The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-07-14
ght dlielita ailp gaes guesaau aornuo gully a. 1885,
SOLDIERS LIKE PANTHERS.
Military Methods in Vogue In Com
trail America.
There L Ne Fair and Open warfare, the
6neahfng and Catlike style Of
Fighting Being the Nest
ResoYted To.

Their Indian blood makes the Central
American soldiers take to shelter and
ambush when fighting. When Col
Garfas, with his regiment, started up
Picacho mountain. above Tegucigalpa,
Honduras, TO drive the revolutionists
from the little table land where the
waterworks reservoir was found, aswa
told IN the Sun the other day. his men
sneaked from rock to rock. and the ell
envy in falling back did the same.
During the eame revolution Gen. Vas
qtez had the forces Of Policarpo Bonilla
cooped up in place called Tstumbia.
Els E,en outnumbered Bonilla's, and,
besides having cannon, they were bet
ter armed and better supplied with am
munition. The village Bonilla occupied
was in a valley, while Vasquez occupied
all the hills Ground, save one. When
vasGuez attacked this hill, his force,
though greatly superior. insisted on
running forward from rock to rock, In
dian fashion.
But the most noticeable feature of the
Tatumbia 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
srarling and splitting 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 commanded
the town.
1t was here that I found the two COM
batants, and for three days saw them
facing each other, snarling and growl-
ing, but doing NO more, and then Bonilla
slipped away again. When Bonilla left
Tetumbia for Teguciga2pa, he made a
regular panther spring upon his enemy,
but for lack of ammunition failed to get
q good cav hold on his victims neck.
And, panther fashion. he neither wor-
ried over the failure nor made another
immediate dash.
He waited until he had another chancs
as good as that and then made another
leap. He came back again, this time
with his claws 30 well snarpened that
Vasquez was the one to sneak, and he
eventually sneaked across the border.
There was not one good stand-up-and-
fight battle in these wars, nor have
ever heard of body of Central Amer
lean troops carrying a position with
the bayonet.
With these things in mind, every Eng
ixh-speaking man I met in Central
America spoke contemporary of Cen
trail American soldiers. They were
called towards, Of course. and it was as
serted that they had neither tact nor
persistence. 1t was said over and over
again that one English or German reg
ilnent, properly equipped. could sweep
the country from San Jose de Costa RIGA
to Guatemala city. To my mind this Is
all nonsense. heard such talk in the
presence of natives, and the natives lis
tened, as it seemed to me, in an attitude
like that of panther crouched in the
brush when the gauchOs are after him.
They did net resist, but they were right
dangerous to attack hand and hand in
such circumstances.
No one who has seen the Seventh reg
iment, n. G. S. N. Y, on parade can look
at the ordinary Central American SOL
dier without a smile. His uniform con-
sists Of a blue drilling shirt or blouse,
blue drilling trousers and straw hat
nothing more. He commonly carries
an old-style Remington rifle, and this is
held, even when on drill, much as an
Adirondack woedsnan holds his Win
chester-"at oil angles" And that il
che soldier in the regular army in time
Of peace. The revolutionists that saw
in Honduras had for uniforms only
white bands around their hats.
Their clothing included the common
cotton shirt and trousers worn by field
hands-they went to battle as they
went TO plant corn. Their arms were
for the most part pitiful to look at
They carried the cheap little pot-metal.
muzzle-loading shotguns, made in Eng
gand for the export trade. To put in
two drschms of powder and four buck
shot would be to load them to the last
gasp. 1t was on shch weapons as these
that the revolutionists staked their
lives. And that they did this is worth
considering in forming an estimate OF
the men "a Soldiers SIM