The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-07
ENGINEERS PUT TO WORK.
WILL BUILD CAUSEMAY BE-
TWEEN THE TWO CAMPS.

gineers Have Charge of This
WOrk-COmplaints of Attacks Tn
on COIOred Men and Attempted As
sauIts ON COIored Nomenclature
Officers Say All Such Cnses VIII he
Severely Dealt WIth-POstofHce Is
suing Mony Money Orders-Rine
Practice at AVondaIc.
Col. Willard Young of the Second Vol
unteer Regiment of Engineers has arrived
in the city, and is with the battalion of
that regiment, which was brought to sa-
vannah by the transport Michigan.
In accordance with Instructions from
Maj Gen. Keifer and Maj. Gen. Greene
a site for a causeway and bridge connect
ing the camps of the First and Second di-
visions has been selected and laid out by
Col. Young and the engineers. and the
work of construction viii be done by the
engineers of this battalion. The Casey
canal viii be bridged and the camps of
the two divisions connected by a GOOD
road
Lieut.. Col. Curtis Guild. Jr,, has con-
cluded satisfactory arrangements with the
directors of the Skidaway Shell Rroad
Company, ana hereafter no soldiers viii
be charged toll, whether he is on a army
wagon, in a hack or on a bicycle.
Some OF the colored population living
in the neighborhood of the camps and
others who go out in that direction is ex-
periencing some trouble, similar to that
experienced by the colored peo-
pie near Miami when the corps was
stationed there Some of the soldiers. it Is
said, have been robbing defenseless colored
men. some of them about 90 years old. and
relieving them. of the spare change in their
pockets. Others have broken into houses
and attempted assaults on colored women
IN the outskirts of the city not far from.
the camps. The officers say that such sol
diers need expect 10 mercy from them if
they suffer from dog bites or buckshot.
They say the soldiers who are inclined 10
commit such crimes may as well take
warning that they win be dealt with ac-
cordlng TO law If caught. Criminal assaults
on women are punishable by death or such
punishment as a court martial NAV decide
upon, and crimes against property are
punishable by double sentence one from
a civi court and another from a court
martial
The belief is that there are very few
soldiers in the corps concerned in such
crimes as these, but several cases have
been brought to the attention Of the au-
thorities and are being Investigated. one
colored man living in the ueighborhood
of one of the camps has had forty chick
J. .-.1
property in similar manner.
As a RUE the soldiers and officers have
found Savannah, most agreeable IN
speaking of extordonate charges they say
they have met with nothing. here sucn
as they ran up against in Jacksonville.
particularly among the merchants and
restaurants. The first things they had
to kick against were The 10-cent street
car fares and the toll road charges which
have been done away with fol- some time,
and the only remaining complaint is with
regard tocthe hackIllea who charge rs cepts
to make the trip 40 either of the camps
The officers and soldiers who ride think
fhis is rather an extortionate rate QUE
side the city however, the hackmen prac-
tically have the privilege Of charging their
own rates
Out of the three regiments which were
paid off on Friday the postoffice got more
IMAM AOU money oIAfIS. lnGIe were az
money orders issued altogether by Mr.
Harry Rawls the day following and the
forty will about cover the city business.
There were soldiers around the postoffice
after orders all day. They sent away
anywhere from S. to $25, and some of the
orders were considerably larger The
chances are that for The next week or ten
days the money order and registry de-
partments will be about the busiest place
in the city. Mr.. Rawls is an able and
efficient clerk, and the soldier boys are go
ing to give him a good test on the line of
rapidity.
The postofice department is handling
the soldiers mail in good shape. So far
out of the thousands of letters received
for the 12,00o men in the corps there are
only about 100 letters which have not been
delivered and these are for men which
the carriers have not been abe to locate
on account of improper addresses or some
thing of that kind
Tomorrow the First Division will finish
its work on the rifle range for the present,
and the day following the men Of the
Second Division will begin to put in their
practice The men go to the Avondaie
range at the rate Of six companies day,
and each man fires ten shots. The work
is all done Under the direction of Capt.
Guessaz, inspector Of rife practice for The
corps. If the corps remains in Savannah
long enough all of the men will be given
a second chance at the targets.