The herald., 1898-09-04
THE SOLDIERS SIDE.
Stupidity Shown Montauk in Trying Organize Camp by
Red Tape and Telegraph While Sick Heroes
Suffer Untold Hardships.

fierce heat, hot and and feverish from
his wounds and the malaria or typhoid
in his blood. and he is battered. bruised.
sore alike In body and spirit. This.
and fifteen dollars and sixty cents a
month, is his reward for risking his
life to fight the battles of his country.
In no country have victorious SOL
diers returned to such a home coming;
our men have been literally showed
around like cattle, and they know 1t.
At Montauk Point the excuse that
the camp was not ready seems to sat
isfy the department having control OF
the work there. But 1t does not sat-
isfy the soldier. He is asking himself
why 1t was not ready. Having gone
through the experience himself, he rec
ognized the supreme brutality of the
order that was issued to hold the
north-bound troops on the trains whar-
ever they might chance to be, packed
in as they We're like cattle, and more
often than not without adequate medi-
cal supplies for the sick Of their num-
ber, while the government made and
unmade it's mind, pitched tents in
wrong Places and then tore them down
for re-erection elsewhere. and played
tHe ueuCc 6eucIdiiy WAlA COiAAAoA-
sense.
If you talk with the soldier you will
find he is wondering why the Long
Island Railroad has the call on camps
He saw, even If no one else did, that
the road was incapable OF meeting the
sudden demand made upon it. This
was proven in the spring at Camp
Black, but that was an object lesson
the government did not see fit to heed
He cheerfully admits, however, that
the average foreman on the line has
seemed better prepared to meet the
emergency than have the high priced
incompetents in control Of the camp.
The former has to think straight or he
finds himself confronted by a situation,
not a theory, while the servant Of the
government who apparently was not
appointed to his place because Of any
particular fitness for it, and Is account
able to no one, can decline to be crit
ized." and may blunder around pretty
much as he likes. Thus, while the
camp was in process Of formation, the
railroad was able to build restaurants,
freight sheds, and rush the work on
water tanks, while the government was
not able to even pitch tents.
1t is to be hoped some one will be
called upon to explain just why Mon
tauk Point was selected for the camp.
1t is true, 1t is pretty and picturesque.
Notwithstanding that it is an absolutely
treeless expanse of sand hills, but aside
from it's beauty there was nothing to
recommend 1t. It was necessary to
build roads before either lumber or
tents could be moved to the site Of the
future camp. This was no ordinary
leveling of rough places: the very first
"fill" was some twenty feet deep and
several hundred yards long.
The first soldiers to arrive reached
camp, to find teams and laborero busy
through the thick mud, dragging their
camp kits after them, and gained the
hills beyond. where they threw them
selves down on the rain-soakei ground
to acquire more rheumatism, malaria
or typhoid, as the case might be. while
the road making went merrily on. Or
those who were on the sick list hung