The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-02
BATTLEFIELD OF SANTIAGO
How 1t Feels to Face a Rapid
Firing Guns Death Spray.
BOLD, BRAVE CHAPLAIN
The Bravery Shown by the Officers on
the Field-Rough Riders Letting on
Steam-Memories of a Can OF
Potted Ham.

ny - III RAAN ~ w" 81 "
hospital i'm this city recovering from a
wound received at Santiago. was that
we couldn't get at the fellows we were
fighting against. Why, do you know, l
never saw a live %Spaniard in my two
days of fighting. The next time | get
in a shindy / hope il will be a hand-to-
hand affair with bayonets. Any fellow
can do hat sort Of thing If he has red
blood I'm his veins. but it's different to
be "a target for bullets coming from the
Lord knows where. There's something
mysterious and frightful about it, and
IL gets on a mans nerve. It's a won
der to me that any fellows could stand
up TO IL as our men did, and I'd have
had some sympathy for a man who
nunked.
IN never forget the few minutes
before ! got this hole i'm my side. We
were going forward under "a scattering
fire from he front, and all at once, OF
at the right, a rapid-firing gun opened
on us. There was no smoke, so we
couldn't locate the battery exactly, but
we could see the bullets playing over
the long grass like spray from a hose.
They didn't have the range at first. n
the shower of bullets went swinging
back and forth, clipping off the tops Of
the grass and coming nearer us with
every sweep. You can't imagine the
sensation il gave us to watch that
death spray, driven by some invisible,
relentless force, creeping on ana on
reaching out and feeling for us. There
was something unnatural about II, ana
we watched as though fascinated by IL.
l didn't feel as If men had anything to
do with il. 1t was an impersonal, dead
Iy enemy that | couldn't fight ana
couldn't escape. There wasn't a livinS
enemy i'm sight.
AT last. with one big sweep the
shower reached us. Men all around me
dropped. and then | felt a sting in my
side, and down ! went. somebody
ripped out an oath. and ] was glad to
near il. 1t sounded so magniicently
human. / believe we We're all thank
full when hat gun found us. II re-
lievcd the tension-but IT ended my
lighting
IT'S all very well for him to talk
about being nervous" commented a
wounded corporal in a neighboring cot
but he gave a mighty poor imitation
Of a nervous man down there. n man
with a record like his can afford TO own
up to having felt creepy
ITS queer how men can laugh when
they're expecting any minute to be shot
into eternity" said a wounded regular
but some way or other funny things
seem even funnier than they are when
ones nerves are keyed up TO q. Now,
our men simply doubled up with laugh
ter over the Massachusetts, chaplain
that day at Santiago.
Il tell YOU he's a dandy. He's a ire
mcndous big man-splendid mark Tor
sharpshootcrs-but he was right up in
the thick of things. jollying the boys
along. helping those that were down
and handing his canteen around as
coolly as though he had been passing
ice wafer i'm his own parlor.
Il don't know whether the Spanlards
paid special attention to him, but the
bullets went tipping around him like
hail and tore through his clothes any
number of times. The funny thing
about IT was that they all seemed to
hit somewhere below the belt, and by
Jove, those fellows shot his trousers
clear off of him. 1t was shocking, and
it worried the old gentleman. He didn't
want to stop for repairs, but he felt ne
ought to set an example to the men,
and at last he says: 'Bedad. bys, II
isn't decent and made for the rear.
The fellows adored him. but they fair
ly howlcd at the figure he cut, and he
appreciated the joke as much as any of
us.
He went back and got a pair of pa
jamas and her he looked about as fun
ny as he did before. lie had been wear
ing a regulation black clerical coat, but
when he got into the brush he whackCd
the tails off in "A ragged sort of way
and | tell you the effect Of that coat
above those giddy pajamas was i'm
mense. A grin followed him every
where he wcnt-and he went every
where "A brave chaplain vas needed.
He doesn't know the meaning of the
word fear and he's so jolly he'd cheer
up a stiff. Somebody called to him as
he went Hopping along the rear, looking
for water:
" Praying that our men will win,
Father
" I'm not praying to-day. my boy.
I'm packing water says the chaplain,
and of he Hoped To the front.
Luck was against me. for ! got
knocked out at the start" The private
looked vicious as he thought how he
missed the cream Of the fight. Two of
the men carried me out OF the lines and
put me down on the ground. and
couldn't do anything hut lie there and
curse my luck and envy the fellows
who were going up on the hill without
punctures. II was heastly hot and my
wound panied me badly. and | thought
I'd die Of thirst. ! thrashed around foI
a while and then l got SO weak that |
just shut my eyes ana lay still. The
fellows had left me a blanket. and when
the sun sets in cub and that awful
blankets and a feather bed n hot
water bottles.
There a a man lying a few yards
from me. He a been horribly cut
up by a piece Of shell and groaned every
little while. though he was mighty
plucky. for his wound must have beer
terribly painful. He didn't have mann