The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-21
NO TOBACCO IN THE TRENCHES.

/. y .
do you know it's a mighty risky thing
to deprive soldiers Of their tobacco? said
a man who was in the volunteer ranks
during the Santiago campaign. ANY 9TH
er KIND of physical discomfort
thirst, cold, wounds-is more-than apt to
make man fighting mad. He wants to
take it out of somebody, and, as the enc
my is primarily responsible for his SUI
ferings, he will sail into the fray with
all the ferocity of a fellow who has u
bitter PERSONAL g. teYance to redress. You
will understand, OF course, that | don't
advocate this treatment for putting met
tie into troops; What say Is that 1t
doesn't necessarily rob them Of it; but
the loss of their tobacco will sap their
hShtlng spirit every time. 1t does II 10y
tuning them into the worst kind Of pes
SimiStS. fs4--.t
That was strikingly illustr ated by our
experience in the trenches before San
tiago There was a tobacco famine from
the first, but it wasn't until after the two
big general engagements, when we set
tied down to see things out, that its et-
fects began to make themselves felt. AT
that time our boys were suffering from
about as many different kinds Of diScorn-
fort as could be gathered together in one
heap.
''They were half starved. terribly ex-
hausted, wet, cold and dirty. They were
without shelter or place where they
could lie down., exceut in the muddy
trenches, where nobody dared light a fire
for fear of attracting the sharpshooters,
these things would have furnished album
dant material for grumbling. But they
didn't. They were scarcely mentioned.
The only subject that was generally dis
cussed was the chance of getting
smoke, and, when that chance was finally
recognized as zero plus nothing, the
whole company settled down to deep
gloom. Up to that time our men had
been perfectly confident of taking San
tiago and licking the Spaniards out OF
their boots, but the longer they remair-
ed without tobacco, the more, doubtful
they became. They had all sorts of sin
lister forebodings-We would get the
fever; the enemy would shell US with Dlg
naval guns from the fleet; Overwhelming
reinforcements would be rushed across
from Havana, and the Lord knows what
else. At the end Of twenty-four hours
, there was only one man in our detach-
mept who still believed we had a ghost
Of a chance. He was a chap who had
stolen three big, black cigars from the
saddlebags of a passing general.
The company remained in that frame
Of mind, only growing steadily more and
more hopeless, until the eYening of the
fourth day, when a commissary wagon
threw off box of tobacco by mistake,
thinking it was embalmed beef. Our men
bounced on it IKE tigers, and In five
minutes everybody was smoking and con-
fidence in the American arms was fully
"a man next to me in the trench, who
was writing his will when the tobacco
arrived, tore off the top lines, 4, John
Smith, being of sound mind ETC., and
wrote letter to his sweetheart instead.
The troopers were, if anything, hungrier.
colder and wearier than they had been
at first, but never saw such sudden
revival of material spirit in my life If
anybody had mentioned naval guns or
Havana reinforcements he would have
had his head punched So say it is
risky thing to deprive a soldier of his
'baccy.' The mysterious pessimism that
ensues will reduce his fighting efficiency
70 per cent.-New Orleans Times Demo-
crat