The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-06-17
One Who Believes That War is Not
Intended to Be Picnic, Writes
From Camp Cuba Libre.
BOTH GOOD AND PLENTY
Is the Food Issued and the Sooner the Boys Get
Used to it the Better-Martyr Spirit Partly to
Blame For Tales of Woe.

| pump or faucet and get drink of iced
water at any time when you happen to
| De thirsty? The majority of the COM
plants which are being poured into the
ears of sympathetic public are I'M
sodierly, unmanly and unworthy.
Barring the temporary Inconvenience
| caused by occasional congestion in the de-
partment, no soldier need go hungry, and
few really do. The hospital service tells
the real story. Men break down from lack
of food and water. l have watched the
work of the hospital department in the
camps. 1 have seen no cases in any of
them due to starvation or thirst Nor, 1
think, has any one else. This applies, not
to one, but to all our camps. The general
conditions in one are the general condi-
tons in all. I am less familiar with Cen
eral Shafter and the Fifth corps, but I
know General Brooke Of the First corps,
General Wade of the Third, and General
Lee of the Seventh, to be able officers and
humane men. They all expect to see ser
vice. and as soldiers of long experience 10
one Of them has the slightest desire to
lead an army of hungry skeletons. nor
has any one Of them a shadow of inten-
ton Of doing so. Does any one think that
these officers do not know the condition
of their command? How many of these
grumbling soldiers know the brigade in
spector or the inspector general when
they see either one of them? It is the
business of these officers to know all
report the condition to their superior Off
GER Do the grumblers think that the
COrnS Y6ar
but officers mess, which the officers have
to pay for out Of their own pockets? An
hour ago General Lee was relating to the
writer his personal observations in camp
kitchens at Camp Cuba LIbre, from which
he had just returned.
1t is hard for mothers and wives not to
believe literally all that sons and hus-
bands write to them. But It should be
remembered that the craving for SYM
pathy is strongly marked trait In human
nature, and many a man and boy likes
to have his friends at home think that he
is doing the hero in very large shape,
though he forgets that heroes are not
given to complaining, and writes his pitt
full tales of hard life in camp without
of the pain and the tears with
which they will be read.
Those who enlisted in the army expect
ing a picnic or a pleasure outing will be
wOefully disappointed. Campaigning
means hard work and camp fare. Those
who have enlisted with any form of prin-
ciple mingled with their motives will do
well to act the soldier and accept the
soldiers life with a soldiers grace and
fortitude. Those who are disposed to
read these woeful tales of the agonies of
slow starvation, as they are presented in
journals, will lido well to dis
count the agony about 80 per cent. Those |
tender and loving hears who sorrow for |
the read and fancied miseries of their |
loved ones may comfort themselves with |
the assurances that things are not nearly |
so bad as they seem to be, and that, so |
ong as the soldiers remain in camp, they /
will grow easier and better from day to |
lay.