The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1898-07-11
THE SPANISH ARMY.

Them Up,
The Spanish army does suggest
comic opera. There are burly Fal-
staffian officers, swarming about the
cafes and beer saloons, or driving
about the fashionable parts of the
city in carriages, or sitting on upper
balconies laughing and chatting and
watching the crowd in the street be-
low. Even the barracks are pro-
vided with chairs and tables under
the trees outside the entrance, like
cafes, and there the officers may be
seen all day long, apparently with
nothing more to do than grow fat.
What else could they do? Well,
there are men who can always keep
themselves usefully busy: Spanish
officers as class seem to be not
men of that sort. If they have alb
solutely nothing else to occupy their
time, they might at any rate devote
two or three hours per day to the
question whether there is anything
in the world worse than an officer
asleep on beershop lounge in the
forenoon when the enemy is at the
gates of the city.
The rank and file can only be
pitied. The Spanish "Tommies" are
like so many Babes in the Wood,
simple innocents as ever fell into
the clutches of bloodthirsty ruffians.
There are whole regiments OF
striplings, not long out from Spain,
picturesquely attired, ready and
willing to do anything and never
count the odds nor finch from
death. They are light-hearted and
good-natured, hardy and of long
endurance; they can live on almost
nothing, and hold out tenaciously
where British soldier would starve;
they will endure the hardships and
diseases OF jungle warfare, and make
light of them. But they cannot
fight, because they are not trained
and their leaders are no good. Tar
get practice is almost non existent.
This sort Of warfare requires not
dru ms and trumpets, not high spirits
and academical education, but it re-
quires the faculty of hiding behind
tree-stumps and shooting straight
and quick. 1t requires we'll train
ed eye to spot every movement in
the gloom of the greenery, to see
further through the trees than the
enemy can, to keep cover and drive
him out OF his, The Philippine
native, like all the kindred Malay
races, cannot do any fighting as a
rule except at close quarters, slash,
ing with his heavy knife. The
weapon is much the same, be it call
ed the machete, or bolo, or kan.
plan, or parang, or kris; the plan oil
action is the same, to rush in un.
e1pectedly and hack about swiftly
without the slightest attempt al
self-preservation. 1t is a form Of
fighting known to British troops in
the Soudan and on the Indian
frontier, and it takes lot of stop
ping. Quickness OF eye and hand
can only be acquired by long and
hard practice, and these poor
Spaniards do not get that-until the
time when they ought to be using it
The rihe.butts should be all fully
occupied; they are deserted. The
Spaniard is proud, plucky, high
mettled, long-enduring, tenacious
desperate, heroic hopeless inoom-
petent.
The Mauser rifle, too, in hard
work is found to be mistake. II
has case of five cartridges which
have to be all used before any can
be reinserted. That is to say, if q
soldier has occasion to fire three, he
must go on and waste the other two
or else leave himself to meet posi-
BILE sudden rush with only two
rounds in his gun. Nine times out
of ten, he prefers to be ready with a