Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-09-24

Tomorrow it will be drill and police
the eternal watchfulness to keep the
camp clean and neat.
There was sanitary inspection the
other day. Major Kennedy, the in
spector, was very complimentary in his
remarks concerning the condition of
the Idaho camp.
at is good-all the way through.
There is no better sanitary condition at I,
Camp Stephen Little"
He was especially impressed with /
Companies X and NJ, declaring that
these two companies might we'll be
models for every company at Nogales.
OF course the major may have been, |
no doubt was, entirely sincere in SIN J
Cling out these companies for eXtraor-
ordinary commentator, but as lay
man who is not supposed to know any
thing-particularly anything about mil
itary matters-it is my impression that
the inspector might well have said the
same thing of every company in the
Second Idaho camp. They are all
clean.
I can't see any difference in them
when 1t comes to neatness of company
street, tidiness in company kitchen,
or freedom in mess rooms from flies.
If cleanliness is next to goodness,
the Second Idaho is so blamed close it
doesn't need a chaplain.
1t is curious to note the difference in
the manner in which the American
troops live, speaking from a sanitary
standpoint, and the Mexican.
ScI-NcE OF SANITATION.
The science of war is almost a sci
ence of sanitation, according to the
modern American methods. OF course
the manual of arms, rifle practice,
squad, company, battalion, regimental
drill in attacking and defensive for
nations, etc, etc, are part OF the
game. but l really believe the biggest
part is the tare of the health of the
men.
To illustrate:
You have captured "a small
statfon), you are besiegec by a large
force What is the first thing to be
done?"
Study over it bit
Throw up breastworks? Blow up the
railroad? Set up wireless apparatus?
Put the natives under guard?
None of these
dig a latrine!"
Consider first the dangers which can
not be seen--whch cannot be destroyed
poor sanitation,
That, perhaps. is why so many of the
men who thought they came down here
to dash heroically through storm OF
shot and shell at the enemy" or
plunge 'oyously into the midst of red,
red carnage have been disappointed.
Instead of the roar and Shrek OF
rifle bullets, it has been the scrunch
of shovels in the sandy SOL of Arizona,
the plunk, plunk, of rock picked ana
piled from the company strets-instead
of the smell of cannon smoke, the acrid
fumes of powder it is the delicate odor
of burning bacon rinds, the steaming
sizzle of the company incinerators, that
perfume the air of the Second Idaho's
beautiful and beautifully clean camping
place.
DIFFERENT IN MEXICO.
The Mexican army gives, or appar-
emily gives, never a thought to the
germs that multiply where filth
abounds.
years-what's the use?
Screened kitchens? They would
laugh.
At Hermosillo, at Magdalena, in No
gales-everywhere l have seen a group
of Mexican soldiers, it has been in the
midst of indescribable filth.
Their food is exposed to the millions
of flies the flies that have sprung
from the foul and pestilential mounds
of rotting waste, their water is taken
from the polluted streams and wells
they sleep peacefully in .he midst OF
rocking garbage.
The American soldier develops
crouch if he doesn't have his bath ev-
cry day.
Honestly, ] believe there would be
sudden and spontaneous, and unani-
nous, mutiny if the Carranzista solda-
dos were ordered to take wash"
Still they are apparently healthy.
Probably would die IL they had to live
in a sanitary environment
II dirt is ungodly, they are the wick
eldest animals l have ever 'seen-they
sure are long ways from righteous.
Yet there is a queer thing l have
noticed among the Mexican soldiers
at their camps. Even where it is but
a thatch of dried grass or brush they
have made to shelter them, nearly al
ways there is fastened to the low roof
or the side or suspended from the top,
a cross of some sort. 1t may be but
two bits Of board nailed or tied to-
gether, perhaps a couple Of twigs fas-
tened in place with bark or whiffs of
grass twisted and braided to form the
Christian symbol, but it is almost sure
to be there-the same sign that Is on
the steeples of our churches, that the
chaplains of the American army wear.
Over the doors of the homes" Of the
lower classes of the Mexican people the
cross is always found.
They believe 1t protects them from
the storms from many evils. In their
filth and dirt and Ignorance and i'm
morality they erect the emblem of the
Christian faith and in the emblem put
their trust.
SAvAGERY AND RELIGION.
1t is surely strange. an interesting