El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-06-09

MA oks hS ooA gu VI SAs - ~ $4,000
is Normally twelve hundred men. AS
q matter of fact, the average number
is less than six hundred. Who is res
pOnsible? Every day raw recruits are
dumped down here out of an incoming
train, and they are taken out into the
deep sand, and made to move their
legs up and down until exhausted ma
ture cries out for rest. Drill serReants
and recruits soon lose their taste for
cslisthenics in the roasting pine bar
rens Of Tampa. The ordinary man
asks why were not these recruits lick
ed into shape up in the cool North and
sent down properly clothed and armed.
Who 10 responsible? If the invasion
should take place tomorrow, half tho
army would be in civilian dress, raw re-
cruits who had probably never before
had . gun in their hands.
Tampa is seaport town, and there.
fore one might have expected that
our superheated troops would have
been 30 located a. to enjoy . salt
water bath at least once day. One
or two regiments near Porto Tampa
have managed to locate near the beach,
but the bulk Of tho troops are so far
from the water that the journey to and
fro robs them of any benefit they
might derive from q swim. In paren-
thesis, let me explain that the fine
OueVy oonu v! Ao"Pa - AWPA %
with charcoal dust, owing, no doubt,
to the pine barrens of this neighbor-
hood having boon burned over.
Thus our men in camp per-
spire streaks of black down their faces
and necks. The government provides
them no lighthouses, not even . trough
1t which they may take baths by in
stAlments. So far the weather has
been oppressively hot and dry. It will
Ia q -,ir~c1~ VfP A;.ao.> dn a. not hroa y
out when the rains begin.
These matters are obvious even to
the layman. They are not necessitsted
by the present state of war. While
Uncle Sans boys are parching for
fresh. food and vegetables. train-loads
are leaving Florida filed with sue
culent fruit for Northern
markets.
The great need At present, to pre-
vent needless suffering. amongst our
men, 10 . proper organization of the
commissary Departments ana staff gen-
orally Tho army 10 numbered up with
civilian staff-officers whose duty it il to
see that our men are properly located
and taken care of. The colonies and
captains of the individual regiments
are powerless in this matter; they can
but obey the orders Of their superiors
on the staff.
In European armies staff-of11cers are
selected from the most highly educat-
ed of the army. They have to pass
special examinations in order to test
ties of the most important kind; and of
all important duties, the German Of
ficer regards the care of the mems
health as tho most important. When
o German regiment marches to war,
the staff officer goes ahead to lay out
q proper camping ground, to provide
wood and water, and in other respects
to make the regiment about to arrive
"a comfortable as possible. When the
weary men arrive they have but to
cook their supper and curl up to sleep.
The United States troops who arrive
in Tampa are dumped out 1t q railway
siding like 20 many emigrants. No
stah-officer prepares anything in ad-
vance for them. Regiments 90 of in
any direction that suits them, looking
for the nearest place where they may
cook their pork and beans.
I an not Q pessimist. I have been
camping with regulars, living their
life, eating their food, and noting
their courage and discipline under fire.
In all tho armies of Europe there are
those of the United States infantry,
and nowhere have I known officers
who commanded more cheerfully the
respect and obedience of their men.
On the other hand, in no army of
Europe, not even in Spain, have
seen troops 90 badly treated through
the incompetency of staff officers, who
today are strutting about in new uni
forms, when they ought to be whistled
out of camp 40 frauds.
The war authorities hove crowded
tnop0thnps In nd al =
thousand men on the plausible pretext
that in big camp of this kind the
troops could be exercised in large boz
dies, and the superior officers thus get
familiar with brigade and divisional
formation. We must bear in mind
that most of our troops have never
since the civil war been brought to-
gether in larger bodies than few COM
panies sta time. Many colonies of regi-
ments have never until this war seen
all their men together on q par ade-
ground. Brigadier-gensrals have
been created who have never seen the
regiments that are to constitute their
brigade. We have for this war laid
out . complicated scheme of OrRaniza-
ton, and intrusted the working of it in
most instances to men who scarcely
know the manual of arms.
Lot us tell the truth ,'disagreesble as
1t 10. We are strong enough to bear it,
and to profit by it.
While the nation has been patriot
ically voting men and money for this
Of alleged philanthropy,
promotions have not been made
wholly from deserving officers whose
lives have been spent in active mill
tary work, but from the ranks of poll
ticians, who may have had a smatter-
ing OF militia drill. or may have worn
. uniform forty years ago.
Today, thirty days after the declara-
ton OF war, there has not been held at
Tampa single military field exercise
likely to be of service to generals of
brigade or division, let alone An army
corps. The main reason is, no doubt,
that there are no bri9adiers or major
generals in Tampa who would know
how to 60 to work in the matter.
sisrr. Madre Line to the Yaqui Gold Fields
Take the r. G., 8. M. & p.
Ry for Casas Grandes, San Buena-
bentura, and the Yaqui gold fields
Trains leave Ciudad Juarez Mondays,
and Fridays At $40 Q. m.