The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-09

worse collection of scarecrows any
where. The men looked as if they had
been dragged through a cactus hedge,
feet first and then rolled in man
grove swamp. The officers were dress
ed in odds and ends of uniform from
nearly every army in the world. The
rank and file made no pretense at uni
form, but wore anything they happen
ed to have picked up. Some even went
half-naked.
The Indians, who made UP the
bulk of the army. wore their favorite
alpargattas; but a few negroes and
mulattos went barefooted. They all
marched along sturdily at a swinging
Quick-step-almost a trot-although
they had covered over thirty miles
that day and gone through a fort
nights hard campaigning.
Each man carried a Mauser, a belt
full of cartridges, a machete or sword,
and perhaps a blanket, a mess-kettle
and a tin pan. The Venezuelan SOL
dier has to be his own commissariat
service, or go without.
AS the army filed past I was sur
prised to see the ranks full of young
sters. There were scores of little
boys eight or ten years old, carrying
cut-down Mausers, and stepping out
as bravely and sturdily as the rest.
An even stranger sight, to a foreign
er's eyes. was a company of Indian
and mulatto women. armed to the
teeth, who marched along at the roar
of the army with the baggage train.
Here and there a whole family
marched together-women and men,
boys and girls all mixed up. There
was no attempt to enforce military
order. If the soldier liked to enjoy
the society of his womenfolk and
children on the march, the general in
dulged his domestic tastes. He didn't
think 1t was up to him to interfere.
Indeed, 1t was good business for
the republic, as all the members of
the family We're quite ready to fight
whenever the need arose. They cost
nothing to feed. for the army had 10
official commissariat. 1t lived on the
country. The soldiers foragad for
themselves, with the help of their
children and womenfolk. Nearly
every man in the force had a little
loot to show. if it was only skinny
fowl or a small bunch of plantains
slung on his Mauser rifle.
Quick Promotion for the Fighter.
The fortune of war often brings
men to the front with surprising ra-
ptdity in these turbulent republics.
The family which goes to war ragged
and shoeless may, in a few short
weeks or months, become one of the
greatest in the land. Promotion is
rapid for the good fighter. A man
may be a ragged Indian peasant one
year and a distinguished general the
next
When President Castro fought his
way to supreme power in Venezuela,
many men of no account went up on
the crest of the wave with him. One
of them. Gen. Louis Otalora, used to
be the village barber at Castro's home
in the Andes. He still shaves the
President, as an addition to his midi
tary duties.
Another friend Of Castros. an old
Indian who had fought magnificently
was made Minister of War. He i'm
mediately purchased q gorgeous uni
form, with lots OF gold and silver lace
on 1t, and then walked into his wifes
room to show her his finery. She
died on the spot. Her heart was weak,
and the Joy of seeing her lord and
master so ma gnificently arrayed was
too much for her. She had never seen
him before in anything better than a
ragged old smock and a pair of alpar-
gattas.
These family troops are sometimes
guilty of terrible atrocities, and the
boys and women are often worse than
the men. 1t Is not unsual for a lad