Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-02-11
The Arcadia Rifle Range.

We are informed by dispatches from
Washington that the commission or.
dered by Gen. Miles to examine into
the healthfulness of Jefferson Barracks
and the Rife Range at Arcadia have
recommended improvement of the Bar
racks, but that the surgeons on the
commission were so impressed with
the unhealthfulness of the Range. they
recommend that the purchase be not
made, but that it be leased for another
year in order to further test its santa
ry condition. Inasmuch as the $1S,-
900 appropriation for the purchase OF
the Range, will, before another year,
revert to the Treasury, of course the
meaning of it is, that there is to be no
range at Arcadia as an adjunct of JEFF
fersOn Barracks.
There are several remarkable fea-
lures about this report Of Army Medi-
cal experts. In the first place it is a
we'll known fact that the Post Surgeon
at Jefferson Barracks, one of the Com
mission by the way, did not find it con-
venient to visit the range during the
time it was occupied by the troops last
summer. He doubtless knew in ad-
vance of the swarms of microbes to be
encountered and did not want to sub
ject his frame to their assaults.
The great mass of testimony of ply
slcians and others, covering a period
of fifty years as to the healthfulness of
the location and the strong recommen-
dalton of Major General Merritt, COM
handing the Department of Missouri,
made after a personal inspection of
the Range, for its purchase, was ig-
nored by the Surgeon General, who
preferred to accept the opinion of two
Army Surgeons, neither of whom ever
saw the range until last December.
1t is also remarkable that the inves-
tigation of the Commission did not in
clude the testimony of any of the Off
GERS of the Sd cavalry who were at the
Range last summer, or an inquiry as
to the march of troops to and from the
range, during the terrible heat of that
period. Why not include as to what,
in their opinion, was the cause of the
sickness among the troops after their
return from the Range at Arcadia?
1t is not claimed that there was any
unusual unhealthfulness during the
summer encampment, although the As
sistant Surgeon at the Range sought
diligently for it. He was working I'M
der the old rule, ''seek and We shall
find" what you are anxious to find.
Surgeon Girard, jumped to the con-
clusion that the Rifle Range was the
hoodoo, reported adversely to its pur-
chase, and to be consistent with himself
still swears that the horse is seventeen
feet high, and his brother surgeon, Col.
Hartsoff of Chicago, having in mind
the ethics of his profession, cheerfully
echoes his opinion. To the people of
Missouri, who have known the beauti-
full Arcadia Valley and adjacent coun-
try, situated in the lower ranges of the
Ozark Mountains. with an altitude of
700 feet above St. Louis, with a gravel
ly soil, watered by crystal streams,
fed by living springs, the resort of in
valids for more than a generation, the
solemn opinion of two Army Surgeons,
that this Valley is breeding place of
malarious microbes and tadpoles is the
apOtheOsis of absurdity.
The action of the Surgeon General
in accepting the ipse dirit of Surgeon
Girard in the face of all other testi-
mony is in keeping with the stupidity
which too often governs in army af-
fairs. To the Army Surgeon can be
applied the words of England's bard:-
dressed up in little brief authority;
most ignorant of what they are most
assured; they cut such fantastic tricks
before high heaven as make the angels
weep!'' ARCADIA.