The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-06-24
ON THE TRANSPORTS.
FOOD AND QUARTERS OF THE rRooRs
THAT LEFT TAMPA.

| tok fu>t, writing uuuer tue ustte q
June l2 about the life on board til,
transports. says:
To-day We were alongside transpor
No %, OH which the Seventy first New
York regiment is Quartered. talked
with the officers. who have practically
the same story TO tell that the officer.
ON all the other ships have They are
sincerely interested in the comfort OF
their men, and do what they can foI
them. 1t is much more interesting tc
talk with the men. After a visit to the
actual sleeping and eating quarters OF
several of the transports and q talk with
men of all the temperamental sorts-the
"kickers" and constitutional grumblers
on one side, who find bitter fault be-
cause the sun shines, and the cautious
and strongly patriotic fellows ON the
other hand, who have made up their
minds to put up resolutely with what
they get and make the best of tit is
possible to judge accurately enough of
what their condition is. The question is
just how much of it ought to be told.
I'VE have had excellent stories from
amateur emigrants of life in the steer
age of transatlantic steamers. If people
in the north are told that their brave
volunteers are living in a way which is
much worse than that which emigrants
live in the steerage of a transatlantic
ship, they are likely to be distressed.
Il have just seen the Seventy first at
their dinner, and / know at least what
they had at this meal. 1t consisted of
Armour's canned beef, of sort which
may be described as good, but second
grade, perfectly sound and wholesome
beef, but not SO clear and nice as timed
beef is sometimes made In addition
there were canned baked beans, canned
tomatoes, hard tack and weak hot cof-
fee. Every one Of them was apparently
able to satisfy his appetite with his
food. The trouble was that some of
them have not the appetite to make
this food welcome as a regular diet.
They cannot eat as much of it as they
really need to supply the wants of their
bodies This means that they have not
yet seen enough rough service and dep
rivation to give their appetites the
edge and inclusiveness which would
render anything whatever that was good
to eat thoroughly welcome. In other
words, they are not soldiers yet.
And some of them are holding
themselves off from making soldiers of
themselves in this respect as long as
they can. One Of the companies of the
Seventy first which has New York
restaurant keeper for commissary Off
Ger, man who knows just how to get
supplies and make use of them, makes
up regular purse which it turns over
to this commissary, who buys with it
all kinds Of extras. Those fellows are
all right, the soldiers of other compa-
MES say enviously. Really they are all
wrong. Ii they are to serve the country
very long and to see hard service, they
will suffer severely in adapting them
selves to the government rations when
they have to put up with them. One
service which war does for men is to
teach them what are the superfluities |
Of life
1.-THE quarters Of the men ON board |
are more serious thing. The heat on
Tampa bay during the last few days has |
been intense, and there has |
been very little wind to clear the air in |
the holds and spaces between decks. In |
these transports we reap another part of |
the harvest of going to war without be- |
ing prepared for it. These ships are not |
troop transports, but freight boats. On |
the British troopships the soldier |
sleeps in a hammock, slung to iron
provided for the purpose
and during the day he unslings his ham,
mock and takes care of it. The ham.
mocks do not interrupt the flow of air,
rs the great bunk structures ON these
do. Fill up all the space be-
tween decks with heavy framing of
pine and crowd these spaces with sleep
ing men, more or less naked, and you
soon have condition of things which
is little less than suffocating 1t rs no
wonder that on board one of the troop
ships, which, by the way, contained |
none except regular infantry. five men
had to be carried out, fainting, the 9TH
er night, when the matches were closed |
On account of the rain. None of the
Seventy first has been in this state. The
men are permitted to take their blankets
and go out and sleep on the decks which
is much better for them, but the decks
do not afford space for all of them to lie
down, and two nights this week the rain
has fallen, driving the soldiers in. 1t is
very likely to fall every night now.
1.-The spectacle which the ships pre-.
sent in the harbor at Port Tampa is an
impressive and memorable one. They |
lie in broken line, swarming to the
very tops, for every man who can get
out into the air does so, even if he also |
gets into the sun. The officers on the |
after decks of the steamers, under avn.
lngs, read or gossip. They allow the
men the liberty of the ships in great |
part. Some do not even exclude them |
from the awning covered space on the |
after decks On one of the ships. which |
was totally deficient of accommodations
for passengers the officers are lodged in |
n.