The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-20
THE REGULARS IN CAMP.
The Largest Body of Regular Army
Troops Since the Civil War.

Even Mr.. Remington himself, who has
seen the regular army in many aspects,
never saw so many regulars. officers and
men, together, as we have here now When,
since the civil war or during it, have eleven
regiments of regular infantry been en-
camped together? The officers themselves
say that 1t is the greatest reunion they
have ever had. They did not really know
what they were like themselves. The reg
ular army has consisted of only nominally
related fragments for so many years that
it hardly knows what to make of itself
when these fragments are collected into
respectable mass. The young officers are in
particular very enthusiastic over the affair,
and so evidently interested In the proceed
ings that they have very little of the air
to the regular army. Nor have they any
thing whatever of the ''hauteur' which In
foreign countries is supposed to enfold the
ot1cer of standing army. OF course the
generals in command cannot at such time
as this hold themselves open to be hail
fellow-well-met with everyone who comes
would like to. The soldiers certainly are
They are the best fellows that anyone ever
saw. Their eyes on the street invite con-
versation. Sometimes they chaff people a
little, but 1T is -take-everything Is
good natured.
On the street cars, which in Tampa go as
the do in Boston, with overhead trolley
wires, considerations of rank in great part
disappear Private soldiers sit the same
seats with colonies: They salute the colonies
and the colonies salute them. They talk and
laugh over the officers heads: the officers
smile and all goes democratically and mer-
rily. confess to establishment at the char
acter and composition of the regular army
An English correspondent here who has
seen all the armies of Europe tells me that
these private soldiers are more intelligent
than the officers of the Spanish army. They
seem to be Americans, though thousands
of them have Irish names, and quite often
a soldier speaks with a German accent.
met a handsome young soldier-really a
regular Apollo Belvidere of a FELLOW mo
doubt YOU can imagine the Apollo Belvi-
dere in SLOUGH hat dark blue shirt, light
blue trousers, brogans and brown canvas
leggings)-who said he was from Boston
and Lowell. and he very happy when
told him was from Boston His name was
an Irish one of course, and he was a gen.
tleman. If he was a common soldier He
had a Cuban flag on his hat. | noticed by
to-day a very large Cuban flag floating from
a pole improvised by cutting the branches
off a tree. And yet the poor Cuban regi-
ment here is treated with contempt.
This same Sixth Regiment of Infantry, by
the way, is a wonder. Every regiment of
the, regular army has its special character
boys of the army. Their camp is always in
an uproar. They have the best baseball
players, the best singers, the best shouters'
vas burned up-one of the mishaps of the
mobilizatiOn-and had to go into shelter
tents. This afternoon they were putting up
big new tents Just received. Their band
playing. and they were swarming like
electrified ants over the whole camp. In
the boys yelled like Indians, or like the
barking of prairie wolves-"Yow! Vow!
Yow!" all over the camp The cooks yelled
and sang as they stirred great kettlefuls of
cooking potatoes. The tents went up one
after another. The amateur photographers
who swarm in the camps-there are said to
be ninety newspaper correspondents here,
and nearly every one of them has camera
of some kind-came around, and the boys
dropped their work and hocked about.
the collar and made to stand for his pic
ture. while he put on an expression worthy
Of the rogues gallery, and all the crowd
yelled with delight. Hooray, boys! Never
mind the pouring sun. nor the ninety and
more degrees in the shade, nor the vacci-
mated arms, nor anything else It is all fun;
everybodys going to Cuba to fight for his
country; yesterday was pay day and every
body ought to be happy!
The Thirteenth Regiment is more dign-
fed There is about it a flavor of Govern
or's island, New York. whence a good part
of it came. The camp adjoins the Sixth.
There was no hilarity when / was in it's
camp this afternoon. The trumpeter of the
Thirteenth admits that he isn't in it, with
the trumpeter of the Sixth. At night. when
all is quiet. the trumpeters of the regiments
call from one to another, and if you remain
in the camp you can tell what regiment each
trumpeter belongs to by the way he sounds:
No trumpeter can put so much "cussedness'
into his call as the trumpeter of the Sixth.
But with all this flavor the Sixth is a sober,
wel-balanced regiment there are no better
boys in the army Sober? About five thou
sand soldiers were paid off yesterday. and
only four of them were in the guardhouse
to-day, and those four had done nothing
bad.
like the colored regiments, but they are
having a hard row TO hoe here. They are
conscious that a difference is made be-
tween them ard the white soldiers. ard
they do not think this is fair. They say
they are going to fight for their country,
and fight Just as hard as any white men
will and are willing to die just as freely,
and they want - be treated just the same
as white soldiers are. But that will never
be in a Southern town. Even tho 9rogshops
shut their doors against them-that is, the
white grogShops do. Here and there in
Tampa one sees the sigE, ''Colored Bar
and it is only there that the negro defender
Of his country can buy q drink. After he
has become somewhat iri,amed with such
liquor as ne obtains here 1T is little wonder
that when ioined Ly several of his fellows.
he attempts TO forcc an entrance TO
white bar" and then an ARRAY is likely TO
follow, and the whole black sodiery, which
really contains very few bad men, gains
bad reputation AS a result of the ARRAYS
which have taken place the black soldiers
are kept very closely TO the camps. One
seldom sees any of them or the streets Just
now The Bible does not say that Ham
shall not drink in the rumshops of Japheth
but the prohibition is nevertheless piously
enforced in Tampa Perhaps sometimes the
colored soldier is unduly afraid that he viii
be Inundated, and is as a result unduiy
self-assertive. / have seen some signs Of
that And yet as have said, he has hard
row to hoe
DSsIxx Por tho