The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-03
THEY SEE A GOOD THING.
DISCHARGE OF THE SIXTH MEANS
BUSINESS FOR RAILROADS.

try Is Mustered Out-SOIdiers Can
Travel as They List and Not as the
Government May order, and There
VIII lie Competition for the Bust
Bess-GeneraI Feeling of SatIsfac-
tiOn That the Immunes Are White
Soldiers.
General passenger agents of railroad
connections read with a great deal of in
terest in the Morning News yesterday that
the Sixth United States Volunteer In
fantry is to come here from Cuba to be
mustered out of the service. This win
mean a big thing for the railroads. and
there will be some of the closest and pref
TEST competition of passenger agents that
has ever been witnessed here.
There will be feature about the bust
ness that has not been common during
the months the railroads have been hav-
ing so much transportation from the gov
eminent. Ordinarily all troop movements
are divided up, and no road is shown any
preference. The war department makes it
a point to give every line an equal show
ing and one gets as much business as an
other when everything is equal and there
be chosen rather than another. Then. too
the department is not very particular as
TO the inducements the lines can offer, as
il often selects route for its movements
that is twice as long as some other by
which they might be effected.
But in the coming struggle for the bust
ness to follow the mastering out of the
regiment of immunes that has been in
Cuba for some months there Is to be no
cba mill bx,
no division of the business, and the line
with the best men TO hustle will be the
one that will get the majority of the SOL
diers. 1t Will simply be a matter of the
passenger agents getting out among the
men and making the effort to get them to
travel by their route.
There will be something like the crowd
of travelling passenger agents just before
the regiment is mustered out that was to
be seen during the time the entire Seventh
Army Corps was encamped here When
ever a large command has been discharg-
ed from the service the railroads have to
make desperate efforts to get the business.
short while ago the Sixth Virginia Reg
iment, colored, was mustered out at Ma
con, and there was a crowd of railroad
men on hand to try for the business.
The history of the movement of the mus
tered out men from Macon has been told,
and there were few little points about
1t that attracted the notice of railroad off,
cials. On the day the men were dis
charged the railroads had their represen-
tatives present, and trains had been placed
near the camps, the line of the Central
Railroad running within snort distance.
An arrangement had been made with the
Central whereby the Southern was allow
ed to have a train on it's tracks near the
camp. Ticket agents We're out in wagons
W mo
were to be discharged came around, but
the Southern got the most of the bust
ness. Nearly the entire first battalion
went away by the Southern. though on
the other two the Central Jared somewhat
better
The Sixth Regiment is expected to ar
rive here aboard tine Chester from Glen
fuegos about Feb a. 1t is expected that
it will take some days for the work of
mastering out to be completed, and then
will come the chance for the railroads to
get in their work. The Sixth was raised
in territory to the westward of here, and
there Will thus be an opportunity afforded
all the local lines to get in their work
The selection of the route by which they
will travel will be a matter left altogether
to the men themselves, the government
having no voice in what they may elect
to do after they are mustered out of the
service. This will mean that passenger
agents will be in their glory, that praises
of roads and their elegant service will
stand them in good stead, and that the
smooth and oily flow of language that the
first class passenger man knows how 10
get off will be effective in getting business.
With as many passengers TO be taken
away from Savannah 10 the West as there
will be when the troops are mustered out
there will be no scarcity of railroad
agents. Connecting lines will be glad of a
chance to assist their friends here and
they will send their own representatives.
to help make things lively.
Several of the immune regiments are
made up of cofored soldiers. Savannah
ians and railroad agents who are TO work
the business win probably feel relieved to
know that the Sixth is composed of whites.
Negotiating with white soldiers viii be
more pleasant for the passenger agents,
and the citizens of Savannah will not be
sorry 10 know that what they have feared
all along will not come to pass, and that
there will be no colored troops encamped
here. Other provision has been made for
the mastering out of the colored volunteer
regiments in the service, none Of those now
in the West Indies having been ordered to
Savannah for dismissal from the army.
When the colored troops were discharged
at Macon not a man of them, il is said,
was seen in the city A gentleman from
that city, who discussed the matter yes
terday, said the soldiers were to be COM !
mended for the position they took in the
1t was about the only thing for |
which the people OF Macon admired them |
While the colored regiment was stationed |
there there was a great deal Of disorder |
the men having gotten into an manner Of |
when allowed to come into |
the city. 1t was feared that when they |
were mustered out, they would come down |
on the town in force and that there would |
be more trouble than ever. Considerable |
had been said and published about the |
disorder the men had created and the like |
lihood of their causing still more trouble |
when they were dismissed from the service. !
but the Macon man said the result was |
not what had been anticipated. The SOL |
iiers did not leave their camp after they |
we're mustered out. This did not suit |
some of the cheap merchants Of the place |
md a few of the whisky dealers. They got
out dodgers for distribution when the
second battalion was discharged, assuring
hem that the people of Macon were their
friends, and inviting them to come into
he city and spend some of their discharge
nonav The soldiers did NOT ,,asrora