The age-herald., 1900-11-14
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

'T cften hear of men going into battle cool and collected" said an ex-soldier of the Spanish war yesterday, 'but have my doubts as to this. Although I am a war veteran, have never been within a thou sand miles of a battle. I was in one of the many regiments which never left home, and never smelt powder except at target practice. don't mean to say that men are not cool when they once get in a battle, but there is always 8 certain excitement in the first plunge.
 'I saw this Illustrated once in 9 shooting affray between some rioters End a posse of deputy sherifs I was d reporter and on the engine with the sheriff's posse One of the latter was quite young boy. As the engine pulled in amongst the rioters it was received with fusilade which killed no one but broke all the window panes in the cab. was un- armed and was sitting on the coal In the tender The water tanks were on each side of me and I felt pretty secure.
 This young boy had never been shot at nor shot at anybody before. At the first fire he turned deathly pale. Shall I shoot at them?' he asked me. Certainly" 1 re- piled, 'shoot for all you are worth"
 He was so excited that he fired the first shot in the air. Then he regAined his color and began to shoot steadily and delib- erately, taking good aim. He had not been frightened at all, but had turned pale with nervousness and excitement"
 T was talking, some months ago." he continued, with seaman named Peters, or Peterson, who had been on the BaIti- more at the battle of Manila. In talking about the battle, he said he did not notice man on the ship who was unconcerned as they stood ready for battle steaming around the bay. Everybody was under tremendous excitement An officer would put a pair of marine glasses to his eyes and gaze at the Spanish fleet, but you could see his hands shake, and when coffee was served round to the men, you could hear the tin cups rattle against their teeth.
 Whether he exaggerated matters I of course could not undertake to say, bus it Is pretty well known how men involuntary try to dodge bullets in fight by duck ing their heads. I once heard of an of- ficer, who was notedly brave man, duck ing his head so much in battle that it made him nauseated, to the amusement of his companions and his own great morti- ficatlon."
 A prize has been offered for the best verse ending in words rhyming with Michigan. The following sample is from the New York Tribune:
 I knew young lady from Michigan
 To meet her I never should wichigan; Shed eat of ice cream
 Till with pain she would scream, And she'd order another big dichigan
 q see by the papers," said d government employe yesterday, that the United States army officials are experimenting on some soldiers out west to determine what.is the best emergency ration to be adopted This emergency ration consists of a pound of food a day Doubtless the soldiers resent this experiment similar to mild form of vivisection. The problem of an emergency ration is to get as little food as will pos sibly sustain life into given space. The given space is not the soldiers stomach, but his knapsack. The governments idea is to condense a days food into as small package as possible Possibly the time may come when a meal will be taken like pill But everyone within the reach of a good restaurant may thank heaven that this Is barely possible, a very remote possibility, and one that can never be forced on a free citizen.
 But a new horror has been added to war. Not satisfied with the food used in the Spanish war the government Is laying a deep conspiracy to deny the soldier his em- balmed beef, which at least could be used for chewing gum, and proposes to give him an emergency ration-reduced to almost pill dimensions.
 In the experiments now being conducted the soldier is weighed, given one pound of ratons and at the end of the day he is again weighed to see how many pounds he has lost
 The problem the government is trying to solve is: If soldier weighing 200 pounds eats one pound of evaporated meat a day and loses five pounds of experimental sol- dier, how long will it take the soldier him self to become evaporated meat, provided the worm does not turn and make a raid on the officers larder after dark
 Some of the army experts are now figur- ing on this, and doling out emergency ra- tions to the soldiers. If this experiment continues long enough there will be need for emergency ambulances. There is still enough of the savage and the animal left in man to make him growl and fight when he hasn't enough to eat. It may, however, be good policy to starve soldiers when be- fore the enemy, and say to them, as fa- nous general once said: Soldiers, we have nothing-the enemy have everything"
 Conference Closed.