Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-11
FEATS OF OUR
SEA-SOLDIERS
Marines Have Seen More Real
Fighting Than Men in Any
Other Service


aristocracy in this snob-hatlng country,
IL is the marine corps. For the only arstoc-
racy in America that doesn't soon get itself
laughed at is made up Of the men who do
things and keep on doing them. And the
American marines have kept on doing so
many things as we'll as they can be done
that 20 be marine Is TO belong TO an
order OF chivalry.
Chivalry suggests horses and horses in
connection with service at sea recalls that
ancient jbe about horse marines" But
It is a fact that the modern marina does
have to handle horses at times, since he is
trained for field artillery service, as well
as all the other equipment OF r fare on
sea and land. He is infantry. sailor
sharpshooter, engineer. mlne-layer, range
finder, scout, artilleryman and telegrapher
all rolled into one. This service is lib
| eral education. There is something doing"
every day In the year even in peace times
what a Boy Scout is to other boys the
marine is to most other soldiers.
Tint it is tho marines who have been
| called upon to do most Of the military tasks
all the little jobs"-is indicated by H.
! fact that this corps has produced the most
dashinG soldier in the world excepting those
| Of the highest rank whose names are asso-
| catcd with whole armies and with whole
| phases Of war Acts Of heroism have put
| the names Of certain individuals into every
newspaper in the world from time to time
in this war, yet after week or two who
remembers the hcro's name? But in the
| score Of years that Lieutenant Colonel
| Smedley Darlington Butler has served in
the marines he has so repeatedly distin-
| glishcd himself that the foreigner, read
| ing his record, gets the impression that the
United states has been continuously en-
gagged in hostillties ever since the Spanish
War
His Exceptional "Good Luck
Yet his career is really a typical marines
career. What has happened to him score
Of times happens to every marine once or
| twice. Only In his case, as the marines say,
there has been exceptional good luck" In
no other service, American or foreign, could
a man have piled up such a record as this
! one Of Buffers:
In April 1898, he got the document which
placed him in the roll of the marine corps
as a junior commissioned officer. few
months later he was among the 600 marines,
| led by McCalla. who landed at Guantanamo,
| Cuba, where for three days he received his
baptism Of fire. At Manzanillo the young
man. stiIl in his teens, displayed such cour-
age in action that as a mark Of esteem he
was appointed to serve on board Admiral
SIMPSONS flagship.
From the flagship he was dispatched 20
the punitive force which was sent 10 the
Philippines to suppress the instructions on
the Island of Luzon. With the First Marine
Battalion he went through guerrilla war
fare against the Filipinos, but in 1900 there
came word Of the Boxer uprising in China.
on the way to Tientsin Butler earned
promotion on the field through a deed of
valor which won for him honorable recog-
milton from the Governments of the United
States and Great Britain. Twice during
the march in China he was shot while in the
thick Of enCa agements with the Boxer troops.
The first bullet put him out for only a short
time The second bullet struck him in the
left thigh at the moment that Captain
Lemley was struck 10 the right leg. There
was no ambulance corps nearby and the
two officers lay near each other in the
field while a hail of bullets went over their
heads.
Butler crawled over TO his comrade,
with their belts and strips Of cloth they
tied their wounded legs together so that
the united left and right formed a crutch
for both Of them. Thus, hobbling along on
their sound legs, they made their way to
the nearest field hospital
1t was in this campaign that Butler went
out in front of the lines and under fire
carried back to safety a wounded soldier.
For this act he was promoted to captain
and specially mentioned in Congress The
British Government wanted to bestow upon
him the Victoria Cross. which few British
soldiers receive dt being given only for
| actual feats of daring in the field and not
for successful strategy, but the American
! Government refused to permit him to ae-
| cept it.