Sunday Washington globe., 1902-03-30

Young aspirants for the profession of
arms who are anxious TO belle the record of
their sires and go out to the Philippines to
shoot down men fighting for their hearths
and homes will read the following with the
GLOBE hopes, some profit. II is only a
sample case of the treatment Of American
soldiers by the shouldered strapped satraps,
whose power of life and death over the men
in the ranks seems to be as autocratic as
those of the Turkish Sultan or the Car Of
all the Pussias.
It will be observed that the Manila 4Rer-
fcGN, from the columns of which this ac-
count Of the brutal murder Of a soldier by
! his officer is taken, makes no mention Of
the arrest of the murderer. In fact no such
arrest has been made and the officer in
question still disgraces the uniform he
wears.
In the good old times" Of the Civil War
we volunteer soldiers had an expeditions
way OF evening up" with such chaps as
this Lieutenant Sinclair. They never lived
long and rarely attained higher rank than "a
company officer. Here is the 4AmericaH's
account of the murder of poor private Rich
ter Read it fathers and mothers. brothers
and sisters Of the soldiers fighting men
struggling for liberty:
February 7 was pay day with Company /,
Twenty-eighth Infantry, stationed at Das-
marinas, Cavite Province. The men had a
good time, as soldiers will and their fun
landed several Of them in the guard house.
Private Edward Richter was in the guard
house awaiting trial for some petty infrac-
tion of army regulations, aud had taken no
part in the pay day jubilee. But when the
guardhouse began to fill up, liquor of some
sort found its way into the habitstiOn of the
Inflated in manner known only to sol
diers. As consequence Private Richter
became as iovial as his comrades in the
mill"
The men were noisy, and few minutes
after taps" sounded Lieutenant William
S, Sinclair Battalion Adjutant of the
Twenty-eighth Infantry and Commanding
Officer of the post went to the guardhouse
and ordered the men to lie down and keep
quiet. For the time being the order was
obeYed, but almost as soon as he left the
room several Of the men began talking,
though they did not raise their voices above
an ordinary tone. Sinclair heard them, and
recognized Richter's voice. He was angry.
! He wanted 1t distinctly understood that he
was in supreme command, and that any one
who disobeyed his orders must suffer the
| the consequences. In poor Richter's case
death was the penalty paid for disobeying
the orders of the battalion commander
When the officer heard the men talking
and recognized Richter's voice, he ordered
the guard to bring the arch offender out
side. He then ordered the sergeant of the
guard to tie the prisoners hands and legs
The sergeant obeyed the commands Of his
superior officer Then it was that Richter
came to the conclusion that he would tell
the officer what lie thought of such treat
ment He "caled down" the Lieutenant
and made a thorough job of IT, too The
lieutenant then gave orders to the sergeant
to gag the already helpless man. The SER
geant obeyed.
When the poor wretchs voice had been
silenced forever as it proved, Lieutenant
Sinclair ordered one of the members of the
guard to bring big can of ice water out of
the guardroom. Again were his commands
obeyed.
The can contained FIVE gallons of freezing
water. The entire contents Of the can were
empted uFon the face of poor bound, silent,
helpless Richter. The contents Of the water
can was not dashed or "dOused" upon the
helpless boy Oh mol Such punishment
would have been too light to mete out to
the soldier with the audacity to talk after
and who had been so rash as to object to
being treated worse than a dog, notwith-
standing the fact that the treatment was ad-
ministered by order of so important per
sonage as a full-Aedged battalion adiutant.
The water-the whole five gallons of it, as
cold as ice could make it, was taken from
the receptacle dipper full at time, and
slowly dropped on Richters face
He suffered the agonies Of the damned
He twisted and squirmed his poor, tortured
frame as much as the cords which bound
him would allow. He would probably have
cried out in his anguish had he not been
gagged.
When his punishment, or torture. was at
its height he began to vomit and to bleed
at the ears. The gag would not permit of
the contents of the stomach being elected
through the mouth, and as much as could
6nd an outlet in that way was emitted
through the sufferers nostrils But this
was a small amount and the vomit being
forced back down the throat resulted in
Richter's death by strangulation.
When the mans struggles ceased, the
cords which bound him were cut, and an
attempt made at resuscitation No signs Of
life were apparent, and the post surgeon
was sent Jor. When the surgeon
arrived he prOnounced the man de ad, and
said he had been dead for some time.
Last Sunday afternoon Richter's com
rades tenderly bore the shell to Gods Acre.
The big hearted, whole-souled soldiers pro.
cured native band to play a dirge. and
slowly and silently, with tear dimmed eyes.
they marched behind his bier. A voiley
was fred over the new grave, taps" the
sad, but beautiful requiem Of the brave.
was sounded, and the soldiers who had ac-
eompauied their comrade on his journey of
10000 miles to the Philippines. slowly
wended their way back to quarters.