The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-08
Their Comparative Ability TO Bear
the Har1ships of War.
From the washington Star.

From the Washington Star
when the war is oil over and the army
and navy medical departments get down
to the work of gathering and comparing
statistics on fatalities caused by disease
and wounds" said a naval surgeon Of
great experience, who is now in Washing
ton on furlough, Il am confident it will
be found that the small, slight men who
have been through the campaigns both by
field and food, will be found to have been
endurers of hardships. This is fact that
l have often observed. The big hard
muscled, well-developed men 60 to pieces
under severe hardship and succumb much
quicker to epidemic disease as well as to
the ordinary diseases of life than do the
small, trail-looking chaps. OF course, no
really frail men get into the army and
navy, but the service has always been I'LL
ed with plenty of men under ordinary size
whose appearance with their clothes on
causes men not familiar with the subject
TO wonder how they ever passed the phvsi-
cal examinations required by the army and
navy
These understood but perfectly sound
men, both in the army and navy, are the
best for hard service. They may not he
able TO do such big things. but for Ions,
service full of trouble and worriment and
genuine hardships they are incomparablv
better than the big fellows, who look as If
they might be able TO outlast any three of
Inc smaller men. I've often noticed that
IN practice marches by naval landing
parties the little fellows have invariabIv
the best Of the argument when it comes
10 heaVy, double-time work under hot
tropical suns. I've seen huge sailora ana
marines drop out of line in sets of fours
under such circumstances, while the small
trig blue-Jackets and sea soldiers stand to
the game through everything, and very
rarely fall to the rear Army surgeons
tell me, too, that in rough campaiening
in the West the smaller men have invari-
ANY SHOWN themselves to be better resist
ers Of hardships than the big felows
Ihey say that among the dough-boys. or
lhIahtrymen, when a big practice march
IS in progress the men of big stature and
Hesh and muscle are always among tha
nist TO throw up their hands and ask for
transportation in commissary and ma
tefmaster wagons while the small men
trudge on doggedly.
Another thing the army s,,reeo,, I'm
me that might seem peculiar to those who
haven't been in any military service -
mat the soldiers recruited from the cities
are invariably better endurers of barI
campaigning than the soldiers recruited
from the country districts II nilshf nat-
ufally be thought that countrymen. usad
10 open-alr work and hopping over furrow-
"a fields, would prove themselves au,a,,
ahead Of the city lads when II can,a -
keeping in line on fortv-mile-a-ie, \,
marches over western country hut m
army surgeons say that the countrvrnen
are the ilrst to complain Of sore feet and
TO cast their eyes longingly upon the wag-
ons and ambulances at the rear. .Td
rather nave command of a company Of
Bowery boys and city wharf-rafs any
time said one Of the army siIrgone ~
me not long ago, than a fit-out of biy
raw lads just or the farm. If the countr1,
boys 90 sore, they don't appear To nava
the nerve TO keep their heads closed abo,,t
II and wait for their soreness to pass arr
but they break for the sick report riebt
away. The city lads get their teeth down
hard and grin and bear it,
Aboard ship in the navy I've noticed
ever since ! first went to sea, which was
matter Of nearly thirty years ago thar
when big blue-jacket gets down sicL IN
the sick-bay and a smaller man Is taken
with tho same trouble that ails the blg
man, the smaller chap Invariably becomes
conN aIescent long before the big man be-
gins to mend.
o.
tached to have become afflicted with epi-
denies and half a ships company nave
gone down I've observed that the chances
Of the big men. This is particularly true az
been almost twice as great as the chances
Of tn big mn. This Is particularly true of
fever5 that hit ships companies in front
cal waters. A large, heavy man Is twice
as liable to get the fever known as coast
fever, for example. as a small man, and he
is twice as liable TO die from 1t, too For
example, about fifteen years ago the old
navy wind-jammer ] was attached TO was
working her way up the coast of Central
America, when pretty near all hands got
the coast fever. The big men were the
first to get into the sick bay, bit the dis
ease was Of a peculiarly violent character
on that occasion, and within week after
the disease came over the side about three
quarters Of the ships company, fore and
aft. boys and men, were on the fiat of
their backs.
The first men to die were the huge,
kuottV-mugcled fireuen, We lost half a