Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-05-17
AROUND CAMP COLUMBIA.
1T IS NOW AN ARMY POST
NEAR HAVANA.
Daily Routine of Army Life Visitors to
The Camp Social Life. The Band.
Great Field For Army Work.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL BARRY
IN COMMAND.

We previously made some reference
to Colonel Pitcher, the second rank
ing officer at Camp Columbia. Col
onel Pitcher was deputized by the
United States. government as military
chief of police, as il were, of the
city of Havana at the close of the
Spanish-American War. He was just
the man for the place, for at that
time the city of Havana was in a
fearful condition, and the Jail and
carcel overcrowded.
Colonel Pitcher began to weed out
the criminals, some of whom had been
incarcerated for years, hit had never
been brought to trial. He held his
court and gave each man q hearing
with proper counsel and witnesses.
The Cubans are great takers, and as
we have said in our previous letters,
they talk with their hands. Tie
their hands and they cannot talk.
Colonel Pitchers famous punishment,
or sentence for crime was Ten
Dollars and Ten Days. Whenever
he pronounced this sentence on pris-
oner, the aforesaid prisoner began at
once to jabber Spanish, or Cuban or
some other heathenish jargon, and
Colonel Pitcher would add "ten dol
ldIS anu ten Qhy6 AHu tlAS WAS
kept up by the victim talking back
and wildly gesticulating, and Colonel
Pitcher adding ten dollars and ten
days until frequently some prisoners
found, before they realized it, they
had fifty dollars fine and fifty days in
the carcel.
The punishment in many cases fitted
the crime, and Colonel Pitchers sem
a. ha
known everywhere as the ..Ten Dol
lar, Ten Day Meester Peecher." A
regular song was originated and the
children in the streets drolled out the
chorus--'Ten Dollar, Ten Day Peech-
err and this has clung to the Colo
mel ever since, but he revolutionized
the moral condition of the Island,
and as Military Chief of Police he
cleared up Havana and largely made
it the splendid city it is today.
But to return to Camp Columbia.
The band of the Twenty In
fantry is there and gives concerts
every afternoon in the bandstand. 1t
is splendid band and plays beau
tiful music. The Twenty-seventh
Infantry band also furnishes music
at the receptions at the officers club
at Marianao and for the balls and
hops. In the large pavilion at ca'nr
Colubmia the officers give dance
every two weeks, on Friday night
and the enlisted men also have dances
and entertainments here. The pavii
ion is large and commodious and
affords ample scope for the display of
taste in the way of decorations, and
for means of decoration the Army de-
pends largely upon the Navy.
This reminds us that perhaps no
where else is the Army more closely
united to the Navy in its friendships
and associations than in Cuba. Per-
haps it is that in a foreign country
(for Cuba does seem so foreign) Amer
leans feel nearer and dearer to each
other than on their native heath, but
certain it is that thu Army and Navy
in Cuba each depends on the other
to a marked degree. The United States
always keeps a battleship in Havana
barbor, that is how it was that the
Maine was blown up. During our
visit the battleship Columbia was at
Havana. anchored off MORO Castle op-
posite Fort Cabanas. The Army hasn't t
many flags, and it is lucky for them
that the Navy has "A battleship. with
flags a-plenty near at hand.
Neither borrower nor lender
be- does not sound we'll to the service
when it wants to decorate for its social
functions, and so it is that the Army
officers borrow flags from the naval
officers when there is a ball or reeep-
tion on hand. LOAN oft loses both
itself and friend,' but it does not ap-
pear to have dulled the edge of
friendship between the Army and
Navy at Havana, even if it has torn
holes in some of the Navy's flags.
Some of our party were invited to
luncheon on the Columbia, and
during the visit were shown through
the battleship by Commander Scales.
Down below, in a neat compartment
of the ship piled with flags was a
sailor busily plying his needle and
mending flags. The Commander ia
cetiously remarked to the lady, who
was, by the way, an Army officers
wife, that the Navy was patching
holes made in its flags every time the
latter branch of the service borrowed
the emblems of patriOtigm.