Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-19
THE ARMY OF HAYTI
POORLY EQUIPPED AND oRGANIZ-
ED, BUT BRAVE.
More Generals Than Needed by the
Repubic-Pay of tho
Soldiers.

According to recent dispatches Hayti Is
at war-apparently with itself-and the
Haytian army is on the rampage.
Hayti Is chiefly remarkable by reason of
its being military republic, with an army
of 1000 generals and 1000 privates-a gen.
eral to each Tommy. The generals are ex-
traordinary men in more than one sense of
the word. There is one who commands q
large province in the republic. who is Of
the lowest Of the people, who can neither
read nor write, and who is nevertheless a
great revolutionary power. This man
General Johannis Meriser-is obliged to
ask one man to read to him what another
man has written for him. and yet in his
hands are the lives and deaths of the people
over whom he rules.
Every third man you meet in Hayti Is a
general, but it is only every tenth general
who gets paid: it has to be conceded that
each general does his best to pay himself
The authorized rate of pay is f140 annually
for a general of division and f105 for a
brigadier. A captain is passing rich on
Ell a year; private thinks himself fortu-
nate if he receives f. los. during the same
period.
"Blanc," once said a private, in the hear
ing of well known English journalist,
Blanc l am a soldier; give me ten CEN
times
You have your pay
"My general has taken my pay. I am a
poor man and a soldier. Give me ten Gen.
times"
How long have you been soldier?"
"Three years.
when did you have your pay last?''
VERY long ago. and L am hungry. Give
me ten confines. Merci.'
Shreds and Patches.
The Haytian soldiers uniform is fearful
and wonderful thing. Let us review regt-
ment on parade. Some of them shod
In dried grass slippers. They wear a little
blue cap with a red band. One man, per-
haps, is wearing a shabby pair of old tweed
trousers, and slung by a hemp rope over
his shoulders is an old-fashioned fiint-lock
gun The officer who commands the regi-
ment is brandishing a rusty sword.
A general has but little sense of justice.
An unfortunate Swiss went out shooting
once in Hayti without a passport. Who
are your said the general when the poor
man was brought before him.
II am a foreigner
What nationality"
Swiss"
The general turned to his secretary.
Have the Swiss a navy?"
mo, my general
"Then put the brute in prison."
The army. it goes without saying. is
miserably housed. In Port au Prince. the
capital of Hayti. you will find a post of
| soldiers every fifty or a hundred yards
are merely long novels, with piazzas raised
two feet above the street. Below flows an
open drain. The men themselves drink.
smoke and gamble all the weary day.
But they have a good idea Of themselves.
Two Haytian generals discussing a review
in which they had just taken part thus ex-
pressed themselves:
But the review today; what a great spec
tacler'
Without question. the most magnificent
spectacle that one could have seen"
Yes, indeed, our army is composed of
brave men. The troops are the finest in the
world. Do you not think so?" turning to
a travelling Englishman.
He automatically choosing his words)-
Il have seen none like It, The army Of
Hayti Is one that depends upon it's officers;
an army without officers, what Is it %
The Ever-Victorious Army.
"The army Of Hayti has never been con-
| quered. The French were here; we drove
them out. The English fought with u.s.;
| where are they? But we-we-we are here
always; we have never been conquered
| You must never allow a smile to cross
| your face-however tempted you may be
| to laugh-if you meet a Haytian soldier. A
! European diplomatist landed once at Port
| au Prince, and on his way from the ship
| he fell in with what he imagined to be a
| tattered mountebank carrying a rifle. He
| smiled, for the black mans pompous solem-
| nifty was immensely funny. At once the
| negros face changed.
You laugh at me! You laugh at met"
| he cried furlously.
| He was a soldier Of the republic: his fin
| gers flew to his cartridges. and the visitor
| waited for no more. but fled UP the street.
| The Haytian soldier needs but the license
! of a political strife to lash him into frenzy.
| Given political troubles and a modicum Of
| shooting in the streets, and a man such as
| we have just described, with intense irasc-
| bilty of temper and thousands of compan-
| ions like himself, he would become q very
| perilous and terrible element in the general
| anarchy.
The Haytian army in peace may be like
| that upon comic opera stage: but given
a war, 1t would become hotbed Of trag-
! edy.