The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-09-26

ger he collapsed. / told you felt sure
he was i'll. you remember.
Well we got him home, and he faint
ed four times-though not such a faint
as the flrst-before we could get him
into bed There he has been ever since,
and the doctor fears it will be weeks
before he can get up. The mems vital
ity has gone. They are wrecks And
there was no finer. healthier young fell
low on earth than Jack four months
ago.
Captain-of Jacks company came
up just as Jack tainted.
That's nothing" he said; "he isn't
sick; it's just the excitement He's
perfectly we'll
l looked at him He was stout and
rosy healthy, comfortably buttoned up
in a new uniform. Around him stood
a group of pale sick fellows, dirty. un-
shaven, hOllow-eyed and terribly thin
his men.
I'VE suffered awfully," he remarked
smiling at me-
Yes, the men have" I answered, and
turned my back on him.
He walked off; but one of the men
came up and told me not to make the
brute angry, or he would find some
way to keep Jack back. And he will
take it out on us. anyway" he added.
1 can tell you that frightened me,
and l was polite enough after that, and
left him in a beaming humor. He
looked over what we had brought, and
said he thought he'd take a water
melon we had there, and also box or
small cakes. These he put under his
arm Afterwards one of the boys
came and said he had requisitioned
most of the towels and handkerchiefs
for himself, saying they We're too good
for the men.
| left him with mamma, who could
keep up the game. 4 was afraid j
should say something true if l staid
longer. He wanted me to come up to
his tent, but l wouldn't have entered
it for anything on earth, Mamma
went, and took the paper for him to
sign, so that Jack could go. He had
a beautiful big tent, board floor nice
cot, with all the trimmings, and at
least four blankets, mamma said. Jack
lay on the bare ground, as he had Civ
en- his blanket to his terminate, who
was sicker than he, and had lost his
in Cuba. The boys had their winter
uniforms all during the campaign
there, and were given their present
thin ones on the boat. SO they near
cool place.
Jack and some other men spent Sat
urday morning-the day they got out
of the detention camp-in taking the
board floors Of the officers up a hill
and back again. You can imagine how
weak Jack was and the rest weren't
very much better. They were detailed
to lug the sections of floor, which are
very heavy, up this hill and make the
platforms. They finished this, and
then received the order to take them
back again; that the officers weren't
satisfied with that kind. They got
them back, and Jack said he went to
his tent and fell into it exhausted In
about ten minutes came theeOrder for
the detail to fall in and bring those
tent floors back up the hill again.
This was the morning.
Later.-The doctor tells us that if
we had not brought Jack back the day
we did, we would probably never have
brought him home at all. And to
think that there are hundreds and
hundreds as badly off as Jack and who
cannot get off. They are afraid to
muster out the regiments who have
been through that Cuban campaign.
They are afraid of what the boys are
going to say. The horror of some of
the men for their officers and the camp
amounts almost to mania. Jack says
that after the fighting, when they had
been long time without food the
quartermaster at last gave out some
hardtack, but very little, so that the
famished men were still frantic for
more food. There was a lot of hard
tack left-they got nothing else-and
the men went back and asked for more.
The quartermaster refused TO give
them any.
Go to the captain if you aren't sat
isfied-heIl settle You" he remarked
Jack, his terminate (the man who is
now dying) and some others went to
the captain This was his reply:
You clear out Of here -- -- --
quick. If I hear any more of this talk
I'll put you all on little hardtack
and water. and nothing else" SO
they kept on starving
Later have been off tending to
Jack. He tainted again His weak
ness is something terrifying
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