Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-12-17
Around the World,

We are in receipt of marked copy Of
The Spirit of South Dakota, published
at Howard, Miner county, by o. M.
Osbon. The article to which special
attention is called refers to q matter in
which the citizens Of Custer should be
interested 1t is given below for the
consideration of the readers of the
CHRONICLE:
South Dakota is in good position to
ask a small favor at the hands Of the
president. The time for granting it has
not yet come but it will come, next
spring, or at the farthest, year from
next spring Our state furnished on
the first call more than its quota under
both calls. 1t sent into the field
one of the best regiments in the service.
A regiment that has never been mutin-
Gus or riotous. Has gone quietly where.
ever duty called. Has been highly
commended by the press of San Fran
cisco and Honolulu as regiment OF
quiet, orderly gentlemen. 1t has won
for itself at Manila reputation for pro-
ficiency in drill, excellent discipline
and soldierly bearing. 1t is regiment
of which the state may we'll feel proud
and which its commanding general and
the war department. cannot fail toappre-
ciate. More than this, our boys have not
set up howl to go home to ma, as soon
as the noy city of soldier life has worn
of. A great majority of them left more
remunerative positions to fight for the
flag. They would mnch prefer to come
home, and they fully realize that to
spend next summer in the tropics means
death to some of their number,-gaps
in the rank that finally march up their
native streets-yet they are ready and
willing each to risk his life as his coun-
try needs him. When the time comes
that the regiment may return to those
whose hearts beat quick at the thought
Of that home coming, it is not unreason.
able for the state to ask in their behalf
that the government incur the mall ad-
ditional expense Of sending them home
via the isthmus of Sues, the Meditera-
mean and across the Atlantic. Let them
complete the circumnavagation Of the
globe at the public expense. 1t is only
trifling return for their prompt re-
sponse to the call of patriotism, and the
sodierly patience with which they have
discharged their duty. The Spirit, low
ing all the boys with fervor only ex-
ceeded by that it feels for it's own two
sons, asks it for them. 1t asks ex-
charges to repeat the request and asks
those who read it to circulate, sign and
forward, either to war department, or to
this Office, the following petition:
To the secretary OF War;
Sir:-The undersigned citizens of the
state of South Dakota, parents and
friends of the members Of the First
regiment, South Dakota volunteers, now
stationed in the PHILIPPINE islands, most
respectfully petition that when the gov
ernment is ready to- dispense with it's
services, the regiment he sent home via
the/Suez canal, the Mediterranean sea and
the Atlantic ocean, giving our young
heroes from the heart of the mythical
Great American Desert tour of the
world at the public expense.
(Signed)
"If the people of our state will gener-
ally sign and forward such petition to
the department, it is more than prob
able it would be granted, giving the
boys an experience that comes to COM
paratively few in life"