The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-06-08
IN CAMP AT TAMPA.


Down here we are sweltering day and night,
with the thermometer ninety-eight in the
shade Nobody dares complain, for fear of ap-
pearing unpatriOtic. Still, it will do us no
harm to hear little of the TRUTH for this
affair is turning out just as the officers of the
regular army have fOrseen.
Here we are thirty days after the declaration
of war, and not regiment is equipped with
uniforms suitable for hot weather. The Cuban
patriots and other cigar makers look happy in
their big Panama hats and loose linen trousers
but the United States troops sweat night and
day in their cOwhide boots, thick flannel shirts
and winter trousers. In addition to this they
wear a tunic at inspectiOns-a piece Of torture.
Who is responsible for this? No one knows.
The poor men have to sleep on the ground in
the heavy dirty sand. Their sweaty clothing
picks it up, and their food is full Of it. Every
Whit of hot air blows fine dust about, and
every horse, cart, or even passing person adds
discomfort to men already miserable. How
little it would cost to have the camp sprinkled
once or twice day! Or at least the govern
ment might have provided rough boards from
which the men could have sawed themselves a
few feet Of flooring.
We are in the habit of plying the soldier of
Europe as hardly treated. For downright neg
lect, have seen nothing to beat the way the
American is treated by Uncle Sam.
In this hot climate we yearn for fresh fruit
and vegetables, for anything that will quench
thirst and at the same time cool the blood.
Meat and all heating things we try to avoid by
wise instinct. The trOups however, are sup
piled with only that which is most unseasOn-
able-greasy pork, and beans of that brown
quality that makes one ready to spend the rest
of the day in a watermelon patch. found
officers with nothing but these ratiOns, because
the cOmmissiOnary had nothing else, and they
could not afford to send for other things from
the town. Is it wonder that the men develop
abnormal thrist and rush off to satisfy this
craving as best they can-sOme with plain
water, some with milk-shakes, some with beer,
some with other compounds? The result is
that already the camp doctors are busy every
morning with men and officers suffering from
varying degrees of dysentery. We hush this
up as well as we can, but to do so altogether is
impossible. Who is responsible? No one can
tell.
The war is thirty days in swing. 1t took
less time than that for Germany to put half
million well-trained men on the French 'front.'
ier in 1870, To-day we look in vain for sing
lie regiment fit to take to the field. We hear
much in the political organs of throwing fifty
thousand men over into Cuba and taking Hav-
ana, yet here we are drilling recruits and
waiting for regiments to fill up. The strength
of regiment is nominally twelve hundred
men. As matter of fact, the average num-
ber is less than six hundred. Who is respon-
sible? Every day raw recruits are dumped
out of an incoming train, and they are taken
out in the deep sand, and made to move
their legs up and down until exhausted nature
cries out for rest. Drill sergeants and recruits
soon loose their taste for calisthenics in the
roasting pine barrens of Tampa. The ordinary
man asks why were not these recruits licked
into shape up in the cool north, and sent down
properly clothed and armed. Who is RESPONSE
blep II the invasion should take place to-
morrow, half the men would be in civilian
dress, raw recruits who had probably never be-
fore had gun in their hands.
Tampa is a seaport town, and therefore one
might have expected that our super-heated
troops would have been so located as to enjoy
saltwater bath at least once day. One or
two regiments near Port Tampa have managed
to locate near the beach, but the bulk of the
troops are so far from the water that the
journey to and fro rObs them of any benefit
they might otherwise derive from swim. In
parenthesis let me explain that the fine dusty
sand OF Tampa is impregnated with charcoal
dust, owing no pOubt to the pine barrens of
this neighbOrhOOd having been burned over.
Thus our men in camp perspire streaks of
black down their faces and necks. The gov
ernment provides them no lighthouses, not
even trough at which they may take baths by
instalments. So far the weather has been op-
pressively hot and dry. II will be miracle IL
disease does not break out when the rains
begin.
These matters are obvious even to the lay-
men. They are not necessitated by the present
state OF war. While Uncle Sans boys are
parching for fresh food and vegetables, train
loads are reaching Florida filled with succulent
fruit for Northern markets. -Poultney Bigelow
in Harper's Weekly.