The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-04
YANKEE SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE.
Joined Foreign Legion in Cuba for Va
 rious Reasons.

The greatest old boy of the Foreign Legion in Cuba, says the correspondent for Harper's Weekly, is Capt. F.. B. Web ster, an elderly Yankee from Litchfield, Conn, the country of robust onions and still more robust men.
 The capn would rather eat than fight,
 but, as it is often necessary to eat-well, pshaw a man has to have the price, even if he has to fight for it. And fighting in Cuba just now is almost the best pay ing profession. He who lives by it can
 eat terrapin and canvasback-if there are still such things beyond this troubled land of garbanzos and papas frituras.
 There is nothing of the fire eater about
 Webster. On the day after Colonel Ava los had driven the Pino Guerra's men out
 of Consolacion the cap'n and l were chat ting when a cheerful lieutenant came along and remarked, Were going after 'em"
 "Dern 1t all! I hope not" said the capn in his slow New England drawl Here we've been cooped up in that blamed hot train for thirty-six hours. ! fighting day and night, with mighty i little to eat, and the rebels giving US | no time to eat it. Pm tired of fighting. 1 What l want is a long sleep and few | good meals. But. say, you ought to | have ben there when l got those charging
  the gun got going l tell ye they tumbled | down off their horses like pack O cards. Here, lieutenant how soon do we start?" Capn Webster was a coasting skipper l sailing out of Yankee ports for many
 years. He Is heavy, stoop shouldered and
 'sot in his ways"
 1 He brought few fiibuster cargoes into | Cuba during the war of independence, ! and at the age when most men take to 1 golf he grew so fond of fighting that he { has never been able to shake off tho fas 1 cinatons of the game He was United States consul at Cardenas for while, | but as soon as this rebellion started he l began to help organize the Foreign Le- | zion.
 Captain George Reno is a New Yorker, 1 tall, slim, pale and bashful. He came l down here as free lance war corre- l spondent ten years ago and acquired the i fighting habit. He hasn't got his com- | pany recruited yet, but when they do
 take the field the Azaldos had better l look out.
 | Lieut.. Adolph Fittig was a gentle real | estate dealer in Havana until the war be- | gan. Then he remembered with joy the | fine times he had during his military service in Germany a few years ago. | Away to the winds went the real estate ! business and the Herr Ober-Lieutenant 1 burst into bloom in his uniform. Lieut. Herbert Shockley is a small and very cheerful young fighting man from 1 Philadelphia. When they organized the l Foreign Legion he smiled and said he ] believed he'd take a commission. When ! he was firing a machine gun on the roof
 of the armored and a rebel Mauser 1 bullet went through his leg he smiled 1 and said he believed lightning never struck twice in the same place. I wanted | to photograph him as soon as he had a i little leisure after the battle. He smiled. 1 Better wait till I can stand up 1 straight" he advised. "A fellow hates to l look sicky in a picture"
 | The angriest soldier of fortune I ever | saw is Gilbert H. Carr. who came in | great haste all the way from West 115th 1 street, New York, the Morningside i Heights district to take part in the
 game. Gen. Loynaz del Castillo made him ] captain in the rebel forces-and then ! this truce was declared.
 ! "Wouldnt that irritate you?" Carr
 asked me. How would you like to come : all the way down here to have a little