The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-11
CLOTHING FOR THE TROOPS.
Various Ideas About What Is Needed
No Use for OYercnnfs.

various Ideas About What Is Needed
No Use for Overcoats.
The State of Indiana is to equip the first
batch of troops sent out by the State for the
Cuban war. BY taking practically every
thing the State owns in the way of arms
and munitions, this equipment can be sup
piled so far as Arms, tents and accoutre-
ments. The trouble lies in the matter Of
clothing. The state quartermaster's depart
ment is now wrestling with the proposition,
and from the talk of the officials as to what
is to be furnished it would be difficult to tell
whether the expedition were meant for Cuba
or the Klondike. The colonel of one regi-
ment made out his requisition yesterday.
One of the principal items in it is an over
coat for each man. Troops in New Orleans
or Cuba will have about as much use for
overcoats this summer as they would have
for bear-traps. Since the war broke out
volumes have been written by competent au-
thor1ties upon what to take for sojourn in
Cuba The summer weather in Cuba is so
desperately hot that the ordinary militia
uniform would be a burden of the worst
kind The insurgents dress in the very
hShtest cotton goods, and then they are too
not. They wear, instead of heavy shoes, a
leather sandal. Their protection at night is
rubber blanket, swung above their ham,
mock to keep off the falling mists Their
chief foes are not the Spaniards, but the
blood-thirsty mosquitoes and scorpions, and
q mosquito net is an Indispensable necessity
Whlle good supply of pennyroyal oil would
not he bad thing.
Instead of this sort of an outfit, Quarter
master General Richardson and his aids la
Dofed all or last night and will continue to-
DAY TO supply the troops with blue flannel
snlrts ana cotton flannel drawers. At first
he was somewhat exercised as 10 whether it
would not be advisable for the boys to wear
RED flannel drawers, and was heard to say
that the uniforms that they now wear
should be exchanged for new ones because
the old ones had been worn until they would
not AFFORD sufficient protection from the
cold. he also advocated that contract be
let Tor eight-lnch abdominal bandageS of red
Hannel, to be worn next to the skin to pre-
vent the man from catching cold after an
aLI-day march by sleeping on the ground.
PERSONS at brigade headquarters who heard
this last proposition laughed and sale that
unless the boys wore martingales the BAN
Cages would roll and slip up under the arms,
torturing them with heat until they were
torn on and thrown away. 1t was stated
that II the equipment proposed We're carried
into practice it would be waste of hum
dreds of dollars, for as soon as the boys got
into the torrd climate of the Southern coast
states and cuba all clothing but that TO pro-
tect the skin from injury would be thrown
away, and no influence could be brought to
bear TO make the boys carry the useless
stuff. 1t was pointed out that during the
civil war the soldiers who campaigned as
far north as Tennessee, in rne mountains,
their blouses when April drew around 1t
should be remembered, said the critics, that
the boys have TO carry their blankets
wrapped around their bodies.
Quartermaster General Richardson stated
last night that 1T would be impossible to
send the troops away equipped tonight, and
that unless the War Department ordered
them to move and sent the equipment after
them they would not be ready to take trains
for the South until Thursday night at the
earliest. The government depot at Jeffer-
sonvtlle has been the scene of day and night
activity in making clothing for the troops
OF the country; every seamstress in the town
has been employed, and it was stated last
night that the Indiana troops could not de-
pend on the depot for their equipment For
this reason those officers who have charge
of clothing the men were excited last night
over the prospect of a clothing famine
Quartermaster General Richardson asked
that the Journal announce that ne desired
Immediately to hear from factories that
could turn out in the shortest possible time
cotton flannel drawers and blue flannel
shirts for the troops. He found that the
clothiers of Indianapolis could not begin to
provide for the troops.