Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-28
PANTHER FASHION.
Military Methods as Followed in Gen.
trnl America.

trail America.
John r. Spears In the New York Sun.
Their Indian blood makes the Central
American soldiers take to shelter and am
bush when fighting. When Col. Garfias with
his regiment started up Picacho Mountain,
above Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to drive the
revolutionists from the little table land
where the water works reservoir was found,
as was told in the Sun the other day, his
men sneaked from rock to rock, and the
enemy in falling back did the same.
During the same revolution Gen. Vas
quez had the forces of Policarpo Bonilla
cooped up in a place called Tatumbla. His
men outnumbered Bonlla's, and besides
having cannon, they were better armed and
better supplied with ammunition. The village
Bonilla occupied was in valley, while NdS-
queZ occupied all the hills around save one.
When Vasquez attacked this hill his force,
though greatly superior, insisted on rum
ming forward from rock to rock Indian fash
ion.
But the most noticeable feature of the Tat
umbla situation was in the length of time
the two forces sat looking at each other
and doing nothing but fire an occasional
shot. They were literally snaring and spit
ting at each other for days. Then Bonilla
slipped away in the shadows and next day
was found in the suburbs of the capital and
holding the crest of a mountain that COM
manded the town..
1t was here that I found the two COM
batants, and for three days I saw them
facing each other, Snarling and growing,
but doing no more, and then BoniIIa slipped
away again. When Bonilla left Tatumbla
for Tegucigalpa, he made a regular panther
spring upon his enemy. but for lack of am
munition, failed to get a good claw hold on
his victims neck. And, panther fashion, he
neither worried over the failure nor made
another immediate dash.
He waited until he had another chance as
good as that and then made another leap.
He came back again, this time with his
claws SO well sharpened that Vasquez was
the one to sneak, and he eventually sneaked
across the border. There was not one good
stand-up-and-fght battle in these wars, nor
have 1 ever heard of body of Central Amer
lena troops carrying a position with the
| bayonet.
With these things in mind, every English
| speaking man 1 met in Central America
| spoke contemptuously of Central America
| soldiers. They were called towards, of
| course, and it was asserted that they had
| neither tact nor persistence. 1t was said
! over and over again that one English or
| German regiment, properly equipped, could
| sweep the country from San Jose de Costa
Rica to Guatemala city. To my mind this
| is all nonsense. I heard such talk in the
| presence of natives, and the natives listened
| as 1t seemed to me, in an attitude like that
! of a panther crouched in the brush when
| the gauchos are after him. They did not re.
|
tack hand to hand in such circumstances.
| No one who has seen the seventh regiment
| N. G. S. N. Y, on parade can look at the
ordinary Central American soldier without
a smile. His uniform consists of blue
drilling shirt or blouse. blue drilling trousers
and a straw hat-nothing more. He com
! monty carries an old-style Remington rifle
| and this is held, even when on drill. much
| us an Adirondack woodsman holds his Win
! chester-"at all angles" And that is the
| soldier in the regular army in time of peace
| The revolutionists that 1 saw in Honduras
had for uniforms only white bands AROUND
| their hats.
| Their clothing included the common cot
| ton shirt and trousers worn by field hands
they went to battle as they went to plan
| corn. Their arms were for the most par
| pitiful to look at. They carried the cheaI
little pot-metal, muZZle-loading shotguns
made In England, for the export trade. Tt
| put in two drachms Of powder and foul
| buckshot would be to load them to the las
| gasp. 1t was on such weapons as these tina
the revolutionists staked their lives. Ant
that they did this is worth considering il
| forming an estimate of the men as soldiers