The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-01-06

questionable character. And yet it reports
the presence in that city of Pat Perry, a
telegraph operator, just home from Gu
ba, as saying there has been more yellow
fever in Havana this year than for five
years past; and that an army officer told
him that ION march of two cavalry COM
panies for 81 miles, over 60 men died on
the way" This last statement puts Ell
Perkins out of the list as the champion
liar. Despite all the outcry about sick
ness in our armies in Cuba Porto Rico,
NChina and the Philippines, the hospital
records of sickness and deaths during the
Mexican war far exceed those of the more
recent campaigns. Florida, back in the
Indian wars, was more dreaded by SOL
diers and officers than any of the coun-
tries named above have been by our
army. Fevers always have existed and al
ways will prevail in tropical and semi
tropical countries, fact that has Iona
been known to the British army.
A prominent military gentleman in Sa-
vannah asks me to "sit down" on Miles
and Alger Well, if I should, it would be
the softest seat 1 ever sat on, for both
have very soft places in their heads, ana
both have proved incompetent in their
highest positions as military officials The
public is sick of their squabble, which
should never have been renewed. But AL
gers excessive vanity has been hurt ana
he bankers for revenge. In his new at
tack upon Miles he blunders sadly in his
eulogy of Shafter as hero in the Santi-
ago campaign. Every sensible reader
knows that Gen. Joe Wheeler was the
real hero there and probably saved our
army from defeat. Ayers eulogy of Gen.
Eagan is equally as bad, for when he
speaks of him as gallant and fearless on
the battlefield of the Civil War" he is
talking through his hat" Neither Miles
nor Alger measures up to standard OF
military greatness that entities him to
a conspicuous place in the public eye.
Both have been useful men in subordi-
nate places. but as Secretary of War AL
ger was a marked failure, while Miles
has proved a most incompetent command
ing general of the army. Their present
controversy is ranker than the canned
beef complained of, and smells to heav-
en-"
Tom Hood was a poet of credit and
renown," but his Lament for the De-
cline of Chivalry" has more weak puns
and poor poetry than truth in its many
verses. Bold King Arthur and his knights,
and Percy and Lion-hearted Dick, and
Charlemagne and the Cressys, as he says,
are dead and in their graves, but it is
not true tnaL now
1--WE fight in ropes, and not in lists,
Bestowing hand cuffs with our fists.
a low and vulgar art"
The days of knights of Old" it is
true, have passed, but there are modern
knights as noble and as brave as any
that ever crossed lances in ancient Tits.
We have them not only on the battle
fields and in naval engagements on the
I,,A fx,, INN NJ a
lie the fact that "rhe fittest place for
man TO die is where he dies for man" The
heroic death of the locomotive engineer
on the Plant System near Charleston, a
few weeks ago, would put to shame
many so-called heroic deeds of ancient
/ chivalry. VIM. Hurd Hillyer, in the
Youths Companion, speaks out for oui
own modern knights:
I'VE have men who, now and always, IN
a righteous cause and high,
When their country goes 20 battle, for
their country dare to die.
Men Of wise and prudent action, men OF
mighty, matchless will;
For the Stars and Stripes are floating
DER a land of heroes still"
From the day that the first shot was
| fired in the Concord and Lexington bat
| ties that was heard round the world,
this has been nation or people OF he
roic nature Men and women alike, in its
early days, battled bravely for the indie
pendence that finally rewarded their la
bors.
The Morning News criticism OF the pro-
posed Brumby figure for the monument
OF this naval hero, to be erected in At
lanta, is right te the point. Although a
serious subject. had a Laughing fit"
when I saw the ntwspa per picture Of the
monument. was reminded of a horri Die
| picture that appeared In the Sunny South