The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-11-30

&ySt eoual of any
veterans, but the process is attended
with enormous waste. Judging by past /
experiences, the American soldiers in |,
Cuba and those with the allies in Chi
ma should have been destroyed once
or twice over by climatic dangers. The
commanders in each case had to force
the fighting. Military obstacles alone at |
times seemed too great to be over
come, but in spite of all the orders
were: Advanced Advancew So it
was at Santiago, so it was at Tien-tsin
and on the march to Picking
Casting aside all the plumbers, all
the grewsome "might have beens," all
the good fortune on the one hand and
all the ill fortune on the other, the one
fact remains-the American soldier of
1900 as a human machine is wonder.
The soldiers who marched with Ma
poleon to Moscow were tried veterans
IN many campaigns. At Santiago the
very best regiments were filled with
men out of the regular barracks, and
the rest came from the farm and the
shop.
From the time of Napoleon forward
the tendency in military matters in all
martial countries was to make the sol
der machine. The continental pow
ers began to train and to maintain
standing armies, to take men from the
ordinary avocations of life and to de-
vote them wholly to the camp. In
America what demand there was for
fighting men up to the date of the civil
war was chiefly on the border in COM
bats with Indians. In the brief strug-
giles in Texas and Mexico the troops
which fought We're mustered on short
notice, and at the close of the war all
except few regulars in the field re-
tHrned to their homes. The civil war
called into the field on both sides some
thing like 100000 men, of whom per-
haps 100000 were soldiers for the
space of three years. At the end Of
three years those who had been at the
front came as near as possible to being
ideal soldiers. This they were because
they were Injured to the climate where
they were campaigning, they were
thoroughly trained in taking care Of
their health. their arms and in prepar-
ing their rations-in fact, the armies in
1865 were examples of the survival of
the flttest. Hundreds Of thousands had
gone down; only the pick remained.
At first blush. looking at the material
from which the armies Of the civil war
were recruited, it might be said that in
armies of like magnitude brought into
the field at the beginning of the twenti-
eth century they would of necessity
have to pass through the same expert
ence to reach the same state of eff
cheney, but this is not the case. Condi-
lions of life are changed. Man does
not live today as he lived so years ago.
Young men especially do not lead the
same lives. In those days there was
sprinkling of young men who led ac-
tive outdoor lives, limiting, fishing and
to some extent indulging in manly
sports. 1t was then the exception. 1t is
now the rule. In those days young
men took the hard knocks of life in
any calling to which they were doom
ed, but aside from that they were dis
posed to take very good care of them
selves and their comforts. The laws Of
health were not so we'll understood.
Much more was made of slight ILL
nesses. The medicine chest was de-
pended upon in emergencies where
now man knows that all he has to do
to restore his normal strength is to
take exercise and fresh air and look
after his health.
For another thing young men depend
more upon some active occupation out
of doors for diversion or change Of
work. When physically tired they do
not think 1T necessary to lie down to
rest. but go out for ride on the bike
or rowing on the water or If they
have days leisure for stroll or a
hunt in the woods. The idea is to take
the strain off from one part and put it
upon another, mode of life which de-
velops naturally healthy man and
one who can stand certain amount of
strain.
While it is not well to make dis
tinction between the intelligence of so
years ago and the intelligence of today
the intellectual activity is Of another
order. Mems minds are more alert.
The complications Of life are greater.
There Is more hustle, more contact by
man with power and activity outside
of his own human sphere. He learns
to handle great forces, to- direct them.
to meet emergencies. He is not to be
taken by surprise, not to be put into a
state of alarm, not to be caught una
wares, simply because in his natural
modes of life he is called upon to be
always ready.
The men who have had in hand the
training of the end of the century sol
der have looked more to the develop
ment Of the individual than to the Gre
alton of vast machine. Formerly the
idea was to have SO many companies
SO many battalions, so many regiments
30 many brigades, numbering so many