The National tribune., 1902-04-03

1t is needless to detail the expedents
resorted to in order to get enough cooked
for each meal and make a little change in
the bill of fare; to tell how volunteer
bakers worked for hours at night in the
intense heat, baking about 1000 water
and-balling- powder biscuits TO take the
place of the fresh bread we should have
had; of the impossibility of keeping from
rust the iron buckets used for serving the
food, or the terrible monOtOny of the fare,
which made the stew which circumstances
compelled us to serve once a day dcgen-
crate in the favor of the men; from the
cheers with which it was greeted the first
time TO the wearing of the odious title Of
''slumgullion" before the last one.
Fruit was served with but two meals.
Immediately upon learning the day we
sailed that there was no fruit on board
| went ashore and bought 100 pounds of
little prunes for my own company. One
day | cooked and served these for the en-
tire S4l men, each one getting about three
little prunes. 1t was a great joke, and
in passing one mess | heard a man offer
another to trade him one prune for 10
beans. The men little knew that | was
giving them the fruit had bought for my
company with our own funds.
Another time | made n trade Of flour
! to the Ships Steward for enough dried
apples to make plum duff for the entire
! command. This was a great luxury, but
the men little realized the scheming neces-
sary to get it for them. They took it like
| the Israelites did the mama from heaven,
as q matter of course.
! At Honolulu the Brigade Commissary
purchased some canned fruit, and a sales
/ department was opened up on shipboard,
| but the men had received no pay and were
unable to purchase. The difficulty was
| solved by the company officers purchas-
! ing on credit against their salary account
| and trusting the mcH individually, who
| settled up two months later when the first
| Government pay came along Thus the
men procured out of their own pittance
Of pay a small portion of the fruit the
| Government should have issued as pOr-
! ton of the regular ration. So little did
some of the men understand the situa-
| tiOn, being ignorant of regulations and of
the nature Of sales departments, that they
| believed this fruit had been put on board
by the Red Cross Society for the use of
the men, and that the officers were selling
it for their own profit. Stories to this
effect were written home by them and
caused great scandal. Tie officers were
denounced as thieves anu propositions
were made to hang them when they re-
turned home by some of their hest friends
who happened to have boys III the regi-
ment. These and other complications that
grew out of the unreadincss of the De
partments to equip and care for the army
properly, and the lack of knowledge Of
army regulations by volunteer officers had
bad effect upon the discipline of all Of
the volunteer regiments for a time.
| My observation of the 'hOme-inteCeSt'
feature of the State volunteer system
leads me to favor the later plan of
United States volunteers with regiments
recruited at large. When home newspa-
pers stand ready and eager to voice every
complaint no matter how foolish and how
irrpSpOn nSIEIp The cDmnIDinnnt and homo
societies encourage the men in the idea
that they are being abused and neglected,
discipline is interfcred with, and il takes
just that much longer to convert yOlum-
teers into genuine soldiers.
With the disappearance Of State troops
disappear these demoraliZng conditions,
also the Governors and Senators who make
protests and demand the return of their
regiments.
have heard it argued that State pride
is one of the greatest stimulants to excel
, lence and effort on the part of yolun-
teers, from private to Colonel, but my oh
servatiOn is that all were far more proud
Of the ~. S. "" on their uniform than
| they ever were OF the 40. y. g." and
that no State rivalry is necessary to get
from volunteers the utmost of which they
are capable of gallantry in action or 10y
! atty to the flag.
= SUPERIORITY OF THE VOLUNTEER.
| 1t was my observation, also that the
volunteers, at least so far as the enlisted
men were concerned, were proud of the
fact that they were volunteers and not
Regulars. They considered themselves IL
be, and Were, as class, personally Su.
perior to the Regulars: men who had be-
; come soldiers for a period only in response
to patriotic impulse. After having been
!. in the service long enough TO receive the
necessary drill and discipline, they became,
i'll my judgment, and in their own Opin-
ion, better soldiers than the Regulars, who
though no less brave, lacked, as a class,
the motives and the eagerness to accom-
g plish something that animated the Volun-
teers. This latter characteristic of the
4 volunteer applies to the officer as well as
e the man. | do not hesitate to say that
5 for practical work in the field rs line ofli-
e GERS the experienced volunteer in the Phil.