The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-07-23
E,
WONDERS or ID HE WAR.
interesting Stories VIII No a G sdsr
when the soldiers Retrlrn. ssI

When the Soldiers RetuFns
No aspect of our war with Spain is
stranger to- the American people than
the sudden removing Of tens of thous-
ands Of our regular and vol unteer sol
diers to foreign lands Some are pre-
pairing to go to Cuba, others to Porto
Rico, and. stranger than all thousands
are to be hurried to the Philippine is
lands, almost half way round the world
from our national capital, and 1000 or
5000 miles westward of San Francisco.
Probably no one will. be more amazed
and more permanently So at this un-
expected condition Of affairs than the
soldier himself Our regulars are a
matter-of-fact lot Of fellows, who take
duty as it comes and goes, and never
allow themselves to be astonished, but
to be transported atashort notice in the
cool northern springtime from the
north Atlantic coast, the great lakes,
from windswept prairies and passes,
the dry air Of the west and the noun
tains to the extreme tip Of Florida,
with it's languid, murky breezes, would
OF itself be change enough to compel
attention to the size of the country.
To send them to Cuba, whether tbs
skies be clear or overflowing with warm
rains, is to fill them with Wonderment.
TO men accustomed to the neat vii
lagos Of the United States, to roads that
are at least distinct in outline, to for
ests that, at worst, are passable and to
farms that do not go entirely untitled,
Cuba, in it's desolation, which the veget-
able luxuriance Of the tropics cannot
hide, must be a series Of wonders. But
the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. staggers
at the prospect Of following the volun-
teers il their journey tesEsrd The farth-
est east by way Of the farthest west, a
sea voyage more than twice as great
as the width Of the Atlantic, and to be
taken by thousands Of men, not one in
twenty of whom ever saw the sea, and
thousands of whom never saw a larger
craft than a skiff or canoe! During
the civil war a well-planned attack was
for few moments in danger of coming
to naught because the charging divi-
sion, composed of men from the interior
states, suddenly saw before them the
Atlantic and few ocean steamers.
They were good soldiers, but no quaint
ty of military discipline can divest a
man of ordinary curiosity. So imagine
the dazed condition of volunteers from
the eastern portion Of the far west-or,
indeed, from any part Of the country
being put ashore on the Philippines,
where climate, vegetation, houses and
people are so entirely different from
anything the average American has
ever seen-where The cattle are only as
big as goats and the horse is almost a
curiosity! Americans think they know
human nature, for have they not among
them the represent tives of all nations
Of Europe, some Of Asia, most parts of
Africa, to say nothing OF the American
Indian and the American tramp? But
the Philippine natives are unlike any
of these in manners and habits. Amer
ican armies have thus far been the
worlds most fertile sources of war
stories; the civil war added about S ,O8O
titles to the nation S list Of books Of
home origin, but when the American
Soldier begins to embody i'm literature,
his recollections of foreign experiences
incident 20 the present war all war
story records will be broken and the
wonder will not cease while the veter~
ans remain alive.