Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-09

through their exercises and do the things
that their officers tell them.
The orders that the officers give are
wonderful For instance. a noise Ike
stop walking all abreast there. and turn
around SO that only four will be abreast.
'Ballawalla-Hup'' means stop marching
suddenly and put your guns to the ground.
1t is remarkable how quickly the enlisted
men get on to these orders. The CORE
spondent never does. He Will stroll out
on the parade ground. smoking a large
cigar. calmly, of course, as BELTS his rank,
of men they drill. Suddenly. the Off
Ger in command shouts 'Jarraobock Hoi-
ty-Whoop.'' The battalion suddenly
veers off to the right. moving directly
toward the correspondent who tries to
move away calmly.
No sooner does he get from their line
of march when the officer shouts 'Homi-
ny-Hoop la-Dinkus, and the entire ma
neuver is directed to the spot where the
correspondent is posing again. This thing
begins to get annoying. The officers for
get that the press can smear their names
with disgrace If they are not careful.
So he moves off again. still calm. still
smoking. The tall end OF the procession
brushes by him. and goes down the field.
but another command in that odd tongue
turns the column on its heel and the men
begin to run. They run right toward the
correspondent and follow him everywhere
be goes. Finally he begins to run too.
and GREATNESS, full of anger. and with
cigar lost and trampled upon he shakes
his fist in the air at the departing SOL
diery. But it will do no good. They care
little for the war correspondent.
The Sham Battles.
There is another feature to the ma
neuvers that is full of action and pre-
sents splendid chance for the aspir-
ing Richard Harding Davis. It is the
time when the sham battle starts. There
it is-sham battle. If there is anything
an officer in the regular army hates 1t
is to have a newspaper man speak of
maneuverS sham battle If you
hear this admonitiOn once you hear it
a thousand times: Now. say, old man.
if you want to make a break just call
these maneuvers and military prob
lens a sham battle" After a while you
will wonder why there is not an ap-
pendage to the Ten Commandments in
the shape of warning against the
term.
The battle generally occurs at night
just when you want to sleep. AS If
any one wanted to fight in the night
The enemy always comes over in boats
and gets its feet wet and Stops around
making noise and asking of one an
other where In the dickens did my
silk handkerchief go to; it must have
dropped overheard" All that day our
men have been busy out in the hot
field laying telephone lines that never
work and getting acquainted with the
ground That is. the officers are. The
enlisted men are engaged in finding
places where a small black bottle may
be concealed, so that when the enemy
does arrive they can drink its health.
An officer takes the war correspondent
through the hot sun and shows him
just why our position is impregnable.
You see those two men there? Well,
they represent regiment, and if the
enemy lands here they will run out
and say to the commander that his men
are shot to pieces. Then over there
where that cow is we have "A neutral
zone, supposed not to be there. because
the ground is wet there and some of
the men might catch cold. If the enemy
lands here that man asleep under the
tree will wave a red flag. which means
he is battery of artillery and that he
refuses to allow them to advance. and
over there there are SO many black
berry bushes that they will tear their
trousers in marching. we have de-
cided not to place any men along that
section"
"Was That You FiringP"
At night. when finally the enemy comes
the sentries all hear the boats, and each
one in his desire to be the first to give
the signal, fires his rife in direct viola
ton Of his orders. The boats. however
do not stop their onward course. Some
thing is wrong. think the sentrfes. they
all march back to the main body and re-
port that the enemy is rapidly approach
ing the shore. though they have been fired
upon.
"Oh. was that you firing? We thought
it was some one else says the captain,
and he wakes up his men. After "A hur-
red consultation they decide that the
enemy will not land where they appear to
be landing but will make feint and land
somewhere else.
So all hands march to somewhere else.
Meanwhile the enemy lands right where