Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-08-14
HAITI RIDICULOUS.
Her Army Has a General for Each
Private, But Is Invincibie.

Her Army Has General for Each
Private, But Is InvincibIe.
According to a telegram Haiti is at
war-apparently with itself-and the
Haitian army is on the rampage.
| Haiti is chiefly remarkable by rea-
son of its being military republic,
with an army of 1000 generals and
1000 privates "a general to each
| Tommy. The generals are extraordi-
nary men in more than one sense of
/ the word. There is one who COM
mands large province in the repub-
| Tic, who can neither read nor write,
and who is nevertheless a great revo-
| lutlonary power. This man-Gener-
al Johannis Merister-is obliged to
ask one man to read to him what an
other man has written for him, ano
| yet in his hands are the lives ana
| deaths of the people over whom he
rules.
| Every third man you meet in Haiti
is general, but it is only every tenth
general who gets paid; it has to be
conceded that each general does his
best to pay himself. The authorized
rate of pay is 914O annually for a
general of division and G105 for a
brigadier. A captain is passing rich
on 912 a year; a private thinks him
self fortunate if he receives 81 los
during the same period.
Blanc once said a private, in the
hearing of well known English
journalist, Blanc, | am a soldier;
| give me 10 confines"
'You have your pay"
MY general has taken my pay.
am poor man and a soldier. Give
me 10 confines"
How long have you been a SOL
dier?"
Three years."
when did you have your pay
last?'
Very long ago. and 1 am hungry.
Give me 10 confines. Merci."
The Haytian soldiers uniform is a
fearful and wonderful thing. Let us
review regiment on parade. Some
OF them are shod in dried grass Slip
pers. They wear little blue cap
with a red band. One man, perhaps,
is wearing shabby pair of old tweed
trousers, and slung by hemp rope
over his shoulders is an old-fs.shioned
fiintlock gun. The officer who com.
mands the regiment is brandishfng
a rusty sword.
A general has but little sense of
justice. An unfortunate Swiss wen.
out shooting once in Haiti without a
passport. who are your said the
general when the poor man was
brought before him.
Il am foreigner"
What nationality
Swiss"
The general turned to his score
[ tary.
Have the Swiss a navy?"
mo, my general"
| Then put the brute in prison"
The army, it goes without saying,
! is miserably housed. In Port-au-
! Prince, the capital of Haiti, you will
find a post of soldiers every fifty or
hundred yards. They live in wretch
ed guard rooms, which are merely
long novels, with piazzas raised two
! feet above the street. Below flows
an open drain. The men themselves
drink, smoke, and gamble all the
weary day
But they have good idea of them
selves. Two Haytian generals dis
cussing review in which they had
! just taken part thus expressed them
/ selves:
! Without question the most MAJ
! nificent spectacle that one could have
SEEN"
Yes, indeed, our army is COM
posed of brave men. Do you
not think SOP turning to a travelling
Englishman.
! He automatically choosing his
/ world: Il have seen none like il.
The army of Haiti is one that ae-
ponds upon its officers; an army
without officers, what is it?'
I The army of Haiti has never been
conquered. The French were here.
we drove them out. The English
fought with us; where are they? But
we-we-Ga-are here always; we
have never been conquered"
! You must never allow a smile 10
cross your face-however tempted
you may be to laugh--if you meet a
Haytian soldier. A European diplo-
matist landed once at Port-au- Prince
and on his way from the ship he fen
IN with what he imagined to be a tat.
tered mountebank carrying a rife.
He smiled, for the black mans POM