The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-23
From Golfers Weekly,


No aspect Of our war with Spain is
stranger TO the American people than the
sudden removal of tens of thousands of our
regular ana volunteer soldiers to foreign
lands. Some are preparing 10 go 20 Cuba,
others to Porto Rico, and, stranger than
all thousands are to be hurried to the
Philippine Islands, almost halfway round
the world from our national capital and
1000 or 5000 miles westward Of San Fran
CISCO
Probably no one will be more amazed,
and more permanently so, at this unexpect-
ed condition of affairs than the soldier
himself. Our regulars are a matter-of-fact
lot of fellows who take duty as it comes
and goes and never allow themselves 10
be astonished, but to be transported at
short notice in the cool northern spring
time from the North Atlantic coast, the
great lakes from wind-swept prairies and
passes, the dry air of the West and the
mountains to the extreme tip of Florida,
with its languid murky breezes, would Of
itself be change enough to compel atten-
ton to the size of the country. To send
them to Cuba, whether the skies be clear
or overlooking with warm rain, Is to fiji
them with wonderment. To men accus-
toned to the neat villages Of the United
States, to roads that are al least distinct
in outline to forests that at worst are
passable, and 10 farms that do not go en-
tirely untitled, Cuba in It's desolAuon,
which the vegetable luxuriance Of the
tropics cannot hide, must be a series Of
wonders.
But the PhilippinesLfmag nation stag
gers al the prospect Of following the vol
unteers in their journey toward the fur
thest East by way Of the furthest West, a
sea voyage more than twice as great as
the width of the Atlantic. and 70 be taken
by thousands of men, not one in twenty Of
whom ever saw the sea and thousands Of
whom never saw a larger craft than a
skin or cancel During the civil war a
well-planned attack was for a few mo-
ments in danger Of coming TO naught be-
cause the charging division, composed of
men from interior states, suddenly saw
before them the Atlantic and few ocean
steamers. They were good soldiers, but
no quantity of military discipline can d.
vest a man of ordinary curiosity. SO, i'm
agine the dazed condition Of volunteers
from the eastern portion of the far West
or indeed, from any part of the country
being put ashore on the Philippines where
climate vegetation. houses, and peoDle
are so entirely different from anything the
average American has ever seen where
the cattle are only as big as goats and
the horse is almost a curiosity Ameri-
cans think they know human nature, for
have they not among them the represen-
tatives of all the nations of Europe, some
Of Asia, most parts Of Africa, to say Moth
ing of the American Indian and the Amer
lean tramp? But the Philippine natives
are unlike any Of these in manners and
habits.
American armies have thus far been the
worlds most fertile sources OF war sto-
ries; the civil war added about $500 titles
to the nations list Of books OF home origin.
but when the American soldier begins to
embody Ia literature his recollecttons OF
foreign experiences incident to the present
war all war story records WIN be broken
and the wonder viii not cease while the
veterans remain alive