The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-08-31
SHAMEFUL STORY OF THE CAMPS

Nothing in recent times has SO deeply
stirred the people of America as the reve-
lations Of laundering mismanagement and
criminal neglect to which are due the need
less loss Of life among our boys in the camps.
Suffered to starve In the midst Of plenty;
sick and worn with fever, and left to die
for want of shelter and nursing and medi-
cines, more lives Of our young men have
been sacrificed than went down before the
bullets of the Spa niards 1t is an awful tale
that is told of the horrors Of the camps,
both east and west. We see 1t under our
own eyes here at Camp Merritt. We hear
It from day to day as the sorrowful and
shameful news comes from Montauk and
Wikofr and Alger, or in the story of the
funeral transports freighted with perishing
soldiers from the fever camps Of Santiago.
The words Of General Barnes, addressing
the Republican state convention at Sacra-
mento last week, when he told the story OF
the death of one Of our own boys at Camp
Merritt:
I heard Of one the other day-of gentle,
lovely boy-father and mothers only trust
and hope-who enlisted and was sent to
sleep upon damp sand; drilled in the day.
time until the Precipitation ran from ev-
cry pore, and then turned loose without a
Icoat to SILVER In the cutting fog Of the af-
ternoon wind. And at last came disease,
and he lay sleeping for the hour of his
death, and beside him the captain Of his
company, the chaplain of his regiment and
the surgeon Of the regiment, and in this
wind-swept camp, where the night winds
fiiokered the light of the candle and the
torch. that young soul ebbed out, the VIC
tim of Encouragement and inattention.
HE will live, perhaps, till taps come" said
the captain. HE will not" said the sur
geon."
But ne did! and when the last melancholy
note Of the soldiers goodbye f1oated over
the camp, and as 1t ceased, the boys breast
gave one last heave, the convulsion OF
death ran through his limbs his eyes closed
and as the breath went out OF him the
sentry halted in front Of the tent, brought
his piece to port and said: Ten o'clock
and all is WELL"
So II was, "all well!" but 1t shall never be
well until the American government shall
have learned that the life of a single SOL
dier Is worth as much as the life of the ma
| ton. Never shall we do our duty until
when we have call for men, we shall send
them out equipped and ready Tor the dis.
charge of the great duties of war. and not
keep them imprisoned in such sinks Of mis-
erv and iniuulty as that which lay upon the
| edges of San Francisco. Sickness, misery.
horror, has reigned, and there on one range
| of the cemetery of the Preside are 23(
| graves of American boys-murdered before
| the battle by neglect and want Of proper
attention.
The whole country is indignant. angry
horror-stricken. The demand that the re-
sponsiblity shall be fxed is imperative
Even in the darkest hours Of the civil wal
nothing so bad in its way was known. 1t Il
a serious and terrible lesson that the Ameri-
can people must take to themselves, and
not forget that to intrust the lives of their
children to Incompetent guardians, selected
for political reasons, is black crime, and
| for that the criminal must be made to an
sver.-San Francisco Examiner.