The times., 1898-07-22

Capt Craig at the Hotel Regent last
night. THE average individual considers
a battery as a stationary affair, includ-
ing guns Of large caliber. This is an er-
ror. battery Of course, must be sta
tionary while engaged IN the immediate
work OF destruction for which it is de-
signed But it is not always inert. not by
any means.
"a battery for field operations consists
of from TO pieces of ordnance, with
the necessary gun carriages, horses. etc.
The term battery Is also applied in a
narrower sense to the personnel or com
plement OF men and officers. The term
battery also applies 10 fortifications.
where the guns are stationary and where
the object Is altogether one of defense"
The oft-repeated assertion that it takes
a hundred pounds of lead to kill one SOL
der in battle is verified by curious
clipping pasted in a Pennsylvania Avenue
bookshop. II shows that the general NOR
tality rate of the armies of the United
States during the first year Of the re-
bellion was 67.6 per thousand OF mean
strength. This includes deaths from dis
ease as well as from wounds. For eight
cen years preceding the war the average
annual mortality in the army had been
twice as much sickness in time of war as
in time of peace so that as a matter of
fact not more than seventeen men in each
one thousand enlisted met death at the
hands Of the enemy
The figures from Santiago are no less
curious. In the two days fighting there
less than 300 men were killed.
"At the outbreak OF the Civil War"
said Dr. Henry NJ. Rice, of Des Moines,
Iowa, who is a volunteer surgeon, unat-
tached. ''a United States sanitary COM
mission was appointed by DR.. r. c. Wood,
acting surgeon general. 1t was composed
of men who were giants in their day.
Rev. IL. w. Bellows d. D., was presi-
dent; A. d. Bache, LII. D., vice president;
J. Foster Jenkins, NJ. D., secretary, and
G. T. Strong, treasurer. The energies
of the commission were at first directed
to a thorough inspection of the camps
and hospitals of the army. To this end,
a corps of medical experts was formed
and they did more toward exposing dis
honest quartermasters and commissaries
than any other single agency. They saw
to st that the soldiers received whole
some food and proper medicines.
''I recalled the work of this commission
when 1 read of the lack of supplies for
the wounded after the battle of Santiago.
We are much further advanced in med
ical science than we then were, but it
seems we have not yet reached the point
where suffering can be prevented among
invalid soldiers.
Thousands of dollars in money and
supplies were contributed by generous
people for the sick soldiers. and the med
ical commission of which l speak distrib-
uted the gifts. thus becoming the recog-
nized almOnerS of q nations good will.
1t was useful body of able men,"
THE last time I visited Washington was
in 1854" said Walter A. Paine once, in
the long ago, department employe, but
now Kansas farmer. Mr.. Paine is on
the sundown side Of life. If he wore
whiskers they would be populistic, and
he doesn't deny it. As he sat under an
electric fan In the Raleigh, he continued:
That was an exciting session of Con-
gress. Schuyler Colfax, afterwards Vice
President, was Speaker of the House. and
Edward Mcpherson, of Pennsylvania, clerk.
do not recall many of the members of
the Thirty-eighth Congress on the House
side, as L was q. very young man then.
But some Of them come up before me now
as sit and recall the past. / think the
two men / remember best were John III.
Hubbard, who came from Connecticut, l
think. at least, he was New Englander,
and Dan Voorhees,, of Indiana Hubbard
1 lost sight Of long ago, Indeed he cut
very little figure in Congress, and I really
don't know why I can so vfvidly recall
him to this day. Voorhees, staid In public
life and was in the public eye till a COM
paratively recent date. 1 remember also
that Owen Lovejoy. of Illinois, was a