The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-10
CANTEENs IN THE ARMY.
The woman Nurse in the Field Also
Discussed.

Discussed.
Jacksonville, Fla, Aug. 9.-There seems
to be a determined effort on the part of
prominent Christian men and women, col
lectively and individually, to have the
army canteen" abolished. My old friend,
Bishop Samuel Fellows of Chicago, col
oncl in the civil war heads petition
signed by President W. r. Harper of Chi
cago University the Rev. DR.. Josiah
Strong, Hon. John Wanamaker and other
weI-known public characters.
The Rev. r. D. Forty, pastor of big
church in Chicago, who has been visiting
Camp Thomas at Ch!ckamauga ciinches
his argument against the "canteen' with
this very remarkable statement: In the
First Georgia Regiment a very earnest
Christian man, who had enlisted to night
his countrys battles, was detailed 10 sen
beer" Now. il strikes me that no very
earnest Christian man." under our mill
tary system. can be detailed to sell beer,
unless he had rather do that than attend
to the regular routine duties Of camp life.
/ am a temperance man. with life
time record for faithful service, and 1 do
not advocate selling beer in the camps.
But ] do protest as an old soldier of ripe
experience in organizing troops and SUI
perintending camps of instruction., etc,
against abolishing the army cauieen' and
turning soldiers loose for suffers or out
side bar keepers to sWindle and debauch.
Neither Bishop Falows, himself once q
regimeutal commander, nor any one else
has suggested a proper substitute for the
"canteen." If it has its evils il also has
its blessings, which cannot be said of the
suffers shop or the outside barroom
As a Prohibitonist l have long since
learned by studying the temperance history
of Maine that the determination of the
liquor traffic is not so easy as it seems on
paper. Blind tigers" roam even the most
highly cultured communities. And when
it comes to soldiers, we must
not forget that the famous
Benny Havens" lived TO be
80 years old, and yet the military author
tiles and civil powers at and around West
Point Academy never succeeded in killing
his venerable blind tiger" IL is one
of-war out at sea- but it IS quite another
thing 60 keep sailors sober on land. As
| once before said, in one of my letters,
the army canteen" may be abused by
the manner in which il is conducted, ow-
ing to lhe improper character of the man
put in charge
| will venture the assertion that Gen. o.
o. Howard, u, S. A, could be put in cont
mand of a regiment and run a ''canteen'
that would commend itself to every man,
woman and child now protesting against
the "canteens" as they are run. They are
neither beer saloons nor rum shops, but
general supply stores for the benefit of the
soldiers, who buy cheap and also share
the profits of the canteen, on the cooper
alive plan. Substitute the old suffers
shop and the soldiers lose all the profits.
pay his high prices and have no control
over him. The manager of a "canteen'
should be % an honest man of unim-
uhal al Inf
will not lead The soldier boys into intem-
perate habits; CD a man of kindly but
firm business and social nature. He should
keep as far as possible every article the
soldiers need, and he should make his
place always attractive to the best e,e-
ment Of his regiment. If beer is sod in
his "canteen' il should be SO placed and
SO dispensed as not TO interfere with the
quiet and good order of The place, in
which temperance soldiers have the same
rights and privileges as beer drinkers.
| Let Bishop Fa0ows ana his associates
either bend their efforts TO put the pres
ent army canteen" in It's proper shape
or come forward with a substitute better
( than the 'canteen' or the Old suffers
shop"
In discussing the army nurse question
the Morning News very properly says it
hardly seems TO be the pace for women
on the battle field SGi, if they are will
exists why they should not be permitted
to do so. This puts the matter In nut
| shell, for very few women want 10 90 TO
! the battlefield who are not able TO take
| care of themselves ana also render val
liable service 10 the sick and wounded.
| Grim old Gen. Ear.y used to cuss on ac-
count of women following the army. and
/ yet no post-bellum record of our gallant
! Gen. John b. Gordon could be written but
! for the heroic and undaunted devotion of
/ the noble wife who followed him in his
/ campaigns and nursed him back from the
brink of the grave" And other noble
! wives have followed their husbands
through weary marches and bloody battles
and proven themselves angels of mercy"
/ la the hospitals and on the field.
| 7 know there was much opposition to
! female nurses when this war commenced.
but il did not last long. And l also re-
| member the excitement in our corps OF
war correspondents at The Tampa Bay
Hotel when 1t was announced that a sol
| itary female correspondent had arrived
! from Canada to join us in going 10 the
| front. Gen. Shafter was Wild and some
| others We're wilder, at the thought OF
! such a thing. But the modest, vet plucky
little woman settled down quietly to her
| duties in the camps about Tampa and
after awhile made some of us male CORE
| spondeuts ashamed of ourselves by her
earnest patriotic. sympathetic work.
| remember, also, how Miss Annie Wheeler
the brave, motherless daughter OF Gen
| Joe Wheeler plead with 'the powers that
! be- TO so with the army as nurse. to be
| near her aged father and her young broth
| er, Lieut.. Joseph Wheeler Jr.. L. $. A.
But all her pleading was N vain at that
! time. However. it was nor long before
| there came floating across the waters from
| stricken Santiago the Macedonian cry OF
| come over and help us" uttered I'm despair
| by the overworked surgeons and the in.
| competent picked up male nurses. And
then Miss Annie Wheeler and a score OF
other noble-hearted, patriotic young wo-
men. wearing the proud Red Cross badge
sailed away from Tampa 20 minister to
The wounded and fever stricken heroes az
| Santiago. Such noble women are not OUT
- = -!