il attcntively, al
the havoc made by the cholera amongst
such hopelessly british, if not demented
beings '''-
1.-The conduct of many os the men.
French and English, seems characterized
by recklessness which verges on insani.
ty. You find them lying drunk in the
kennels, or in the bitches by the road
sides, under the blazing rays of tie sun.
covered with swarm of flies. You see
them in stupid sobriety graxeIy pairing
the rind OFT cucunibers Of portentio,ls di.
mensions, and eating the deadly cylin.
derS one after another, to the number O,
six or eight, till there is no room for
more-all the while sitting in groups in
the fields or on the flags by the shops in
the open street, and looking as if they
thought they were adopting highly sani,
tary measures for their health'S sake: or
frequently three or four of them will make
a happy bargain with Greek for a large
basketful Ct apricots, .kiIohn," scarlet
pumpkins, water melons, wooden Tears.
and green ''gages" and plums, and then
they retire beneath the shade of 4 tree.
where they divide and eat the luscious
food until nought remains but heap OF
peel, rind, and stones. They dilute the
mass of fruit with raki, or peach brandy.
and then struggle home, or 60 to sleep,
as best they can.
One day l saw Zouave and hugh Gren-
adler staggering up the street arm in arm,
each being literally laden with enormous
pumpkins and cucumbers, and in the in
tervals of song-for one was shouting out
Cheer, boys, cheer, in irregular spasms,
and the otherwas chanting some love ditty
of a very lachrymosecharacter-theyw were
feeding each other with cucumber. One
took bite and handed it to his friend who
did the same, and thus they were contin-
uing their ampbibean banquet till the
Englishman slipped on stone and went
down into the mud, bringing his friend
after him-pumpkins, cucumbers, and
all. The Frenchman disengaeed himself
briskly, but the Grenadier at once COM
posed himself to sleep, Notwithstanding
the entreaties of his companion. After
dragging at him, head, legs, arms, and
shoulders, the Zouave found he could
make no impression On the inert mass Of
his friend, and regarding him in the most
tragic manner possible he clasped his
hands, and exclaimed, "Tu es la, done.
mon ami, mon cher Jeon . En- bien, lie me
ccucherai ayec toi :" and calmly fixing a
couple of cucumbers for pillow he laid
down, and was soon snoring in the gut
ter in urison with bis ally. Twas o.
to see them take off to the Co~-x DO Gsrda
in about five minut~.- aftorw.rds aS |.
lucky pasr".. happened to come it's round
Trough the street. e..
The Turkish soldiers are equally care
less of their diet and living. l am lo 1k-
ing at about twenty Of them, belonging
to q battery, under the window of room
in which am writing, busily engaged
in the consumption of bulletty looking
melons. They are at it all day, except
when they arc smoking, or risten to this }
saying their prayers, for the poor fellows
are, for the most part, regular in their
devoticns, and when they.have finished
them, they glare and scowl at Christians
in fashion fearful to behold for ten min
utes afterwards. There can be no reason
for the illness of our men, so far as the
supplies are concerned: at
least, they have at present very full
and ample ration in tact there never
yet was an army in the field which ever
received any thing like it, The ration is
as follows, daily Ia, h., of meat, beef
or mutton, II ID. Of bread, or | lb. of
biscuit if the bread is bad or is not resd;.
l or. of coffee, Il OF. of sugar, 2 nz. of
rice, and half gill of ruu. For the
coffee and sugar the soldies pays a penny:
for the rice and rum ne pays nothing. 1t
is almost pity that the rum and the
rum and the coffee were not served out
long ago, as [ suggestel i they should, for
no doubt the men required some stimu-
liant. considering the mode Of life to
which thew had been accustomed, and
the peculiarly relaxing effects of this cli-
mate. AS it is, however, the ration is
most ample, and no army in the history
Of the world was ever so well fed, indeed,
doubt if any army ever received from
its country half so good an allowance
as our men in Turkey do"