Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-22

according to tenor Or purpose.
Exception has been taken to the parallel
established In Thursdays Star, In which II
was stated editcrially that lin recent times
our own troops have done precisely what
the Japanese soldiers at Port Arthur did,"
Following up this declaration, The Star
said:
Just about four years ago there was
collision between the Seventh U. s. Cavalry
and a band of Indians near Wounded
Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge reservation,
and il cannot successfully be denied That
the enlisted men CT the command, at least,
killed and MANNED men, women and chill
dren Unfortunately, and were moved to
such conduct by the memory of the fate
" hich befell Custer ard the squadron CT
the Seventh which persisted with him on
the Little Big Horn sixteen years prior to
the encounter at Wounded Knee.
Rejoinder Is made by army officer
whose communication is printed elsewhere
in The Star. Another letter was also re-
ceived yesterday and signed AN officer of
the Sixth" but The Star trusts it will be
permitted to imag ine that an officer of the
Sixth Cavalry-for as the letter Is dated
Fort Myer cavalry il understood-had
anything whatever to do with 1t; men who
respect the army commandment Thou
shalt not be afraid do not indulge in
anonymous correspondence. But recurring
to the letter published today, we cannot
avoid saying that II was written without
coed cause. Lieutenant j. Y. Mason Blunt
of the Fifth Cavalry thinks that The Stars
paragraph '.mis hit lead those unacQuainted
with the facts to the belief that the troops
of the Seventh Cavalry at the fight at
Wounded Knee were guilty of excuses
equal in a measure to those reported as
perpetrated by the Japanese at Port Ar
thur" Up to this time ii has not been
charged that the japanese killed women
and children but II In certain that some OF
the soldiers to whose defense Lieut.. Blunt
so loyalty yet SO mistakenly comes were
unquestionably guilty of that heinous
crime. Ne one blames the troopers who
fired into the mixed assembly Of bucks and
squaws from whence showers Of bullets
were sent into'the surrounding troops, for
discrimination was there impossible, nor
does anyone accuse of unmanly conduct
the marksmen who put stop to the ac-
tivity of a. fighting squaw--for fighting
sQuaw is just dangerous as lighting
buck-but there can be nothing but con-
demnation for those wearers of the blue
who, when the heated strife was over,
killed many men. women and children who
taken prisoners.
During the campaign of 1SoO-'91 The Star
had a staff correspondent In the field, and
he, after thorough investigation into the
fight at Wounded Knee and its causes. said:
For more than a week have been chat
ting with the enlisted men who survived
that fight, and the information / got was,
first, to the effect that nearly every officer
warned and ordered his men not to shoot
oI.t ..xx1 hnf
most of the soldiers disSbeyed the order.
or course, the plea of excitement of blood
thirstiness will not avail i'll this case-it
should not, but 1T is only fair to those whom
the nation has endeavored to educate up to
q high standard Of Christian intelligence
that they be placed before the public In an
equitable light. / know of one officer who
repeatedly reiterated the command not to
shoot women and children, and also know
of men in his troop who paid not the
slightest heed to the humanely-proper or
der. When q HotchkisS
shell bursts in the midst of a group of In
batants are the unfortunate victims OF war,
for IL an Indian or any one else could shoot
from behind his wife's petticoats and be
protected thereby things would soon be In
a regrettable condition; but when a soldier
takes deliberate aim at q non-combatant,
at a two or three-year-old child. at baby
whose age Is measured but by weeks-Just
to see IL he can hit it-then that soldier ard
the organization to which he belongs must
bear the odum which cannot fail in this
age to follow such conduct 1t Is not an
easy thing to sit down in auietude and
seclusion, safe from the present PROBABLE
ity OF bullet, the war-club and the scalping
knife and lay down rules for the guidance
of the man who Is under fire for the first
time (as most of these Seventh cavalrymen
were) but that many of them are open to
severe criticism 1 know from their own
lips"
1t Is probable that the Japanese reprfsal
for Chinese torture had many horrible fea-
lures. but none of them was so thoroughly
Internal as the deliberate murder of a
squaw and her three little ones by soldiers
of the Seventh Cavalry-a murder that was
committed the day after the battle. The
woman and her three little ones rad
somehow or other escaped the slaughter
which overlook her husband-Elk Creek
and was on her way toward the agency.
The haven of refuge was still twelve
miles distant whSn detachmen of the
Seventh Cavalry chased the terrified fugi
tives into a little patch of thick brush
and. from the rising ground on one edge
of the temporary shelter, poured a plung-
ing volley into the bodies of the miserable
refugees who were less than three feet
below them 1t was murder of the most
fiendish sort-an unarmed woman, a little
girl less tnan seven years OLD, another 1T
tie girl about nine years Of age, and a boy
of twelve. OF these The Stars correspon-
dent said:
Neither sex nor helplessness could save
the foot-sore wanderers. Unarmed and
without protection of any description they
were wantonly and knowingly slain. Not
one of the men who fired those shots can
say that he was unaware Of the character
Of his victims, for each wound shows that
the carbipe muzzles were within few
inches of the individual at whom they
were aimed"
i It may be that these facts were not
known to Lieut.. Blunt who, while the out
break of 1S9O-'9l was in progress, was on
duty at Fort Reno, Indian Territory, but
they were known to The Stars correspon-
dent and were the subjects of serious con-
sideration by Major-General Miles. The
Star has exalted opinion OF the United
States Army and never hesitates to give
credit where credit is due, but 1t insists
upon its right to criticise those who do
wrong and who imagine themselves Sc
curely entrenched behind the intensely
loyal spirit which Is an army characters
tic. The atrocities at Pine Ridge and the
ether and more numerous atrocities at
Port Arthur serve to accentuate RivaroIs
statement that "the most civilized people