Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-14

What are-er-squareheadS?
Capt. McAllister is a polished and po-
lite officer, but he could not restrain a
look of supreme WEAKNESS.
Squareheads, said he, patiently, "are
salormen out of the north of Europe, and
they are good sailormen. too, but their
mentality is not of the highest order
Hence the term.
But those days have passed. The
work aboard a modern man-o'-war is
totally different from the work aboard
any other sort of craft. 1t is highly
specialized, requiring a superior order of
intelligence, and intricate. Our ships to-
day are truly floating fortresses, filed
with mass of machinery that must be
nursed and tended with assiduous care.
The fighting tools, big and little may be
likened to prodgiously powerful gas en-
gnes whose delicate mechanism must be
studied and mastered before the tools
can be used with efficiency.
"Jacky, in addition to being required
to know about all these things, is a SOL
der, too. You read in the stories from
Vera Cruz of battalions and regiments
and brigades of Observation-Disclosures
only by courtesy, since they We're uni
formed in drill, once white but hurriedly
targets. Well, these battalions and regi-
ments and brigades were operated ashore
precisely the same as infantry.
"Jacky has to transform himself at
in the days work with him. That he
is good soldier is proven by the record
he has made in the land engagements in
which he has participated. particularly
in Nicaragua in 1912. and more recently
in Mexico
"Jacky's shooting, both in action and
in practice, is a thing to boast of. Before
the Spanish war he cid not
have much training in this because the
government was very economical of
powder So, while our navy put it all
over the Spaniards at Manila bay and
at Santiago an extraordinary number of
shots went astray. Since then the men
have been brought to a wonderfully high
degree of efficiency with every arm, from
the big fourteen-inch guns down to the
shoulder rifle and the pistol.
There Is one thing that has not
changed in the enlisted personnel of the
navy, and that is in the quality of cour-
age, unless There be a change for the bet
ter, if that We're possible. 1t is automatic
that the intelligent man tights better
than the man of lesser Intelligence
Further he is more efficient fighter,
since he has greater powers of INITIATIVE,
greater capacity to adapt himself TO con-
ditions and greater ingenuity.
The extraordinary average intelligence
of our men in the navy Is the wonder and
the admiration of the maritime world.
Time was when naval vessel visited a
foreign port and sent a liberty party
ashore, most of the visiting was done In
the waterfront groggeries, and in the less
reputable part of town. Now, when an
American warship drops anchor in a
European port and a liberty party goes
ashore. the natives are astounded to lind
the youngsters hunting out the art mu-
seums, the famous examples of fine archi-
lecture. the spots of historic interest the
libraries and the things that the cult
waited man abroad wants to see.
"A sober, quiet, intelligent, interested
jacky, armed in many instances with a
kodak, goes about like university stu
dent making the best of his opportunities
to broaden his knowledge. Strike up the
band; here comes a sailor no longer
is played in those foreign ports when a