The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-12
PAGES IL TO 20.
PANTHER FASHION.
Military Methods as Followed in Gems
trail America.

trail America.
John r. Spears in the New York Sun
Their Indian blood makes the Central
American soldiers take to shelter and
ambush when fighting. When Col Gar
ias with his regiment started up Picacho
Mountain. above Tegucigalpa. Honduras.
10 drive the revolutionists from the little
table land where the water works reser-
voir 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 POliCarDO BOnilla
cooped up In place called Tatumbla-
his men outnumbered Bonilla's, and be-
sides having cannon. they were better
armed and better supplied with ammuni-
ton. The village Bonilla occupied was in
a valley, while Nasquez occupied all the
hills around save one When Nasquez at
tackled this hill his force, though greatly
superior insisted on running forward from
rock TO rock, Indian fashion
But the most noticeable feature OF the
Tatumbla situation was in the length OF
time the two forces sat looking at each
other and doing nothing but fire an oc-
casional shot. They were literally snarl-
ing and splitting at each other for DAYS
Then Bonilla slipped away in the shadows
and next day was found i'm the suburbs
or the capital and holding the crest Of a
mountain that commanded the town.
II was here that / 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
Tatumbla for Tegucigalpa, he made a reg
ular panther spring upon his enemy but
for lack OF ammunition, failed TO get a
good claw hold on his victims neck. And,
panther fashion, he neither worried over
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 so well sharpened that
Nasquez was the one to sneak and he
/ eventually sneaked across the border.
There was not one good stand-up-and-
4 hight battle In these wars nor have I
| ever heard OF body Of Central Ameri-
] can troops carrying a position with the
bayonet.
With these things in mind. every Eng
| disappearing man / met In Central Amer
1 lea spoke contemptuously OF Central
America soldiers. They were called cow
\ ards of course. and II was asserted
that they had neither tact nor persist
/ ence. 1t was said over and over again
| that one English or German regiment,
/ properly equipped, could sweep the cOun.
| try from San Jose de Costa Rica to Qua
/ temala city To my mind this is all nom
sense heard such talk I'm the presence
| OF natives, and the natives listened, IL
seemed 70 me, in an attitude like that
! the gauchos are after him. They did not
| resist, but they were right dangerous
to attack hand to hand in such circum-
4
| No one who has seen the Seventh reg
! iment, N. G. S. N. y, on parade can look
| at the ordinary Central American sol
/ der without a smile. His uniform con-
| sists of 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 Adiron-
daok woodsman holds his Winchester
.'at all angles" And that Is the soldier
/ in the regular army in time of piece. The
| rcvolutiOnsts that j 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
j the cheap little pot-metal, Misunderstanding
! shotguns, made I'm England, for the ex-
| port trade TO put I'm two drachms Of
| powder and four buckshot would be to
load them to the last gasp. u was on
such weapons as these that the revolu-
| tionlsts staked their lives And that they
did this is worth considering in forming
| an estimate of the men as soldiers.