The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-17
.6thRegt.Chap-
lain Talks.
BAD MANAGE ME- MT.
He Tells the Story of Things
AS He Saw Them.

Rev. w. F. Dusseault of Maiden, who
was formerly the spiritual adviser of
the 9th Massachusetts regiment, but
who resigned from his office at the
delivered a lecture in All Souls Church
last evening on Army life in camp
The address reviewed in detail the
affairs of the 9Th regiment in the Gu
ban and Porto Rican campaigns, but
made no reference to the troubles
which resulted in the resignation of
Col Woodward and number Of the
highest officers of the command. Chap
lain Dusseault was not sparing in his
criticism of the way in which the men
of the regiment were supplied with the
necessities Of life, or rather of the way
in which he thought they were not sup
Piled.
Rev. MIR. Dusseault was seen at the
conclusion of his address by The Spy
man, who asked him in regard to the
troubles in the 9Th. He replied that
there was nothing he could say to any
one that would not implcate some one
else. In answer to a question he de-
clared that he did not think the Off
GERS who resigned were guilty, but were
the victims of a spirit of opposition
that had been worked up against them
in the regiment, but he refused to say
by whom this feeling had been excited.
lie did believe that they had been fair
ly treated, and thought that if they
were guilty, they should not have been
granted an honorable discharge from
the service. Rev. Mr.. Dusseault said
that no slrfcr Al . a..
the other officers did his resignation
mad not been accepted by the govern
ment until quite recently. He declared
that the stories of Col Woodward
having feigned illness were entirely
raise, in his estimation, as he saw him
When he claimed to be ill, and he GER
fanny was so at that time, in the chap
Ialns opinion
After criticising the condition Of the
camps in this country, Rev. Mr.. Dus-
seauit said:
when we reached Charleston the in
eHlclency of somebody became all the
more apparent. Transports We're pro-
Vided that would accommodate 1900
men, ana there were 1900 ordered to
board them. The baggage of all the
brigade was loaded aboard before it
was discovered that there was not room
Tor all the men, and then it had to be
unloaded and sorted again. causing
trouble and delay that could have been
avoided if some one had given the mat
ter the least thought. The cars that
we Travelled in from Virginia to Charles
ton were not fit to be used for cattle,
and the quarters that we occupied on
the Wharyes there were worse if posi-
Bile.
The supplies that We're given to the
regiment consisted of bareback that
was good enough when it arrived but
which was allowed to stand out in the
rain and then packed into the holds of
the transports without being dried and
of course it spoiled. The meat supplied
was the cheapest kind Of salt pork that
was termed bacon although it was not
smoked, and the most of it was rancid.
| didn't know that coffee could be so
bad as that which was assigned to the
troops. The officers paid 81 a day for
their food TO the steward of the ship,
and the officers of the ship were indig-
nant when we tried to give some of it
away to the men. There We're some
men who were able to pay $40 day for
their food where / was able to pay 81,
but they were not allowed 10 because
they were private soldiers
In referring to the Cubans, Mr.. Dus-
seault said that in his opinion there
was no system of education that we
could establish there that would make
them fit for elf-government for many
generations TO come. He had visited
vain for a sign of intelligence among
them. They cried Cuba libre" with
great earnestness, but their sole con-
ception of liberty was unbridled license
to steal. They have absolutely no re-
gard for life or property.
There had been, he said, a great deal
of criticism of the regiment concern
ing the march from Guanica to Ponce.
1t had been demonstrated by those who
used a chart to do it, that the distance
they claimed to have marched was
several times that between the two
places, and that it was really 50 insig-
nificant that there was no excuse for
the disorganization that resulted from
it, To these charges he replied that
the distance marched was us if they
had gone from Boston to Charlestown
by the way of Brighton and Somerville.
The men were weak and sick, and the
decentralization that occurred was be-
cause they did not have proper sup
plies nor medical attendance.
In closing his remarks, Chaplain
Dusseault took a somewhat pessimistic
view of the results of the war, and
declared that he thought the goverr-
VI ment was saddled with moral respon-
sibility that it could not well dis
charge. He said that his prayer at the
beginning of the war had been that
we might not acquire a single inch OF
Spanish territory nor q single dollar
& of Spanish money, but now he did not
see how we could relinquish what We
have attained. There is immense NOR
al responsibility connected with the
ACQUISITION of these new territories
* and the worst phase Of the whole mat
ter was in the Philippines, where we
have many thousands of savages on
our hands to be provided f:r He
prayed that God would grant that dip
lomatic mistakes might not DEPRIVE us
of the honor of having waged war foi
the sake of humanity. He did not thinR
that the responsibility could be met
in any other way than by remember
ing the responsibility that rests on all
the people, their Christian responsibili-
tv that they should bear the teachings
or Christ into all these lands.
COAL NINE ON FIRE