Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-11-26
BEFORE The FIGHT.

BEFORE The FIGHT.
How the American Soldiers Longed For a
Chew of Tobacco.
Washington Star.
"It has struck me right along that
the newspapers have been making a
terrific hullabaloo over the way things
were run down in Cuba, Puerto Rico
and in the American camps, with very
little reliable information upon which
to base their charges" said an officer
of the Twenty-fourth infantry, Zone of
the Negro regiments), who was struck
by three Mauser bullets-badly wound
ed by one of them-and piece of shell
in the fight at San Juan. 81 didn't
see much to complain about under the
circumstances down in Cuba, and l
had pretty fair chance to see what
was going on. The only genuine criti-
cism, in fact, that have to make, re-
fers to the scarcity of tobacco among
the troops down there. Tobacco was at
premium during the greater portion
of our stay in Cuba, and the soldiers
who were deprived of it would very
willingly have paid for it at the price
of it's weight in gold. I don't think it
would be possible to overestimate the
value of tobacco to troops undergoing
hard campaign. tits bread and meat
and drink to q soldier enduring the
hardships of war. 1t is at once stim-
ulant and a tonic, and its value in al
laying hunger is wellknown to expert
enced commanders. Queer as it may
seem, chewing tobacco also allays
thirst. I know this, because I've tried
it. Another point with reference to the
chewing of tobacco by soldiers in a
campaign is that all of the old-timers
swallow the juice of the weed. They
allow that it is apt to make fellows not
used to handling it in that way bit
sick at first; but they say that the
stimulating effect of the plant is lost
if the juice is expectorated.
II neverhad better illustration of
the value of tobacco to men who had
long been hankering for it than on the
day of the San Juan fight. The black
soldiers of my outfit of the Twenty
fourth had been entirely tobaccoless
almost from the time we landed in
Cuba, and it was the hardest kind of
deprivation upon men who had been
used for years to consuming the weed
| in all it forms. The men missed to.
bacco particularly after meals. After
they got outside of their coffee they
would get together and talk longingly
of tobacco, and / could just see their
teeth leaking for it, but there wasn't
a quarter Of an ounce to be had. |
don't hesitate to say that the men OF
my company weren't quite the same
without tobacco, and number Of them
frankly said that they'd rather be
without grub than to 60 tobaccoless.
"On the morning of the San Juan
scrap came into the proud possession
of 1-pound plug of chewing tobacco.
I'm not going to incriminate myself
by stating how I happened to get the
plug; but l got it all the same. A
short time before it came our turn to
20 into the action, I produced the plug
and handed it to the big, black top
sergeant of my company. You ought
to have seen his eyes stick out when he
caught sight of the plug.
"Just pass it down the line,' I told
him, 'and let each of the boys take a
nibble of it,
1.-THE sergeant took bite off the
plug himself, and then handed it to the
first duty sergeant. The whole COM
pany was ION to- the presence of the
plug of tobacco in the outfit by this
time, and they set up a cheer. They
| just forgot all about the impending
fight, they were so tickled over the
sight of the tobacco. The plug went
down the line, every man taking off a
bite, and then it started up the line
and towards me again. 1t certainly
did dwindle in size, that plug of tobac.
co. By the time it got into the hands
of the top sergeant it was just the size
of one good chew, which the men had,
by careful calculation, saved for ME,
the loot'nant.' Did 1 take it? Wei,
1 guess yes, and swallowed every bit
of the juice, like all the rest of the
men. And I can tell you it tasted
good. The men threw their shoulders
back under the stimulus of the tobac-
co, and became perky and sassy and
tightly all through and I suppose you
remember what the Twenty-fourth did
in the San Juan fght9 I had the
chew in my mouth, enjoying it hugely,
when the last of the three Mausers
that plugged me got me in the hips,
paralyzing me from the waist down
for a couple of months afterward, and,
as I didn't become unconscious, l en-
joyed that chew even after was hit"