The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-02
NO SHOULDER STRAPS.
UTAH CAN SEND SOLDIERS, BUT
NO OFFICERS.
Batteries and Troops to Be Recruited
to Maximum Strength, But officers
Will Be 'Skace"-The Red Cross.

The hearts of those who wanted to
be majors, captains and lieutenants will
be saddened when they read this morn
ing that Utah is to send no more troops
to the front" except those who will
be called upon to go as recruits to bring
the organizations already in the field up
TO the proper strength.
AS the fatal lines are read, visions OF
! shoulder straps, coats of arms, stripes
down the legs, clashing sabres, juggling
swords, etc, will fade away. Dreams
of admiring, pretty girls and awe
! struck little boys, reverent relations
| and shy strangers will vanish into the
dim and misty past.
ONE POSSIBILITY.
1t is possible that Utah may get a
/ troop in Lee Nantes regiment of
cavalry, but when everything is con-
sidered, there isn't much hope for that.
! Because this war is about ended, any
way, and the only thing which could
| happen a man would be death from
cholera morbus, or some disease like
that, while some might be unfortunate
enough to be kicked into the next world
by a fractions army mule.
And death under those circumstances
would be ignominous. 1t is all right to
go down in the smoke of the conflict,
with the bullets singing little snatches
of a requiem around you, while you
clutch the grass and think of home and
mother as the life blood GIBBS away
and the eyes grow misty; but to end
ones days in commissions caused by
eating army rations or bought from
sutler. is altogether different. With
one there is honor, with the other jg7
nominy. To die with ones thoughts
.centered on the fact that his demise
will be recorded as cholera, and that
the children Will not plant flowers on
the last resting place of a colicky sol
der, is something awful.
The best a fellow would get would
be to drill around a dry camp for days
in the sweltering sun, and just about
the time he was fit for service there
would come an order stating that by
direction of the secretary of war, Com
pany Q, Battery X, or Troop y (aS the
case might be- is hereby mustered out
of the service" The only satisfaction
one could get from that would be to
say, well, we were ready, anyway"
y man who wants a title can get it
cheaper and more lasting by seeing
some newspaper men. The best he
could get from the governor would be
a majorship, and any reporter can
make a man colonel and the title will
stay. Just look over the list of battle
who owe their titles TO enterprising
young men who work with lead pencils,
who have made them colonies and ma
jors and generals and commodores and
all that sort of thing without ever re-
ceiving a cent and without putting the
officer to the cost of buying uniform.
HARD ON INFANTRY BOYS.
It will be rather hard on the infantry
boys, who have trained and drilled and
marched and countermarched; but
then these things will happen. and they
cannot be helped. Had we picked out
a nation like France or England or
Germany for a fight, they might have
stood a show, but with a third-rate
power like Spain there is no chance for
glory at all.
1t is expected the governor will re-
ceive orders to recruit the men wanted
very soon. 1t will increase the artillery
about 100 and the cavalry 80. Maybe
Utah can get troop in the Colorado
regiment, and maybe not. Time will
tell.