The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-10-04
OUR PORTO RICO TROOPS
Alarming Increase of Sickness
Among the Soldier Boys.
TIE REGULARS AND VOLUNTEERS

While in the Former the Sickness
Averages Only Ten Per Cent, in the
Sixteenth Pennsylvania Forty-six
Per Cent Are on the Sick List.
Ponce, Porto Rico. Oct. 4.-H is the
well grounded and almost unanimous
opinion of the medical staff of the
American army In Porto Rico that the
condition of the volunteer forces here
necessftates their removal north. Sick
ness Is increasing, and has been in
ereasing during the past four weeks
at an alarming rate. The sick report
shows over 2,700 in hospitals or in
quarters, out Of total command of
10000 men-that is, over rs per cent of
the troops are on the sick list. This,
however, does not mean that there Is
an effective strength of 1900 men. The
soldiers discharged from the hospitals
as fit for duty are in nine cases out OF
ten incapable of service, and If ordered
to duty are almost invariably back in
the hospital within q few days. The
medical officers have found that the
convalescents do not and seemingly
cannot recover their strength in this
climate, and for this reason they are
being sent north as rapidly as pos
sible, several hundred leaving every
week.
1t is significant fact that there Is a
wide disparity between the sickness in
the volunteers and regular commands. 4
In the two regular infantry regiments, /.
n,,A nvth hn tstn1y-
ness averages only about 10 per cent,
while in the volunteer regiments-the
Sixth Massachusetts, First New York
engineers. Fourth Ohio Third Illinois,
First Kentucky. Third Wisconsin and
Sixteenth Pennsylvania--it averages 81
per cent. In the last named two. where
the conditions are the wasst, the sick
report shows percentage Of 46 in the
Sixteenth Pennsylvania and 42 In the
Third Wisconsin. Over half of these
two regiments, which, with the First
Kentucky, comprise General Ernsts
brigade, are unfit for duty, and week
ago, when General Ernst moved his
headquarters up to Aibonito, on the
summit of the mountain range, 1t was
found that it would be impossible for
the brigade to follow. The command is
prostrate where it Is.
Undoubtedly the wide disparity T.
tween the percentage of sickness in the
volunteers and regular organizations is
largely due to the fact that the former
are better able to care for themselves.
Most of them are veterans who UNDER
stand the rules of health in camp, and
their officers from the very outset have
orf with ha mi
tary regulations so necessary for the
preservation of health. But more than
that, the regulars are making soldering
a business. They did not enlist for the
war, but for five years, and they look
upon their assignment for service in |
Porto Rico philosophically. and SO !
make the best of the situation.
The volunteers, on the other hand, en- |
listed for two years, but with the al !
most universal expectation that they |
would be mustered out when the war |
closed. Almost to man they desire to |
go home, and ever since the protocol
was signed they have lived in the daily
hope of being recalled. For days they |
talked of nothing else. Homesickness
depressed their spirits and made them
easy victims of the malarial climatic
conditions. 1t is said that some Of them
who did not fall sick naturally, actual
ly exposed themselves to the wet or
ate freely of tropical fruits, despite the
regulations, that they might become ill
and be sent home. Some. 1t Is alleged,
even feigned sickness, and quite a
number of these succeeded in their de-
signs
The other day a number Of men from
one of the regiments who had been or
dered home as convalescents came into
Ponce ahead of their wagon train, sing
prospect of their release Some were
college athletes. They appeared to be
more capable of service than hundreds
of the soldiers who remained. and one
of the regular army officers in Ponce,
upon looking them over, suggested
ironically that they should stop at New
York on their way home and pick up
a few prizes for throwing the hammer,
putting the shot, ETC., at the Caledonian
games.
The worst feature of the situation ia
the steady increase in the number of
typhoid cases, which reaches over 400
For a time 1t appeared probable that
the typhoid fever in the army. most of
which is alleged to have come from
Camp Thomas and Camp Alger, origi-
nally, would be stamped out, but re-
Gently new cases began to appear at
an alarming rate. Major Snowden and
his associates do not believe that there
Is new source of contagion, but rather
hat the cases are due to infection from
the old cases.
A few days ago the whole city of
Ponce narrowly escaped being utterly
by a typhoid epidemic.
Some of the men Of the First Kentucky,
who are camped near the aqueduct
which carries the water supply of the
city, in order to secure good water
close at hand careessly and thought
essly tapped the acqueduct. They !
broke through the masonry and for a
v hole day We're hoisting water in
buckets from the acqueduct. Forum
ately Major SnOwden discovered the
nanhole while on tour of inspection
he next day. He was Mortified at the
discovery. Typhoid existed in the First
and the entire water supply
If the city might have been contami-
lated with typhoid germs He ordered
he manhole scaled up Immediately
of Newspaper Advertising
Cleveland, Oct 4.-Manager Hartz,
# the Euclid Avenue Opera House, be-
ieves he has demonstrated the su-
,eriority Of newspaper advertising
oil al how fNrv H.. l. I