Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-06-27
SEEN IN ACTION.

During that time, however, 1 did not
There must have been plenty of mutter-
ing among the men, but no attempt was
made to influence headquarters l moved
freely among the companies in the regi-
ment whose guest 1 was, and the men
had ample opportunity of ventilating the
grievances they felt but they preferred
to suffer like men rather than expose
themselves to the charge of worrying
about matters of mere comfort. In some
of the regiments where l happened to
have the opportunity of noting the matter
I found the average height of the men
decidedly higher than what prevails in
Europe. 1 have seen guard mountings
where every man appeared to be about
five feet nine in height Both officers and
men seem to be decidedly superior in this
respect to average foreign regiments |
have seen. The Russians have perhaps
the largest proportion of tall men, but
outside of the Guards ] doubt if any regi-
ment of the Russian army has so large a
proportion of well built, tall men as say
the First or Twenty-first United States
regular infantry.
l made the reference to the composite
picture of Boer and Englishman because
the English officer represents the spirit
of the enterprise. courage and high
breeding. The Boer, on the other hand,
typifies the element of silent, logged, un.
polished, clear eyed, homespun, who does
not care much for ruling others. and cares
less still for being governed against his
will. The American soldier is worried by
very few rules, and these few are as
much as he can thoroughly understand
| was so fortunate as to accompany the
first American expedition which had fight
ing with Spaniards on Cuban soil. The
transport used to carry two companies of
the First regular infantry, and We're gone
about six days. The men during that
time had apparently much liberty as
though on a picnic. Guard was mounted
at night, for reasons that all could I'M
derstand, but during the day officers and
men were at liberty to seek rest and rec
reation as much as they chose The
harshest rule made during that voyage
was that no one should smoke between
decks This was ordered not from any
precedent in the navy, but for the very
good reason that our cargo was largely
made up of hay bales, which were on the
same deck as the sleeping quarters of a
large portion of the men
PATIENT UNDER HARDSHIP.
During the whole of this trip | did not
hear of single man being drunk. nor did
l hear any complaints account of the
| necessarily hard life they were compelled
to lead.
Not a single man had a bunk or ham
mock during the entire trip. There was
room for very few men down below Most
of the two companies had to sleep on the
two upper decks, which in this particular
craft were open to the weather Thus
when it rained-and it did rain very hard
off the Cuban coast-the men sleeping or
the decks had to get up and stand huddled
together through the night-at least until
the rain was past. Most of them were
drenched through several times
However, all of them were so glad tc
get away from Tampa and see something
of actual service that they had no fault
| to find
| These same men had travelled some
| three or four thousand miles by rail be
| fore reaching Tampa. had been twelve
days on the journey. during which they
| had been treated worse than cattle This
| ! mention here only in parenthesis to il.
| lustrate how men Of so much intelligence
and familiarity with good living are able
| to submit to treatment which would b,
regarded as barbarous by officers in the
| Russian army
| NO HESITATION
| There was a moment when about a doz
| en- regulars stood alone upon the Cubar
| beach while the small boats were strug
T, Cling through the surf to take or more
| men. But never among these or any q
' those who followed the slightest hesita
! ton to follow the orders given by the of