The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-06
PACK TRAIN IN LUZoN.
ONE FEATURE Or THE SERVICE
OVER IN THE EAST.

IhoSe who Tend to the Mules in the
Army in the PhiIippInes-They Are
the Hardest ToiIers in the Pay OF
Uncle sam. Except the Mules
ThemselVes-NO Love Lost Between
the Packers and the Soldiers.
Most of the Packers Have Also
Been Soldiers. and Seme Have Seen
Hard service on the Plains in the
West-SOme Have Been Miners
The Din Made by Mules for water
and Forage.
Letter in Kansas City Star.
Slowly starving infantry. parts of two
volunteer battalions, were sprawled about
in the dusty moonht plaza of AIphonso
that night. small group of tagged
ana famished war scribes were among
them, and these men commented serious
ly upon the ugly and thankless PROPOSE
lion which life is. Now and then a com
missioned officer swore loudly at his men,
alternately calling chem bloodthirsty dew
lis and nerve shattered young ladies' The
enlisted men cursed back in half audible
growls. In the cir was that queer muir
muriug undertone which can always be
| heard in the midst of American troops
Just after a bloody brush with the mig
gers" And straight above the foul and
ancient town a hot, white midnight moon
stared down tauntingiy. Never to be for
gotten is that last January night at AL
phonso, way down in one of the lower
provinces of Luzon.
March battalion from dawn to dark
for ten rainless days; feed il at rare and
irregular intervals upon bacon and hard
tack charge il upon live, smoking rebel
trenches once or twice every twenty-four
| hours and on the tenth day keep up
the programme, except for the bacon
and hardtack-then look at the battal-
ion, If you are interested a all in devil
ish moods of the causes of crime. You
will understand then the necessity of a
pcrdition hereafter and che likelihood OF
its being crowded. }
The service in LuZon teaches that Il is
place of fathomless mud during the
rains. ard of terrorzng heat when the
rains are not. 1t also teaches a man to
truly sweat and TO look at tragedy with
out squirting But more and most of all
in LIz0n a man learns, too, what a gaunt
helpless animal he is-learns it from the
hitting lesson which a craving stomach
teaches And this is a lesson which kills
pride. pure thoughts and dreams of home
The men in the plaza of dirty
Alphonso learned this lesson that day, and
that night it was impressed upon them
Suddenly the sentry on duty a the
north end of the town shouted. The
men in the plaza jumped to their feet
and listened. Then faint and far off
could be heard the tinkle of the pack
trains bellmare. The rattons were COM
ing! Never in profane history of the
worlC did such a yell ascend as from the
plaza of Alphonso. The nearest thing to
me was a vicious sun-cured pony which
had jolted me shabbily for ten hours that
day. | Rugged the pony. and the ugly
beast, bereft of all fine sentiments. kicked
in the front of bamboo shack, to which
l had tethered him. The soldiers slapped
each other facetiously and were men
with human hearts once more Feed a
dog if you would have him follow you,
for there is something of the man in him.
Not long after that there pounded into
the plaza n train of the hardest toilers,
man and beast in Uncle Sans pay. They
were marvellous to look at-gaunt. shay
CIV. unkillab.e mules, each standing up
under 20O-odd pounds of government
straights-a dozen tanned, haggard and
just as UNRELIABLE packers, handling the
big train with an intense but whispered
profanity for the day and the trail and
| the miles had killed the voices in their
| throats
Packers and Soldiers.
! The mules pushed the soldiers out of
! the plaza swung into line and smelled
| the necks of their neighbors, at the same
| time wiping clear the foam from their
mouths. There seemed to be passing
| through the herd now general inquiry
| as 10 how each other had Jared through
the prolonged hellishness of the hyke,
Meanwhile the packers. assisted by spirit
| willing. but nevertheless cultural, pro
| family. unloaded and uncinched; and the
pile of provisions grew hard in the plaza.
| The soldiers crowded near, and one I'M
wise one spoiled the whole system by get
ting into the boss packers way.
Get back, you d-n infants. You've
grubbed twice since we have" The voice
| of the pack trains chief would have been
roar naturally, but its strength had
gone from him this night. With towering
irony he finished: "Mamma'll have din
nev for babies in litey while. y
Honestly the love bonds which exist be-
| tUe cen packers and infantrymen would be
easily severed. And this is strange, too.
for few are the packers who have nos
| "soldiered" at Que time in Uncle Sam
service As matter OF taCt, what nav e
these strong strange rough men not
done at one time in their lives? Old Dad
will tell YOU of the days in Uncle Sam g
cavalry when il was the Drawn of arm
and the granite of ones fists which beat
its way into the superiority of the non
CONS stripes-the days when the troop
ers hunted Geronimo and the Apache KID
rode long. lived hard and shot true.
Scar Face. the greaser, will tell you how
he smuggled gallons of Mexican mezcal
across the Rio Grande, when nobody was
watching but the man in the moon, and
about the wads of money he made out
Of the white soldiers on pay days. Dirty
Ike. the cook of the train, went with
Reno when the squadrons of the unlucky
Seventh Horse separated to corral Sitting
Bun in the seventies. Dirty Ike will tell
Won how he helped to bury the decd Of
clusters command in the crcrng shadows
of vultured wings, and how the dead men
looked way out in Montana that not
June day. Broken Foot Bill. my best
OF friends in pack train -, Will tell you
how he hit an iceberg while rounding
Cane Horn in a whaler, and lost his per-
sonal profits of three years toil-SlO,00)
worth of sperm oil He tells of dealing
faro in the black reek OF crime of Port
Said. on the Suez. All, the Broken Foot
has been o wanderer.
Yes. in a pack train you will see men
whose natures have led them in all the
dark places on the surface Of the earth.
They have found gold pickings in some
Of these places, they will tell you and viii
t,f,o,,e whisky in all. In the desira BILE