The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, 1898-05-07
hat War Means.

anxious to go to wal with the idea of
| whipping the Spanish in. a few weeks
it may be well to give them the views
of those who have had long experience
in the business. Our friend George w.
Caldwell, wa a volunteer, from this
parish in Co. Ell. 9th Louisiana Volun-
teer and served under jackson ond Lee
in Virginia throughout the war. When
shown these pertinent observations of
Gen. Hemphill Of South Carolina, he
unhesitatingly endorsed them as being
correct in every particular:
When the war is on there will be
something more than aress p~arades.
You will have to march all day through
the dust. Your knapsack will get
heavier every step you take and SO will
your gun. Your shoulder will feel as
if the gun was cutting into it, and your
cartridge box will hang around your
waist with the same discomfort. A
pain will start between your shoulders
and every joint of your backbone will
feel as if it would d~isconnect and drop
out. Your ankle will feel as if a gravel
had found a place in the socket. The
sweat will run down your forehead and
into your eyes singing like salt water.
When the days march is over it is, by
no means certain that You will get a
chance to rest. You may be sent on
picket or detailed to go to the slaugh.
ter pen to kill a beef. When you get
the beef killed you will then have to
shoulder a part Of the warm carcass
and stagger under it to the camp The
bloody water and grease will ooze out
and drip down your back and on your
clothes leaving spots for flies TO on
gregate about for several days. 1t
may be that the commissary wagons
will not ONE up and you will not have
bread to eat with your meat or you
will miss your ration of salt. Again
you will have your beef. boiled all right
and put it in your hayersack when you
began the march but in The long sum-
mer days it gets sour and when you
take it out at night for your meal you
will find it alive with maggots and you
will have to throw it away. You will
be compelled however to eat your
bread on which this beef has been
dripping all day or you will have moth
ing to eat.
"When the work warns up you will
have no tent and you will be fortunate
if you have an oil cloth and blanket
and with such surroundings you will
have ten times as hard work to do as
you ever did before and at the same
time stand a chance of being killed by
some bloody Spaniard. And ten TO one
your name will be spelled wrong in the
newspaper which gives III account of
your being killed and somebody else
will get the credit of dying for his
country. These are a few Of discom-
that IN infantry soldier may eA-
pecU. We have not time to even men
ton the multitude of other things that
will test the constancy, pluck and en-
durance of the man who stands in the
ranks of the infantry. Neither will the
who joins the cavalry have a pic
mic for he will not only have to take
care of himself but of his horse also.
aFinally all the soldiers, artillery,
cayalary and infantry, in a few months
will be crawling alive with body lice"
The cartoon work of the May num- !,
Der of The New Time is 0 than us
nally attractive. A half-tone shows
The wreck of the Maine by moonlight,
with the spirits of Grant and Jackson
lowering over it, In the corner is the
figure Of Mark Hanna, with his famous
declaration, "There amt going to be
no war; Another cartoon shows
with her eyes blinded by
,ape from the stock ticker. A fine
portrait of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee in full
inform makes an attractive frontis-
piece. The magazine is published by