The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-04
No Longer the Volunteers of
Uncle Sam.
Second Regiment Concludes It's Tour Of
War Service, But the Men Are Wait
ing for Their Pay Worcester Boys
Went Hungry, Until They
Bought Their Own Dinners.

The Second Massachusetts, regiment.
United States volunteers, were MUSTER
ed out of service yesterday at Spring
field. That is all that was done for the
hundreds Of men of the regiment un-
less the three Springfield companies Of
that regiment. who were both mustered
in and mustered out, as Springfield
men, can be excepted
The government did not pay them,
but gave them its verbal promissory
note to settle the account in the dim
and distant future. The out-of-town
companies got out of bed before the
sun rose in the eastern skies and did
not have time to get bite to eat, and
they were not offered anything to eat
by the government the state. whom
most of thern served well as citizen
soldiers, or by the people of Spring
field.
The soldier boys did not go hungry
because they bought their own food at
the restaurants and hotels in different
parts of Springfield
The thousands upon thousands of
men. women and children who were
packed as sardines are packed in tin
boxes, lined the streets through which
the parade passed. But this vast con
course of people were as silent as the
grave.
There was a sort of a frost in the at
mosphere that affected the soldiers
more than the chils they captured at
San Juan and Ell Caney, and all of the
out-of-town companies were loud in
their denunciation of those who had
used them in such, as the soldiers put
it, an unpatriotic manner.
The three Springfield companies ate
their well cooked dinner in the center
of the armory, while the out-of-tow
boys stood about the outer edges Of the
states edifice waiting to be mustered
out, and they endured the agonies of a
hunger that was increased almost two
fold greater than Cubanhunger by being
obliged to watch others eat. A gasoline
stove, on which sinmered large ket-
tie of coffee, exploded while the above
drama was being enacted, and the frag
rant arenas that arose from the hot
streams of the beverage added to those
cravings in the stomachs Of several
hundred out-of- town boys in blue.
The out of town soldiers said that
they would not have minded all this IL
they had received their money. Under
those circumstances they would have
been, they said, only too willing to
have purchased, a new gasoline stove
for the caterer If he would have sold
them one good meal.
The soldiers also remarked that they
had a great deal of respect for the gas
oline stove, as they imagined that 1t
took pity on them and decided to do
what had not been done by others-give
the men one good elbow out" fearing
that it would be the only one of the
day.
The soldiers are soldiers no longer,
but they did not receive their discharge
papers, which were placed in the keep
ing of the captains of the different
companies, and will be given to the
men when the paymaster visits the
rendezvous of the several companies of
the regiment.
After each company was mustered
out, Lieutenant Oliver Edwards, u. S
A., assistant mastering officer, adj
dressed the men and told them that the
paymaster would leave Boston in about
three days and would probably make
Worcester his first stop, and it was fig
ured out by the men that he would
arrive in this city Monday
The government had made no ar
rangements to send the out of town
troops to their homes, and the state
took pity on its soldiers and furnished
transportation.
The mastering out ceremony COM
menced shortly after II o'clock, and it
was nearly o'clock before it was fin
ished. The commissioned officers of
the companies were mustered out with
their men The coloners staff was TAX
en- in their military rank and ex-
cused from further duty, without fur
ther pay. The colonel of the regi-
ment. Embury B. Clark, was the
had a. commander up to the time the
last man of M company stepped over
the mastering out line.
Col. Clark shook the hands of many
sick soldiers, who showed their illness
in their faces, at the door of the drill
shed in the armory, and told them in
a few good-natured remarks how glad
he was to see them and how glad he
felt that they looked as If they would
be able, some day, to fight in another
battle il they We're needed by their
country.
No one forgot yesterday the faces
that We're missing in the ranks. as the
men marched through the streets. The
relatives OF the dead heroes stood on
the sidewalks and shed many silent
tears Twelve companies of the Sec
ond regiment marched through Spring
fields streets. But $50 boys We're miss
ing from the ranks One hundred of
that number were mustered out by the
government above, and some of them
lie beneath the soft sunlight of the
southern skies. Willie others are buried
where loving hands can place sweet
flowers Ger their graves and weep for
the lost ones 10 whom the muster-out
summons came so swiftly.
1,hnsa mon 1.-hn 1Nnrs- not 1AaI.1anittall