The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1900-11-24
MILITARY SYSTEMS COMPARED.

] onceit of the greater military powers
u teach them that there are others
.uite as worthy of respect as them
elves in the realm of sold.erly achieve
rent. 1t is current opinion that the
| jar anese troops took the honors before
Peking both in marching and fight ne
i ard in their conduct along the route of
the advance Frederick Palmer, the
we'll known correspondent testifies
that:
While the other forces were merely
moving from days camp to days camp,
he japanese were scouting and keeping
ortact with what remained of the enemy,
who was ever promising us real fight,
but never gave us one. From first to last.
General Fukushima had remorseiessly put
nto practice, by means of his cavalry, the
remark that he made at Ho-She-Wo,
when the whole army was praying in its
.nnermost heart that We should take an
litber days rest. I'VE are tired, but the
enemy is very tired he said in his
Iquaint, terse English: '.he is also scared,
and we are not. If we keep on going, he
will not only be aware that We are not
scared, but think that we are not tired.
We shall be much stronger as he sees us
than we really are. HIS forces will scat
ter and he will not be able to make de-
termined stand at Peking." AS result.
1.-THE japanese We're constantly obliged to
halt and allow the other forces to catch
Iup On the worst day of the march 10 per
cent of our men and of the British and
fifteen per cent of the Russians fell out.
while some of the Indian troops suffered
even more. The faces of the big, hulking
Russians were scarlet with the rush of
lblood. Their reputation as great march
lers was this time put to no theoretical
test After company of them had rest
ed. the officers would start a song, and,
-f,, f,ex fhaxy xrAt cxxytp ont hai
lbig boots plowing the dust as II they were
going straight through to Peling without
! a stop. Gradually one after another
would stop singing and fall back. until
the measure died out with forlorn croak,
and then the officers would halt them,
tclsse up the ranks, call in the sku!kers
from the kowliang. and start the. song
again. A Russian priest who rode with
the general In a drosky, under big white
umbrella, sometimes importuned them In
the name Of the Little Father.
Like impressions were had by all the
correspondents who went to the front
with the Japanese in 1S94-95. Most Of
them who We're In China then came to
believe that the Japanese, all things
considered, were the best soldiers in the
world: and, some Of the military at
taches conceded that they could give
points to most OF the European armies
in the spirit with which they took hold
Of the art of war. Every detail of the
military profession had been carefully
worked out by the little brown men
and they never failed, wherever placed.
to make good showing of soldierfy
virtues. A phase of their military
character Is depicted by Sydney Adam
son of the New York Evening Post
who was a comrade of Mr.. Palmer on
the recent march. We quote his de-
scription of a Japanese officer:
ance with that of the American officers
who are often indlstinguishable from the
men. His clothes, to begin with, were
made to At him. not picked out from the
department as soou
enough to wear in the field or because ms
other clothes had run out. His accoutre-
ments were spotlessly clean, his saddle
cloth brushed, and the dust on MS ooots
was the dust of one day. His face was
shayen and his hands were clean, and
kept clean by wearing gloves. His morse
was groomed, and there was no rust on
the stirrups or buckles. Yet this was In
the forefront Of everything; this clean Of
ficer and his equally smart colleagues,
and those tidy soldiers. had done the
hardest marching: their column. often en-
gagged. had cleared the way for the rest
Ito follow; and, with one exceptfon-the
British--they were the tidiest on the field
IL watched this officer all day. He took
things quietly all along. cared for his
horse by giving 1t bits of food on the way,
and kept very easy pace for the foot
soldiers. He never seemed tagged When
he rested the detachment. he called a
soldier. or one came voluntarily, and cut
an armful of clean cornstalks, upon which
he sat easily. This kept him Gle; n. Many
OF the troops for their own comfort, did
the same. If the Russians are moderately
quiet, the Japanese on the march are s.
lent On the ether hand, during halt
the Japs are lively and merry. saw no
sullen. discontentcd faces. They are real
soldiers, not men playing at the business
and wishing they were somewhere else
and otherwise occupied.
The British found something to learn
from the Japanese: the Russians,
French and Americans great deal.
The American correspondents agree
that their countrynen In khaki were
a disappointment. not in GOODNESS under
fire as we are glad to note. but in dis
cipllne and cleanliness. Mr.. Adamson
visited the American camp while 1t ]
was being prepared for the night and
wrote OF II as follows:
Officers discomfort with their men had
fuming at their inability to use extreme
measuresNto discipline the worst element
on little CT no pretext the men had been
dropping out. Officers had marched in
the rear of their commands to watch
thcse cases. But the men fell out I'm |
Knots. in dozens; then they were missed |
ny scores, and on reaching camp the abb !
fentees were in come cases twenty or |
thirty per cent. Some cases were gem
nre, MANY simply altered "tired" as an |
'~"'ise. These were the fellows who |
maddened the officers with their impu- /
dent slouch and grim determination to be |
red. i have heard some of the men
boast that they have never been knocked |
out yet. and don't mean to he. usually |
ma that they were in the old regular SER
vice, and know something of the nlains. |
II was decidedly cross and unhappy |
camp.
In another paragraph the same writer
declares that the American soldiers |
Washed none of their outer garments |
on the march though a British Lancer.
type of his class. cleansed his tunic
three times in one day. This new
American army lacks regular habits of
any kind" writaS Mr.