The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-14

'Hk'S III JOnn airy throat Untll ne Is
half mad with thirst, and grccdily hc
sucks AT his cantccn until IL also Is
dry. Old soldiers have warned him
tn endure the thirst until there is a
halt, when q comparatively small
drink will serve him. but at first the
temptation to Stake that parched
drynoss is too much for him.
lie learns that for him there will
be little or none of the excitement
and glory of war as he has pictured
II to himself He knows now that on
the northern and the southern edges
of Mexico there are selvage edges, as
one might say, of our occupation.
Between these two selvages. how
ever, there Is network of tonuous
| lines that must be guarded. These
are lines of communication between
military bases and certain points;
also lines of intcrcommunicati ion
Some of these points are important
because water Is found there, some
because they are of strategic impor-
lance in other ways - there are not
very many of these latter but
mostly because there are foreign
interests that have 10 be protected.
MOST of these interests are in them
Ni selves of little intrinsic impor-
lance. Some foreigner perhaps has a
| little mine, store or tiny manufactur-
ing business. More likely still he
has married a Mexican girl, and all
her relatives have put their property
in his name in order to keep II from
the rapacity of their own warning
countrymen. The property itself
may amount almost to nothing, but
that does not matter. Subjected I'M
duly TO the hazards of war II would
be peg upon which just complaints
could be hung. This is one kind of
the bad beer for which we are paying
so high price. Johnny Smith and
his comrades are the coin in which
the price Is paid.
Still. there is a small silver lining
to his cloud. In this part of the
country John Is spared two things
that beset his more fortunate com
rades In other localities. One is that
he Is never sunstruck. No one knows
why this is, though there are many
scientific guesscs. The other is that
} vermin do not trouble him. The
country is too hot for them.
But Johnny has enemies enough
without these. There is the unutter.
able monotony, for one thing. Then,
lack of water. or still worse. bad
water This is where the unfortunate
"amachure" falls in greater numbers,
by far. than bullets bring down.
Then the fevers. and the evcr-present
(, dangers of getting lost on those
; tracklcss plains when perhaps one is
within short walk of comrades and
!, safety. That means that unless
rescued the lost man dies in fearful
tortures. by the thirst that is always
. with him or AT his elbow.
Pitched battles are few. and grow
sCarCer as time goes on. To see an
enemy in force Is the one thing that
J Johnny longs for above all others,
but like many of the good things of
the world. It probably is denied him.
SO he curses the MeXicans for a set
of treacherous, murderous brutes.
which they are; also for IA nation OF
towards. which they are not, There
Is no such thing as nation of COW
ards. Methods of both thought and
action will differ; that is all. II is 10
the Mexican method that Johnny
objects. The Mexican objects to ours
Both have reason.
The Mexican, in time of any
invasion, will know the country
through which he is working; we vii
not The Mexican makes the finest
irregular cavalry i'm the world