Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1898-07-16

gllIKlthlN jtfaTfRfNl take the haru
lks&Ag kAluMlHl marches, tough
WIIIBIlfTffnHllIn fare and the dan
VIM pEssRs1 N LkLlspAsY gers that went
with it thirty
and odd years ago. One may read this
at glance into the eyes Of the old boys
who gather around the young boys in
the state encampments where the first
volunteers are getting broken in. Old
soldiers who have been there take it as
matter of course that they must preach
to the novices, although they them
selves got along somehow in 1851 with
out any coaching to speak of.
The first thing in militia camp to
cause a veteran to smile is the company
kitchen and its annex, the dining tent
One is ready to exclaim, "Who wouldn't
be soldier and live like this?" These
kitchens are right up to date, with i'm
proved ranges, cold storage and all that,
and women to cook and wait on the
table 1t really looks as though soldier
ing must be one long picnic, with its
outdoor, semivagabondish life, where all
the wants of the inner man are attend
ed to without cost or care. A day in
camp is sauce for the appetite, and the
man who can't fall to at the company
table is poor candidate for future
glorifcation as man of war. 1t is a
good thing that the first stage in the
volunteer S initiation is not alone agree
able but really fascinating. 1t lets him
down on easy gradations from the feath-
er bed and mothers table to the barrack
bunk and GRUB" shanty, which is the
halfway house between militia train
ing camp and the front.
From the barrack camp, young gen.
tlemen, pray that your flight to tho
front may be speedy When you get to
the front and sleep ON the soft side of
the ground and feed off raw materials
carried along in your pouch, you may
solace yourself with the reflection that
things might be worse. In order to
make sure that there is no doubt upon
this last point paste in your hat the bar
rack contractor s bill of fare. With your
unemphasized comments it will read
like this:
Soup, greasy and lukewarm.
Meat, stale and half raw.
Bread, soggy and sour.
Butter, rancid much good salt wasted on ii.
Coffee, minimum
Mush, porridge of corncobs thickened with
meal.
Mush is the barrack contractors
great staple 1t is mush for breakfast
and mush for supper without n break.
Moreover, whenever it happens-and
happen it will-that the dinner meat is
totally unfit to set before human beings
the contractor falls back upon mush as
"a substitute; so don't be surprised at
diet of mush three times day Some
day you'll agree with the old campaign
er that living ON the army ration of
hard bread and raw bacon is feasting as
compared to barrack fare, and for more
reasons than one you'll be glad for this
tip besides. If ever the question is put
to vote to go to the wilds of Cuba or
stay in the barrack camp, shout For
ward to Cuba p with all your lungs. If
you must suffer, you want it to be for
Cuba and not for the good of the con-
tractors pocket. While on this question
of the barrack camp it occurs to an old
campaiguer to tell novices that this is
the next thing to soldering in a gar
rison post. OF course soldiers must
serve where the government elects but
again. if choice is given, let your cry
be Cuba or nothingr Posts must needs
be garrisoned but there are "old round
ers' enough for that Enthusiastic vol
unteers are too good for it, and, more
over, are not cut out for that sort of
thing.
In signing away physical liberty the
American volunteer does not give up
the inalienable right to grumble. That
is a blessed thing for the man and for
the government. Grumbling lets off
lots of gas. In the militia training camp
the soldier may grumble at the company
cook, at the corporaIs and at the cap
tain All this is safe. In the barrack
camp he may rail at the state governor,
the kitchen contractor and the guards
who won't let him pass-all this, too
is safe-but at the front rail at the en-
envy only. If the troops march ahead of
the commissary trains and must live on
half rations and sometimes go without,
the supply boats are not to blame, the
wagon mules and drivers are not to
blame, but the Spaniards are the
wretches who have led the army its
long chase on empty stomachs. Upon
them may revenge be taken by measured
doses of lead and cold steel
And if things do become unbearable
in camp it's no use to storm the con-
tractors kitchen. Such tactics are out
and out mutiny. Rather unite in pro-
test, beginning with the lowest officers
and going on toward the highest. Some
where along the line there will be a
man for the emergency who'll stir up a
silent reform in the kitchen or the con-
tractor win have to go. Take the advice