Arizona republican., 1901-08-01
NO TOBACCO IN THE TRENCHES.
Effect of Such Famine on Body of
 Good Fighting Men.

Do you know it's a mighty risky thing to deprive soldiers of their tobac- Co?" said a man who was in tha volun- teer ranks during the Santiago cam raign. Any other kind of physical dis comrcrt-hunGer thirst, cold, wounds is more than app 10 make man fight ing mad. He wants to take it out of somebody. and. as the enemy is prima- lilly responsible for his sufferings, he will sail into the fray with all the fe- rccity cf a fellow who has biEer per sCnal grievance to redress. You will under stand. of course that l don't ad- vocate this treatmen, for putting mel;le in O troops; what | say is that it doesn't necessarily rob them of it, but the loss of their tobacco will sap their fighting spirit every time. IL dOas it by turning ,hem into the worst kind of pessimis,s
 That was striknGW Illustrated by our experience in the trenches before Santiago. There was a tobacco famine from the first but it wasn't until af- tr tta two big general engagements, when we settled down to see things out that It's effects began to make them selves felt Al tha't lime our boys were suffering from about as many different kinds of discomforts as could b. gath cred together in one heap.
 "Thty were half starved, terribly eX- laustcd. wC., cold ard dirty. They were without shelter or a place where they could lie down, except in the muddy trenches. where nobody dared light a fire for fear of attracting the sharp shooters. and You would caturally sup pose these things would afford abun- 3ant material for grumblng. But they diCn't They were scarcely mentioned. The orl- subject that vas generally EisrusSad wps the chance 10 get a smoks. ard when that chance was fin- ally recognized as zero plus nb.hing. the whole company settled down to deep gloom. Up to that time our men had been perfectly confident of taking san tiago and licking h. SparIards out of their boots. bu; the longer they re- maine1 without tobacco the more doubtful they became. They had all
 sc!'s of sinister forabod.ngs-we would get The fever; he nnemy would shell u- NlNh DlN lliN til guns l.b!ll lit llttt , OV.Iwhel elmir@ endorsements would ba rushed across from HaVanA and the Lord knows what else. At the end of twenty four hours there was but one man in our detachment who believed We had a ghost of show. He was a char who had stolen three big. black cigars from the Sa1igehags of q passing gen. eTal.
 "The company remained in that frame of mind. only growing steadily more and more hopeless. until the ev- | eninE cf the fourth day, when a com | missary wagon threw off box of to- | ha-Co by mistake. thinking it was em- | banned beef Our men p0unccd on fl | like tigers and in five minutes every
 body was smoking and confidence ir | the American army was fully restored.
 "A man next to mo in the tran h. whC was writing his will when the tGl accc | arrived. tore off the top lines, T, John
 smith, being of sound mnd.' etc. and
 wrote letter 70 his sweetheart in. | stead. The troopers were If anything
 hurgrier. colder and wearier than they had been at first. but I never saw sucf
 a sudden revival of mar;ia spirit in my l.fe. If anybody had mentioned maya
 guns CT Havana endorsements h, l would have had his head punched. SC
 l say it is a risky thing to deprive {