The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-07-14
A WONDERFUL WAR.
strange Experiences VIII BE Related
by Our Soldiers of the Com
hict with Spain.

No aspect of our war with Spain is
stranger to the American people than
the sudden removing of tens of thou
sands of our regular and volunteer sol
diers to foreign lands. Some are pre-
pairing to go to Cuba, others to Puerto
Rico, and, stranger than all, thousands
are to be hurried to the Philippine is
lands, almost half way round the world
from our national capital, and 1000 or
5000 miles westward of San Francisco.
Probably no one will be more amazed,
and more permanently so, at this I'M
expected condition of affairs than the
soldier himself. Our regulars are a
matter-of-fact lot of fellows, who take
duty as il comes and goes, and never
allow themselves to be astonished, but
to be transported at short notice in the
cool northern springtime from the
north Atlantic coast, the great lakes,
from wind-swept prairies and passes,
the dry air of the west and the noun
tains to the extreme tip of Florida, with
its languid, murky breezes, would OF
itself be change enough to compel at
ifntj2n to the size of the country. To
send them to Cuba, whether the skies
be clear or overlooking with warm
rains, is to fill them with wonderment
To men accustomed to the neat villages
of the United States, to roads that are
at least distinct in outline, to forests
that at worst are passable, and to farms
that do not go entirely untitled, Cuba,
in its desolation, which the vegetable
luXuriance of the tropics cannot hide,
must be a series of wonders.
But the Philippines - imagination
staggers at the prospect of following
the volunteers in their journey toward
the furthest east by way of the furthest
west. sea voyage more than twice as
great as the width of the Atlantic, and
to be taken by thousands of men, not
one in twenty of whom ever saw the sea,
and thousands of whom never saw a
larger craft than a skiff or a canoe!
During the civil war a well-planned at
tack was for few moments in dagger
of coming to naught because the charg-
ing division, composed of men from the
interior states, suddenly saw before
them the Atlantic and a few ocean
steamers. They were good soldiers, but
no quantity of military discipline can
divest a man of ordinary curiosity. So
imagine the dazed condition of volun-
teers from the eastern portion of the
far west-or, indeed, from any part of
the country-being put ashore on the
Philippines, where climate, vegetation,
houses and people are so entirely differ
ent from anything the average Ameri-
can has ever seen-where the cattle are
only as big as goats and the horse is
almost curiosity! Americans think
they know human nature, for have they
not among them the representatives OF
all nations of Europe, some of Asia,
most parts of Africa, to say nothing OF
the American Indian and the American
tramp? But the Philippine natives are
unlike any of these in manners and
habits.
American armies have thus far been
the worlds most fertile sources of war
stories; the civil war added about 5000
titles to the nations list of books of
home origin, but when the American
soldier begins to embody in literature
his recollections of foreign experiences
incident to the present war all war story
records will be broken and the wonder
will not cease while the veterans remain
alive.-Collier's Weekly.