The times., 1898-12-02
Battle of the pepartmeut.,


All vigorous Americans enjoy the con-
stemplation of a fight. 1t is not that
they are bloodthirsty, but they realize
that nearly all professional fighters mil
itate only with their mouths; and it is
the eloquential quality in man the pub
lie admires. Thus the interest taken in
vocal bruisers like Corbett, and in crea-
ent point of view, like Sampson and
Shafter. The two last named have
locked horns. but nothing will happen
in consequence, except new contribu-
ton to the literature of American
humor.
The Administration is about to have
Congress on its hands, and the aggre-
CATION must be amused, else nobody
knows what might happen. Accord
ingly it is both ''dulce eft decorum' for
the warning departments of Mars and
Neptune tu produce something at this
time for the delectation of the people
upon whom they so anxiously depend
for the promotion of favorites. the car
rying out of questionable deals, and the
suppression of evidence that might be
troublesome.
We are, therefore. overjoyed to see
the entertainment of the departments
opened with a grand double song and
dance by the mirth- h-provoking twin
freaks, Sampson and Shafter. The
act is the joint work of Long and Alger
whose ability in the line of such au-
thorship is something sublime. 1t is al
lects. The Navy Department enters its
prize pet Sampson; who was nowhere
near the danger line in the vicinity of
Santiago, and was wholly innocent of
any connection with the sanguinary
events of Schleys battle; to contest the
Linares, with Shafter. who had as
much to do with the land fighting as
Alger had with the surrender of Lee at
AppomatoX.
Yet, both being under appropriate in
spiration. Sampson, who was absent,
demands a division of the laurels with
Shafter. who was also absent. To use
strictly technical naval expression, we
must say that the two specimens are
upon perfectly even keel. Each il
lustrated in the war the genius of his
control. 1t was Longs commercial in
stinct that imbued Sampson when he
made a rush to gobble the Spanish yes
sells captured by Miles and Wheeler in
the harbor of Santiago, that he might
add their loot to the sum of his un-
earned but expected prize money. 1t
was the og-in-the-manger quality in
those fioaters and throw SIMPSONS
men overheard when they came to seize
them. Shafter recognized the preda-
tory nature of his colleague from Ma
tanZas, and was prepared as he was
never known to be for any other enemy.
They are a fine pair, these postuiants
respectively for q vice admiral's COM
mission and a lieutenant generalcyi
We have nothing but admiration for
their effrontery. 1t must be admitted
that they are equally worthy of such
glory as the sum of their absences and
their peaceful dispositions around San
tiago entitle them to. Sampson, in his
luxurious cabin, writing circulars, or
skipping out when trouble was impend-
ing, and Shafter in his hammock, rub
bing liniment on his three hundred
pounds of gout and insane fear three
miles from the front, present picture
of heroism which appeals cheerfully to
the sober American sense of the ridicu-
lous The fountain does not rise higher
than its source. The naval agent of the
old Spanish bond alliance does not need
to be brave, or present when there is
bloodshed, and the deputy of man
who retired from the fight at Chancel-
lorsville in wet boots, has no occasion
to be anything other than one who
sends brave boys to their death while
an orderly mixes cool drinks for him
and keeps ice on his small head far
from the danger of Spanish bullets
The nation will observe the hostilities
between the absentee commanders and
the departments they SO pictorially rep
resent, with much equanimity, and also
with amused contempt.
Algerian and other Leakage.