The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-06-29
OUR NEW YORK LETTER
A QUEER STORY ABOUT THE RECENT
ARMY MIX UP AT TAMPA.
How . Freight Car Containing Arms and
Equipment Was Taken ut the Point of
Bayonet-.Iittle Corinne" and Her ven-
ture on the Vaudeville Stage.

i q
a relative from an acting colonel Of ont
OF the regiments sent TO Tampa from thi:
vicinity. 1t is not given by way of criti
cism on the methods Of handling troop:
and supplies in emergency, but simply as
an incident and TO help show in a measure
how great were the difficulties which con.
| fronted the authorities In concentrating
and embarking thousands of troops in a
| hurry.
| "When we reached Tampa" writes the
acting colonel in effect, 1--WE We're largely
| without equipment, and we were clad in
heavy uniforms, entirely unsuited to the
intense heat prevailing here. In conse-
quence the men of our command were put
70 a great amount of discomfort, not TO
say suffering. We allowed few days TO
elapse before we made any complaint, but
l finally went TO the proper authorities
and began Investigations. You have no
doubt read of the nine miles of blockaded
freight cars containing supplies and equip
ment that lay for days and days near
Tampa. Well, found that our lighter
uniforms together with lot of supplies,
were in one of the cars in that nine mile
string. i also found out the number and
markings of the car and its approximate
location, bat l was assured that it could
not be unloaded and we could not get the
things of which we stood in so much need
until the blockade had been raised and the
car brought down to Tampa. Besides,
lot of red tape forms had also TO be gone
through with, which no one seemed to
have time or power TO attend to just then.
Taking a Car by Storm.
"All our pleas for expedition were in
vain. 1t was out of the question, we were
told, to shove things ahead in the least.
We even offered to find the car, take the
things out ourselves and carry them in
back loads to our camp, but 1t was no use.
The authorities in charge either could not
or would not assist us in the slightest.
80 we decided TO act on our own &C.
count. The first thing was to find the
car. This we did, though it involved a
wearisome tramp through the sand for
miles and the examination of hundreds of
cars and the using up of IA whole day We
located the car, however, but it remained
to get the things. twas locked, of course,
and sealed. More, like all the other cars
in the mammoth blockade, it was protect
ed by armed guards, and they declared
they would shoot the first man who tam
pered with the seal of any car.
"Of course we couldn't blame them for
this. They were put there to guard the
cars, and they only did their plain duty in
obeying orders. But we wanted the
things, and we meant to have them. We
gave up the attempt that day, however,
though we returned to the attack in force
the next, and this is how we managed it:
Some of the men in our command are
fearless, daredevil chaps. We got squad
of them together armed, of course, and
marched them to the part of the blockade
where our car was stalled. 1t was easy to
do this without exciting any apprehension,
because soldiers on practice marches were
to be seen everywhere. Besides we were
able to keep pretty well out of sight in the
woods through which the railroad runs for
most of the way
"When we had reached the car, another
demand was made on the guards that we
be allowed to take the things belonging to
us. 1t was refused, of course. The bulk
of our squad had in the meantime been
kept out of sight, but at the word every
man sprang into the open, his bayonet fix
ed and his gun at charge. Before this
the guards had talked of shooting us.
Now that sort of talk was on the other
side. Our men outnumbered the guards,
of course, and we talked so emphatically
and looked so determined that they accept
ed the situation almost without protest.
1t took us a mighty short time to break
open that car and get our things, 1 assure
you, part of our force doing the work
while the others covered the guards and
kept sharp lookout for Interruptions. 1t
was risky thing to do, I'll admit, and
might have resulted very unpleasantly,
but it worked, and we have heard nothing
about it since l don't pretend to defend
our action, but it was no more indefensi-
BILE than the slavish adherence of the au-
thorities to red tape, no matter how much
decentralization and waste resulted there
from.
"How should the blame for the situa-
ton be fxedY Don't fix it. 1t was un-
avoidable in all the circumstances per-
haps, but it should surely teach the gov
eminent one of this wars most salutary
lessons.
Corinne.
Patrons of the vaudeville stage have
been much interested of late in the first
appearance of Miss Kimball, once known
as Little Corinne, on variety boards.
There is hardly a town of any conse-
quence in which this young woman did
uoO appear btlOIo DiB uuultHCcS III INC Olu
days when her mother was alive, and
there never was better advertised Juvenile
star on the road. Mrs Kimball was a re-
markably shrcwd woman, and she was not
only an adept in the advertising line and
all the other arts of the theatrical man.
ager, but she knew how to handle and
protect her daughter much better than the
latter appears to understand these tasks
now that the mother Isl gone.
Although there is no apparent proba-
bility that Corinne's mother was anything
but what she claimed to be, many roman
tic stories Of the girls parentage were
kept constantly afloat for years One of
these stories asserted that, so far from be-
ing Mrs. Kimball's child, the girl was
really the daughter of a noble English
house and had been stolen from her nurse
when babe by gypsies. do not remem-
Der how she was supposed to have come
under Mrs. Kimball's protection, but the
story used to be related with great detail
and was never denied by Corinne's press
agents
After Mrs. Kimball's death Corinne es-
sayed to do sensational advertising on her
own hook, but she was not nearly as skill