The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-08-16

Camp of General Grants Brigade
Then on t~ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Points at the National Capitalize
giant Railway Trip-Through the
valley OF Virginia.
Especial Correspondence
Raleigh, N. c., August F.
This Is to be a narrative Of a weeks
trip in five or six states, amid strange
ly contrasting scenes Of peace n
war, in his month Of grace, August.
1898.
From Raleigh to Norfolk is a matter
of but a few hours ride, in the early
morning, and the trip by electric car
to Ocean View gives an appetite for
a seaside breakfast. Going from Ocean
View to Old Point the little steamer
passes very near the deserted Rip
Raps, intended to be very formidable
defence, but abandoned when a third
complete. 1t stands today as a curl
Gus survival of the fertilization Of the
1S50-6O period, all of stone and utterly
worthless.
People read much about the trans
ports which carry the troops to and
fro. Nine Of them are lying in Hamp-
ton Roads. They have all been mer-
chant steamer and they are swift,
black and long. All the British troop
ships are white and big, and they are
always in service. To the United
States a foreign war is pretty much
like the beginning Of house keeping.
Something very new and novel. The
RJDxy;nao yyor nvnnrianPn wa nrq0ti-
cally nothing.
FORT MONROE.
It Fort Monroe there are startling
contrasts between peace and war. No
one without a pass can get inside the
fort, which in' these days is not a real
fort. The real forts are up the beach,
and an excellent view of the rear OF
one, showing the big disappearing
guns, is to be had just after leaving
Old Point on the electric car for Hamp-
ton and Newport News. Entrance to
all forts is barred. Outside Fort Mon
roe there are acres Of tents. In one
camp is the First Maryland regiment.
1t has been there for weeks, doing
nothing save drill. There is also a
long array of hospital tents and in
these and inside the walls of the fort
are 512 sick and wounded from Cuban
camps and battle fields.
1t is remarkably interesting to so
through this field hospital. Here is a
negro soldier who was hit nine times
by Spanish Mauser bullets. Plenty Of
men who were hit three or four times
lie on the cots under the big and snowy
tents, while surgeons and nurses and
men of the hospital corps, with the
now familiar red and white Of the
brassard of the Geneva cross come
and go. COnValescent soldiers are to
be seen outside the hospital. They sit
naar tho walks under the shade. TO
avoid the blazing sun. In the bands
of many of their campaign hats are
Spanish cartridges. The relic hunter
is legion and no doubt many a bull
let from our Krag-Jorgensen army
rifle is made to pass muster as Span
ish. Here is a package of Mauser car
tridges. It is Of paper and contains
ten. On it is a German label which
shows it was made in that thrifty
country. There are little metal slides
in which a spring clips the heads OF
the cartridges so the latter, five at a
time, can be put into the magazine.
Germany mak the rifle and the bull
lets and sells the rifles to Spain at SO
each. The powder is SmOkeless and is
blackish gray in little squares and thin
as paper, looking much like little pieces
cut out of steel rolled thin.
All these years the United States
could have had powder for
it's Springfield rifles, but declined to
buy it until last month. 1t is used en-
tirely for the Krag-Jorgensen rifles,
calibre 80, and for the navy rifle, the
Lee, calibre 23, either of which is a
better weapon h the Mauser. Why
the smokeless powder was not used in
all the cannon and small arms is one
of the mysteries. 1t is said the wal
and navy departments could not agree
on the particular kind to be used.
Anyway the non-use is responsible for
many a life before Santiago.
There is a freedom in electric car
locomotion which is particularly de-
lightful. Though the electric car is as
new as the safety bicycle and like the
latter has come to stay there is al
ways the feeling that one is making
an experiment. The road from Old
Point to Newport News has very long,
straight-away stretches and the speed
is so great as to be eXhilerating. The
town of Hampton is traversed. Its pat
rons are the soldiers home, with it's
$500 inmates, who represent, it is said,
three-fourths of the states in the I'M
Dion, and the noted negro normal
school. The buildings at both are spa
cious n imposing. The home is pop
u1ar because Of it's location in the ge-
NAL southern climate and on salt wa
ter. A great proportion of the inmates
are survivors of the civil war and
wear the uniforms of that period, but
there are many who were wounded or
who contracted disease during the
many sharp Indian campaigns between
1S60-1S91, as since the latter date there
has been no Indian fighting. 1t is one
of the sights of the home to go into
the big main dining room and see 1,S0O
soldiers sit down at once while about
100 wait upon them, men being detail
ed by turn for this service. At the
home there is a very spacious and
handsome theatre, in which the best
companies appear. One of the most
attractive views of Hampton Roads
is from the park on the water 'front.'.
A PLACE WITH A
Newport News is certainly a place
with a future. 1t is also a place with
a present. Its development is wonder
full. The Chesapeake and Ohio railway