El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-28

displayed whenever they were let loose
at the enemy in the Philippines. No
state regiment of all those that return
ed before them failed to bring back
and relate stories of .them Tennes-
sees" of their eagerness to fight, of
their absolute disregard of danger. of
their terrifying magnetic yelling while
on q charge, and of their delight in
war and in life and death generally.
OF all the thousands of soldiers en-
camped here at different times since
the beginning of the Spanish war, the
Tennessee thousand is without doubt
possessed of the greatest fund of ma
tural humor, fund of the sort that bub-
bles out continually in unexpected
places. There is more in the manner
of it than 10 the words. 1t Is the Joy
of unconventional life and youth ex-
pressed in spirit and tone and style
peculiar to "them Tennessees."
AS in every race and class, so in the
Tennessee regiment, there are GER
tain strong types that represent the
thing peculiar to the many, yet not SO
emphatically expressed in the major
ity. These are the men that give the
Tennessee regiment its distinctive
character. The others are merely
modification of this type.
Colonel Gracey Childers himself is
distinctly of the type. Culture has
smoOthed away the carelessness of
speech, the flaws IN grammar, but
enough of the tone and manner are
left to mark him as an appropriate
chief for just such a body of fighters.
In those rare moments when he is not
smiling there is something cold and
stern about his expression. Then the
iarly raised outer corners, begin to
twinkle. The laugh Is there. 1t
breaks bounds. The whole face sud
denly changes into smile that is the
very essence of the Tennessee spirit-
q sort of uncomfortable, youthful
jOyousness that will come to the sur
face.
Generally the officers represent the
educated element Social character
to common plane by intellectual
training. Among the masses are to
be fouEd the race types at their, best.
Tennessee's enlisted men are the char
acters that give the regiment it's in
dividuslity.
There was one officer, however, who
combined education with all the eccen-
trio pronunciation OF the most pro-
nounced type of Tennessee soldier. He
reporter, in Nashville. He was one
the characters Of the Eighth Army
Corps, q little, why, thin-faced, at
tractively homely man, up to anything
in for everything, brimming over with
laughable anecdotes of his escapsdes
and experiences. True to his emphat-
ic characteristics, no remained in the
islands, still eager for more fighting,
and accepted commission in one of
the new regiments, as did many other
Tennessee officers. Shoulder straps
were not the chief inducements to the
Tennesseeans to enter another cam
psign, for about 300 of them re-enlisted
as privates. 1t was pure love of fight
ing and wild adventure that tempted
them to forego the promised sight of
home and friends after years cam
Hear the Tennesseeans talking and
you realize that you are among q
provincial class, strange even in cos
mopolitan San Francisco, which lis
made up of representatives of almost
every race under the sun, even to q
long established Filipino colony of
some $50 persons. 1t is not the fiat,
nasal twang of the down east''
tion of the Bostonian with his broad
as, nor yet the peculiar provincial,
latuess of the middle West
erner's accent. There is quiet, easy
softness about 1t all, tone effect like
yet differing from the negro dialect-a
sort of purified modification of negro
talk with the elision of SOM e small
words and syllables and the slurring
together of others. Sir is soft "suh,"
not the open-mouthed, STACEY
Minstrel miay OF oi sas is the ofi safky
order is "orduh," there is "theyuh."
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