Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-17
TO SETTLE A GRUDGE

"These sham battle affairs became q lot
unpopular In the Central and South Amer
lean countries number Of years ago, al
though there was time when the Latin
American armies went In strong for sham
battles" said an American consul stationed
at South American metropolis, who Is In
the states for his vacation. 1t was at the
Manassas maneuvers the other day, when
the rattle Of the blank cartridges was at its
height
''The Central and South American soldiers
and officers learned to hate the sham bat
tle-and to fear 1t, too. You see. 1t was so
easy for Jose, who had a grudge against
Ramon. to make mistake and slip ball
cartridge instead Of blank into his gun!
They still have the sham battle in few.
a very few, of the southern republics, but
the soldiers will do q whole lot of things to
get on the hospital report just before
sham battle. especially those who have
good reason to suppose that If they go into
the sham battle they haven't got much
chance to get out alive. The mere an
nouncement Of a sham battle starts an cpl
demic of scientific malingering in some of
those garrisons. In some of the outfits.
where they can't make the sick report, the
poor devils simply desert by squads, pla-
toons. battalions.
before sham battle. the cartridge boxes
Of the soldiers are carefully inspected. The
officers used to do this in a pretty perfume
tory manner, but they don't any more.
When the disliked officers began to be the
victims of the mistakes of the men with
the guns, they became exceedingly careful
in their inspection of the mems ammunition.
They not only peeked into the cartridge
boxes and belts of the men. but they felt
around in the clothing of each man 10
spring any thoughtlessiy hidden bali cart
ridges.
10 lot nf hor nd
with the secreted bullets were incontinently
stood I'D before the walls with the ban
dages over their eyes and made into numa n
sleeves. Then the forgetful men IN the
.'They no longer tried to hide the ball
cartridges in their clothing, but salted
them away and covered them up with the
dirt of the field on which the sham 1rs en-
counter was booked to take place. They
made veritable lead mines. of those nelds.
and each man remembered just where he
had planted his little lead cache. >,
"Then. In the middle OF the actlon, an
they had to do was to give the ground a
little kick where they had made their
plants, stoop and pick up the ball cart
ridges and then calmly push their Dosolp
friends or the hated OmcefS oNer .ne iiAA'
1.-THE officers learned about this too, ana
they met the plan by changing the locatioll
of the sham battle at the last moment l
have seen them do this frequently IN south
America. 49,. 49,
lit is really pathetic to observe the ex-
pressions OF acute chagrin on the couh-
tenances of the little barefooteo soiuiel
men when, after they have cachea tnel,
bullets all so handily in the field announced
as the scene of the sham battle, the Woru
runs around that another spot Tor the HUN
encounter has been chosen. Unoer sue,
circumstances they look as II a mean anu
underhand trick had been played upon
them.
but. in spite of all precautions, there
are nearly always few hopelessly pune
tured ones left on the field OF a sham pat-
tie down yonder in the warm Americas.
ut is very unwiSe, for example, 1or SOL
der in one of those armies to win MS COM
rades' money too frequently. 1t makes ms
comrades so angry, so very angry.
when l was stationed. few years ago.
at the capital of one of the Central Amerl-
can republics, where they had revolutions
every little while, whether they needed
them or not. one of these incidents nap
pened. A recruit serving in one OF the gov
eminent regiments skinned his whole OUT
fit at monte one day. There was no ap-
parent suspicion that he hadn't been on the
square with his game, but he was regarded
as whole lot too monte wise for rookie.
And being recruit. he didn't know
enough to understand that after having
gotten away with the big cleanup of his
comrades silver it was time for MIN TO
duck So, being foolish, he stayed along
with his outfit
"There was Iull in the hostilities while
the insurgents were getting together In an
of the capital the government troops had
a sham battle on the plateau upon Whlcn
they were stationed.
1.-The recruit with the monte wisdom went
down with the first rattle OF the guns, ano
when they went to pick the boy up 1t took
six men to- lift him from the ground, the
moor cuss was so heavy with the lead that
had been inserted into his system"