Sunday Washington globe., 1902-04-06
Richter's Murder.

The article in last Sundays GLOBE repro
duced from the Manila 4B.eyicaH, has in
duced the War Department to consent to an
investigation into the murder Of Private
Richter. Representative Driscoll, of Syra-
cuse, in which city Richters mother is at
the point of death over the shock of the
cruel murder of her son, called the atten-
tion of the authorities TO the matter and
demanded an investigation.
1t is almost incredible that a man wear
ing the uniform Of an American officer
could be guilty of the torture inflicted upon
the unfortunate Richter But old soldiers
of the Civil War can easily realize or be-
lieve in the existence of such fiends as
this Lieutenant Sinclair We have seen,
as a boy in front of Petersburg, men stood
up on the breast works by orders of drunken
officers for the enemy to FIRE at for some in
fraction of discipline. Retrospectively the
thought is consoling that this class of
officers never lived long They generally
fell in the next fight and fights were of
frequent occurrence" between Yanks and
Rebs in front Of Petersburg in 1864 We
have helped in the late midnight and gray
morning to turn the breast work in on a
trench, in which rows Of dead had been
stretched, blue and gray officers and men
who gave up their lives for the cause they
espoused, and in some Of these hurried and
compulsory wholesale interments men we're
found callous enough to exclaim as they
laid a body lengthwise in the trench, he
will never order another man on the breast
works-got it between the shoulders, tool"
A grim approval of good" would greet the
announcement.
The officer had been shot by his own men
from behind during the charge or retreat.
No enemy's bullet honOred his CORY sepul-
chre He had been sentenced to death for
brutality and his men carriedlout the SEN
tence without the formality Of court martial
or other Dreliminaries. There was no
mutiny, no open revolution of military dis
cipline calculated to demoralize the troops
to the prejudice of good order, etc. The
brute was dead and the men marched on
and fought to a finish without him.
The Civil War soldier on either side was
a superior American. He had not been re-
duced to the condition of sycophant and
slave by forty years rule ogthe captains of
industry He had never worked in a cor
pOration factory governed by rules more
degrading and tyrannical than those of
penitenuary He never knew, and had
heard nothing, about classes and working
men with full dinner pals" The expires.
sion the working classes" was unknown.
The Government was his Government and
we have seen him with tears in his eyes
grasp the hand of its Chief Magistrate as he
exclaimed: Glad to see you, Mr.. Lincoln /;
how are things in Washington as the
President Of the United States smilingly
stood in group of bronzed veterans around
camp fire and replied: ''Al right, boys;
things are coming our way" The men
asking the question and the Magistrate re-
plying we're utterly unconscious of any in
congruity, improperly or impertinent
familiarity on the one side and condescen-
tion on the other They we're EQUAL
! AMERICANS in their solicitude to preserve,
and in the perpetuity Of the Government
they were serving, as it was theirs and not
the CLASSES.
In the Philippines the shoulder strapped
satraps are high and distinct order OF
human beings whose followers, tie com