The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-21
Special from a Staff Correspondent.


July 20.-There is a sorry lot of SOL
diers here today. A more dishearten-
ing disappointment than that which
awaited their awakening this morning
can scarcely be imagined. They went
to bed confident that before the week
was over they would be on their way
TO the front. This evening they are as
equally confident that they will never
go anywhere until they go home.
The only foundation of last nights
scare that an investigation this morn
ing could discover was that Major
Duval, the corps ordnance officer, gave
it out that he had received instruc-
tions to prepare ten regiments for
movement Friday. The messenger
who came over to Dunn Loring with
the news did not qualify his announce
ment in any degree, but simply gave
it out that the regiments in question
were to move to Porto Rico Friday.
Being an aide on General Gobin's staff
and the one whose primal duty it is to
carry just such messages, everybody,
of course, accepted for a fact what he
impaired.
In q short time the one-horsc tele-
graph station at Dunn Loring was
crowded with soldiers sending messa-
ges to their homes. bidding good bye
to relatives, letters telling wives to
hasten thither to take their farewell
or calling on men and officers away
on leave to return forthwith to their
commands.
Representatives of the metropoi-
tan papers which accepted the story
for a positive fact without giving it
careful investigation printed the scare
this morning in big headlines making
it appear to the recipients of the mes
eages of the night before that there
could be no possible question of the
accuracy of the news and, no doubt
many Of these same are now on their
way to camp.
ONE GOOD EFFECT.
The annoying scare has, however, one
good effect. 1t has brought forth an
official statement from the war room
of the White House itself that there
is no present prospect of any OF the
Camp Alger regiments being called
into action. Corps headquarters gave
out a similar statement this morn
ing.
General Goblin may, through personal
influence, get some assignment for his
brigade in the near future. If he
doesn't it can be relied upon that the
Thirteenth will be here till the snow
flies.
The new camp, which is destined 20
be the home of the Thirteenth for
many moons, according to present
prospects, is very delightful place,
or rather will be when a water supply
is secured. The well which is being
sunk for the Thirteenth has reached a
depth of 10 feet, but no water has as
yet been struck. At present water is
carted to the camp in barrels from the
Eighth's well and the farm houses
scattered about the adjacent country.
EVANS WOUNDED.
Private Christian Evans, of Company
u, was dangerously wounded by run
ming against a bayonet last night
Someone left gun with bayonet at
tached resting in a clump of bushes
Evans ran through the bushes and COL
lided with the bayonet the point en-
tering the lower part of the abdomen
four inches above the groin on the
right hand side.
1t penetrated the abdominal wall
and allowed the intestinal lining to
protrude. He was attended by Major
Keller and later removed to the First
division hospital. He is resting COM
fortably, but grave doubts of his re-
coNery are entertained.
No new cases of typhoid have de-
veloped in the Thirteenth and those
afflicted are all reported to be doing
nicely. Company BIS missing men are
still missing. Government agents have
q hA L.
Mondays fatalities from typhoid
fever have no doubt caused no little
alarm among the friends of the regi-
ment at home. but when the conditions
are viewed calmly there is no occa sion
for any great worry. What | said last
week regarding the typhoid in Camp
Alger still holds good. The disease is
not epidemic and the camp is not un-
healthy. There are but fifty-one ty-
phoid patients at Fort Myer hospital
and of this number twenty-five per
cent. are merely suspects. There has
been typhoid fever here ever since the
opening of the camp. If unsantary
conditions of the camp We're primarily
responsible for the disease il is safe to
say that after two months there would
be more than fifty-one cases among
$4,000 men, living as they do in crowd
ed tents, intermingling daily without
restriction and being so much more
dangerously exposed to contagion than
would be like number of men living
in city with its sewers and other
sanitary Improvements.
SCATTERED CASES.
No one particular company has had
more than one or two cases. The pa
tents come from all over the camp.
Possibly every regiment on the ground
has had at least one case in it's ranks.
If 1t was that there was some polluted
spring or well on the ground or that
all of the water was tainted there
would be, it is reasonable to suppose,
some company or regiment more gem
orally afflicted than the others or else
general epidemic Rather 1t is, as
Colonel Girard and his subordinate
surgeons hold, that there is no par
ticular source to which the typhoid can
be traced. Some brought il with them,
others were predisposed to typhoid and
the dysentery with which nearly every
body had to battle brought it on, and
still others, disregarding the advice Of
the surgeons, drank water from the
sluggish streams and surface springs
in the country surrounding the camp.
In the Thirteenth, the six typhoid
patients and two suspects are about
equally divided among the eight COM
panies Private Daniel Nesdell is from
Company A; Private Harry Colony and
Sergeant j. b. KEEPER are from Com