Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-07-31
Know Not PsNeholoay.

Tom, DICK and Harry observe
one their letters have ceased 70 ar
rive. The last transport brought no
tidinES. and at their lack the cold
chill of disappointment has proved
as hardening as pail Of water on
glowing steel They have long since
ceased to look upon friendly natives
with a kindly liberation: no longer
do they play with the brown babies
and chat with the soft-eyed mothers
in the market,plaCe They have
found comrades who had Grown to
trust these fUrtive islanders. cold and
stark, hacked and dismembercd. in
the bananas They ponder among
/ themselves and decide that the only
/ chance of pacitiCatiou lies in a whole
some CatacNSm: an iuuudation OF
human blood that will purge the
islands of troachery.
! So 1t is with their hard-faCcd com.
pany commander who has ought his
men on both sides of the same
trenches. The officers can see ahead
of them neither victory nor defeat.
/ They begin to regard the inSurreCtos
as vermin only to be ridded by ex.
termination. They are rats who re
fuse either to leave the house or to
enter the traps.
Partial relief comes at last, when
the battalion is ordered to the south
ern islands, and here we see them in
still another setting This is the
picture:
4 column of mon winds out of the
/ long, cool avenue of cocoa palms,
pauSes a moment and strikes across
the furnace of open meadow beyond
which lies the forest, In single file
they take the native wood-cutter's
winding path which lies twisting
and turning up the incline where the
morciless rays of the afternoon sun
beat vertically, to be thrown CULVER
ing back in shimmering heat waves
that mask the outline of the dark
green wall beyond. Here and there
they dip into gully where month
ago a spring had been; now dry and
parched. The flaming rays have
scared the vivid green till it blends
with the desiccated meadow grass.
This Shows WAR Is He'll"
Heat! Heat, Heat! Hot noises, hot
smells, dry hot baking vegetation
that rustles crisply against their
thighs. In the impalpable powder
| beneath their feet creep creatures
sitting to see; lizards breathing dust,
insects whose lurid glow is like an
embcr. Hot smells of dust and
scorched weeds burn their threats
and nostrils. over their head comes
| the droning hum of insects that
| sounds like and overdose of quinine
and might be. From a dead tree
bellbug strikes his clear, ringing note.
The contents of canteens are filter
ed through their hides in the first 500
yards; after that they slake their
thirst with thoughts of the cool
springs in the woods above.
I Late in the day they dip into a
ravine and cross a cascade where the
water, strange to say, is clear and
cold. Here they camp.
While it is still light, two privates
stray away, They poke and peer,
cut open a nut, white a stick and
wonder at the play of colors in the
grain, and finally they find upon
small bush a handsome fruit, and be-
cause it much resembles persim-
mon, they promptly eat Then with
in easy earshot of the company they
stretch out upon the moss and sleep,
nor dream of the furtive stealthy
steps that enCircle them as they lie.
The brother of one of the missing
men, and an old Chum of the other
are in the party that finds them
finds part of them-headless, welter-
ing in a pool of blood beneath a fern
tree.
The men of the searching squad
look at them for moment in silence,
silence obseTvant of every detail. |
One curses softly, another bursts
into tears, not of sorrow and sym
pathy, but the tears that are dis
placed by an underlying load of
homeslckness and past fever. An
other man longs to grasp an object |
that is lying near, and dance and
shrek and rave The corporal says
no word, but soon he shakes his head
and smiles, a smile to jar the reason
of those that see.
Suddenly he whips his revolver
from the holster and fires straight
into the air. A man questions the
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