Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-08-13
Bic MEN3fS. LITTEE MEN

S'O ~ ~ -. -
when the war is all over and the army
and navy medical departments get down to
the work of gathering and comparing sta>
tisties on fatalities caused by disease and
wounds" said a. naval surgeon of great
experience, who iss NOW in Washington on
furiough, II am confident It will be found
that the SMALL slight men who have been
through the campaigns, both by field and
flood, win be found to have been the best
endurers OF hafdships. This is fact that
T. have often observed. The big, hard
muscled, weH-defeloped. men go to pieces
Under severe hafdsffip and succumb much
quicker TO epid disease as well as to
the ordinary diseases Of life than do the.
small. frall-fo2t ans chaps. OF course no
really fratl menfget into the army or navy,
but the service has always been filed with
plenty of men under ordinary size, whose
appearance with their clothes on causes
men not familiar with the subject to won
der now they ever passed the physieai ex-
These understood. but perfectly sound, men,
both in tn array aud navy. are the best
for hard service. They. may not be able TO
of trouble and worrfnlent and genuine
hardships theyr are fncomparably bette
than the big fellows, who look as If they
/ might be able to outlast any three OF the
practice marches by naval landing parties
the little fellows have Invariably the best
OF the argument when it comSe> to heavy,
double-time work under hot, tropical suns.
I've seen huge sailors and marines drop
out of line In sets OF tours under such cir
cumstances, while the small, trig blue
jackets and sea soldiers stand TO the game
through everything and very rarely fall to
the rear. Army surgeons tell me, too, that
in rough campaigning in the west the small
er men have invariably shown themselves
TO be better resisters OF hardship than the
big fellows They say that among the dough-
boys, OF infantryn1en, when a big practice
march is in progress the men of big stat
ure and flesh and muscle are always among
for transportation in commissary and quar-
termaster wagons, while the small men
trudge on doggedly.
City Recruits With Endurance.
Another thing the army surgeons tell
me that might seem peculiar to those who
haven't been in any military service is that
the soldiers recruited from the cities are
invariably better endurers of hard cam
patgning that the soldiers recruited from
the country districts. It might naturally
be thought that countrymen. used to open
air work and hopping over furrowed fields,
would prove themselves away ahead of the
city lads when 1t came to keeping in line
on forty-mile-a-day marches over western
country. but the army surgeons say that
the countrymen are the first to complain of
sore feet and to cast their eyes longingly
upon the wagons and ambulances at the
rear I'd rather have command of q
company of Bowery boys and city wharf
rats any time said one of the army sur
geons to me not long ago. than ftout of
big, raw lads just off the farm. If the
country boys go sore they don't appear to
have the nerve to keep their heads closed
about it and wait for their soreness to pass
Off, but they break for the sick report
right away. The city lads get their teeth
down hard and grin and bear it.
Aboard Naval Vessels,
Aboard ship In tho navy I've noticed ever
since first went tossea, which was a mat
ter of nearly thirtyayears ago. that when
big bluejacket sets down sick in the sick
bay and smaller man is taken with the
same trouble that ais the big man the
smaller chap invariably becomes GONZALES
cent long before the big man begins to
mend
''Iri cases Ships I have been attached
to have become AFFLICTED with epidemics and
half ships company2have gone down I've
observed that the chances of the small
men recovering Have always been almost
twice great abs the. chances Of the big
men This is particularly true of the fevers
that hit ships companies In tro pioai waters.
large, heavy maniis twice as liable to
get the fever knDwitr tcoast fever for
example, as small man, and he is.,twice
as 1iabs to die from ii, too. For example.
about fifteen years ago the oid-navy wind
her way UP the -anast iofs Central America
when pretty Bealffy adj hands got the coast
feverI The big men .Wtra the first te get
into the sick bay, but dha disease WAS OF a
peculiral yrYiolent character on that occasion
and within q week after the disease came
oven 1tlle side about three-quarters of the
ships company, fore and Aft. boys and
men, were on the fiat of their backs.fIT!re
hrst men to die were the huge, knotty-
muscled firemen. We lost half a dozen of
them. and then the big. down-east deck
hands--men that could mania ndle a barrel
of houc as easily as a washerwoman mar
ipulates flatiron-began to go. Very few
of the small men died, although nearly, AL
ty-seVen coal passers aboard eight were
huge men and the remaining nineteen were
OF ordinary size or under the ordinary size
Seven of the big coal passers had to be
buried at sea, and not n man of the small
lot went over the. side with the shot tied
to his feet. Among the officers of the navy.
too. the same line of argument holds good.
The small, trim officers of the navy are
not in conference. with the surgeon one
half as often the big men-the foot ball
players at Annapolis. There has been a
good deal of talk lately about the over
worked engineer officers of the navy led
up TO by the fact that SO many of them,
even before the war broke out had to be
invaded. Out of curiosity, l dug into the
records little while ago and / discovered
that only about ten per cent Of the really
understood engineer officers had been pass
ed upon by medical boards of survey while
good seventy per cent of the engineers
notable for their size had suffered more or
less from the sickness brought on by over
work. Another significant fact is that
most of the big men who went on the
1.-THE hardshtps began. while the small men
nearly all were alive and kicking at the
rescue."'.