Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1902-07-09


Now as a matter OF fact it is Just some such Tom,
Dick, or Harry who has done these things Let US
try to follow the military of these three types,
and see il we can thsoW some light upon the cas-
uistry producing such results.
Tom is an intelligent young Irish American born
in New York City. His father is a subcontractOr,
fairly prosperous aud respected. Tom had good
public school education, and has held position as
shipping clerk in wholesale house, but has lost it
through being tTihe wild in his habits. This has
brought down the ire OF his parents. They have
quarreled, and Tom, in pique and dependency, has
enlisted in the United States Regular Infantry.
Dick has been ''raised" in Gainesville, Georgia
He is high-spirited boy, and the freside remin
iscences of Civil War veterans have reused his
tial ardOr quarrel with his sweetheart leaves
him with the conviction that he is destined for
herOs death-Or proud returned.
Harry is a clerk in his uncles store, the only one
in middle Western village. He has watched the
train loads OF troops rushing through their
way to the Pacific Coast, and being Anglo Saxon,
and therefore adventurous he has been unable to
resist the temptation of following them.
Tom, Dick, and Harry meet in the PresidiO at
San Francisco. There they are physically re exam
ined, and assigned to the same company the same
regiment.
Tom was once ''boss' of one of his fathers
gangs OF men, and has a natural capacity for sub
leadership; that is, for inducing other to carry
out the orders of some one in authority. This
faculty, with the tactics learned in militia regi
ment to which he had once belonged, soon secures
for him the rank of Glance corporal"
The regiment embarks on one of the big trans
ports, and the FarallOnes slowly merge into the
haze below the skyline, the trio experience the
first real pangs of hOmesickness, which are not
alleviated by the months voyage to Manila.
On landing in Luzon the the regiment is sent inn
mediately to the front. At this time almost any
direction is the front, and they have not far to 90
n thp 6rin Iii md fhoiu
interest in strange, new surroundings, sweep away
the nostalgia. Later when the gamOr of the nov
city had worn of, it returns again, but in the sub
acute and chronic form which is much more insid-
iOus. With it they run the usual gamut of heat
fever, dhObie itch, and dysenteTy, but they are
hardy trio, and all of these elements are but fac
tors in the tempering process. At the end OF the
first year they find themselves practically immune
from petty tropical disorders but deep down under
the chronic tan and the lean, sinewy muscles the
sluggish ulcer of discomfort gnaws at their hearts,
When the regimental surgeon writes Nostalgia
as the diagnosis of patient, he is apt to hesitate
for moment to decide whether the more fitting
term might not be "malingering." At any rate.
patient with the former malady do not receive any
extra amount of care and attention. Yet this CON
ditiOn this chronic hOmesickness; is one of the
most dangerous disorders which we have to treat
1t represents the solution from which may crystalline
insanity 1t is the more dangerous in that it is so
finally bursts into flame of suicidal or hOmlcidal
mania. 1t accounts for more dementia than sun or
fever.
Tom, Dick, and Harry see cases of this kinds be-
fore they have been long in the islands. They were
sent to garrison a town on the Laguna de Bay. The
place had already been twice taken by American
troops, but their regiment took it third time and
then occupied it. tbs not the capture of place
that endangers a regiments it is the subsequent
inertia of garrison duty. The excitement of cam
paigning had by this time entirely worn off, Even
the prospect of fight failed to give them the for
mer thrills. They were forced to rotate in a very
limited orbit, as there only two companies of
them, and the insurgents entrenched all.abOut
the place.
When man is herded with body of other men
for while, he begins, to certain extent, to lose
his individuality. When there is not one single
familiar feature in all of his environment his loss of
former identity is'much enhanced. he begins to
think of himself Jones Brown OF some one else,
of such and such place. He is simply a unit Of a
certain whole and the discharge of his duties in
this capacity grows more and more automatic. He
is no longer Influenced by the conditions under
which he was born and bred He ceases to be gov
erned by his former code OF ethics. There is moth
ing around him to remind him that he is himself.
His principles unconsciOusly adjust themselves to
surrounding conditions and circumstances What
young Mr.. Brown, Of Greenville Illinois, might
have done il offered an indignity by any one has
nothing to do with what Surgeant BrOwn-th
United States Infantry might do if, when hali.sck
and thoroughly disgusted at the end Of long days
march, he is fred on by native from a Nipa hut.
One day while on guard duty second sergeant OF
one OF the companies was suddenly seized with an
acute dementia. The worst feature Of his case lay
in the fact that at the time his belt was full OF am
munitOn, and his Krag JOrgensen was in his hands.
following cited personally BY author