CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1899-01-19
woNDERsOFTH
latsessdas Stories win Be Told
whsa II Il Over.
unsxDss4sA Conditions Whsch Con-
fr0nt Oar Soldiers In Their
TY1Ds ts the lslanAs
Invaded.

No aspect Of our war with Spain is
stranger to the American people than
the sudden removing of tens OF thou
sands of our regular and volunteer sol
diers to foreign lands. Some are pre-
pairing to go to Cuba, others TO Puerto
Iiico. and. stranger than all. thousands
are TO be hurried 10 the Philippine is
lands. almost half way round the world
from orr national capital, and 1000 or
5000 miles westward of San Francisco.
Probably no one will be more amazed,
and more permanently SO, at this un-
expected condition %; affairs than the
soldier himself. Our regulars are a
matter-of-faci lot of fellows, who take
duty as II comes and goes. and never
allow themselves to be astonished, but
TO be transported at short notice in the
cool northern springtime from the
north Atlantic coast, the great lakes
from wind-swept prairies and passes,
the cry air of the west and the moun-
tains to the extreme tip of Florida. wit a
its languid, murky breezes, would CT
itself be change enough to compel at
| tention to the size Of the country. To
send them TO Cuba. whether the skies
be clear or overfiowing with warm
rains. is to fill them with wonderment-
To men accustomed to the neat villages
of the United States, 20 roads that are
at least distinct in outline, 70 forest 5
that at worst are passa Bile, and TO farms
that do not go ept rely untitled, Cub,
in its desolation, which the vegetable
iuxuriance of the ,ropics cannot hid,
must be a series of wonders
But the Philip ines = imaginatio1 i
staggers at the prospect of followin 3
the volunteers in tleir journey towar J
the furthest east by way of the furthe. I
west, sea voyage more than twice )
great as 4he width of the Atlantic, an l
to be taken by tho nsands of men, net
one in twenty of WI ON ever saw the SET.
and thousands of whom never saw i
larger craft than Il skif or a canoei !
surine the civil w.r a well-planned al
tack was for few moments in danger
of coming 20 naught because the charf-
ing division. compos sed of men from the
interior states. suddenly saw before
them the Atlantic and few ocean
steamers. They were good soldiers. but
no quantity of military discipline can
iivest a man of ordinary curiosity. So
imagine the dazed condition of voiun-
;eers from the eastern portion of the
far west-or. indeed from any part of
the country-being put ashore on the
Philippines. where climate, vegetation,
houses and people are so entirely differ
eut from anything the average Ameri-
can has ever seen-where the cattle are
only as big as goats and the horse is
ssaost curiosity Americans think
they know human nature, for have they
no; among them the representative of
all nations of Europe, some of Asia.
most parts of Africa. 10 say nothing of
the American Indian and the American
tramp? But the Philippine natives are
unlike any of these in manners and
habits.
American armies have thus far been
the worlds most fertile sources of war
stories; the civil war added about 5000
stifies to the nations list of books of
home origin, but when the American
soldier begins 70 embody N literature
hixrrcoilectious Of foreign experiences
incident 10 the preseDs war all war story
records will be broken and the wonder
wjil net cease while the veterans remain
alive-Collier's Weekly.