The San Francisco call., 1898-08-03

much for the canoe, which went under and the two officers were pulled into another boat, presenting picture more Watery than warlike.
 The day before we left the Sydney came inside and anchored with the rest of the fleet. One of the Oregon boys on board her had died outside and was buried at sea. Who he was or what the cause of his death we did not learn on board the Peking.
 On the 18th land was sighted a little before noon, and shortly afterward the smoke of a steamer appeared on the horizon. The stranger approached rapidly and soon came near enough to enable us to distinguish the Baltimore's familiar lines. She sent a boat aboard the Peking for her mail and received it, though she could tell us nothing In return save that she had been waiting in the vicinity for eight days expecting our arrival.
 The Baltimore joined the fleet forma- ton, and the five vessels passed to- gether through the Straits of Bashee an into the troubled waters of the China Sea.
 During the night an English tramp steamer and a stranger, whose na- tionality we did not learn, were sighted and the Baltimore chased them until she succeeded in satisfying herself that they were what they purported to be. Shortly after sighting land a very sorrowful castrophe occurred. Private Robert Allen of Company E, young man whose parents reside in Alameda, became violently insane and had to be taken below and strapped down. He will be disabled and returned home as soon as possible, as the physicians hold out no hope of recovery for him under the existing conditions. What was the immediate cause of his misfortune I cannot say, but when active cam paigning under a tropical sun com mences 1t will be fortunate If we have not many such cases to report.
 Fortunately, with the number of men aboard ship, the exceedingly hard de- tails, such as bunk scrubbing, guard duty below decks and kitchen police, come so seldom that man has plenty of time to recover from the fatigues of his twenty-four hours duty.
 Probably the hardest regular duty of the life aboard a transport Is that con- nected with the culinary department. AS soon as the man chosen for the de- tails awakens in the morning he reports to the galley and from there until long after sunset he passes through sort of a horrible nightmare fraught with buckets of coal, water and refuse, and walks in the steaming mists of labor ious trance. Could some of the mothers | left at home see their delicate darlings, | almost as naked as the day their infant | smiles first gladdened the old home | stead, in the hold of the ship packing | heavy boxes on shoulders buried under | an inch of coal dust flour and dirt, or could they take a glance into the gal l ley at meal time and see the scions of their houses and hearts, stripped to the waist, standing over the great caul- drons and ladling out steaming pans of beans and reeking joints of pork, while the precipitation streams down their l bodies, soaks their trousers and forms puddles of water around their feet, I l am confident they would come to the
 conclusion that war is not all glory. powder, gold braid and the blaring of | trumpets.
 There Is one thing that the boys do
 complain of, and complain bitterly. | That is the manner in which the expe- dition has been outf1tted. The only ar- ticle of clothing that is regulation and Is supplied to all is shoes. Aside from this there is not one single company that has a complete outfit of such cloth ing that would be serviceable- in any
 part of the world, and in the whole reg iment there is not a single enlisted man
 who is fitted out, in the slightest par ticular, for a campaign in the tropics. If we see hard service some of us may die by Spanish bullets; but there will
 be many a lonely mother at home whose
 boys blood will call out for vengeance against his own countrymen.
 1 Everything we have is of the poorest quality and served on the same in- efficient scale Our officers are not to 1 blame. They are good, able men, and
 have done all in their power to look
 out for the welfare of their men. The
 fault lies with some one at home, and 1 whoever he be he should be severely
 dealt with.
 There is one department aboard this
 vessel that has worked hard and un-
 ceasingly since the first day 1t came
 aboard and whose labors have resulted
 in a state of cleanliness and consequent
 health. aboard the Peking, that is not enjoyed by any other vessel in the fleet
 It is the medical department, and Ma
 for McCarthy and the captains under
 him cannot be praised too highly foI
 the efficient manner in which they have
 nerformed the duties intrusted to their
 care.
 The Picking is entirely free from yer