Evening star., 1924-01-27

was his resourcefuIness that made.
perhaps, the greatest impression on
his fellow soldiers. ] remember him
distinctly when our forces during the
Boxer rebellion in China were trying
TO get into the walled native city of
Tientsin. The only cover they had
consisted of high ancestral graves in
the native burying ground without
the walls, and l can recall Butler
lodging from mound to mound, each
containing the bones OF some distin-
guished local Chinese family, in order
to fire better at their entrenched de-
scendants. During that skirmish he
was shot through the leg, but the
Mauser bullet broke no bones, and in
a month he was up and around again.
Later, after the march on Picking.
he received his second wound" con-
tinued the retired officer. strictly
speaking, it was not a wound. but
bruise, but il laid him UP good deal
longer than the hole in his leg. An
other Mauser bullet, coming from an
angle, struck the big. lead-filled.
brass coated button on his tuntc near
est the heart, and, while it undoubt-
cdly saved his life, the ornament gave
his flesh such a heavy blow that he
suffered intensely for weeks"
!; * + x
THE present director of public sofe-
ty OF Philadelphia came home
from the Chinese campaign cap
tain, according to his old superior,
was sent to Panama, and there built
Camp Elliott, the marine base. At
that desolate spot he leveled ground,
built rock sidewalks, planted trees
and otherwise cleaned UP and orna-
mented the place TO such an extent
that when the commandant Of ma
rinCs asked for 4 congressional ap-
uropriation for further work he got
it on the strength of what Butler had
already done. this having been in
spected by the delighted representa-
tive having the appropriation in
charge. He had killed off all the ma
larla-producing mosquitoes and p1ade
the camp a healthier place than Man
haitian Island.
One of his special achievements
during the tour of duty was to seek
out an old donkey engine, left there
by the French during their attempt
10 build a canal nearly twenty years
previously; find and connect lot of
iron piping, construct a fair sized
tank and produce for his command a
place wherein they might bathe as
often and as long as they pleased in
the fresh water from a river some
distance away, to the envy of all
other troops. Gen. Butler has always
been noted, it appears, for the amount
of enthusiastic extra curriculum
work he has been able to get out of
his commands, the men always being
the ultimate beneficiaries. AS his old
superior puts it, "They do it for love"
Next Capt Butler was sent to Blue
fields, Nicaragua, a desolate and pes
tiferous place, where yellow fever
was nearly as common as winter
colds are in Washington.
Here he found some 200 municipal
prisoners, doing nothing and half
starved. He made a deal with the
local "alcalde" whereby he got the
services of the prisoners in return
for feeding them we'll, the prisoners
themselves entering enthusiastically
into the bargain. With this gang of
workmen, Injured to the tropics, he
cleaned up the town-streetS, houses
and outbuildings-dra the ponds
and bitches, and taught the inhab-
itants the rudiments of sanitation. He
not only eliminated "yellow-jack"
while he was there, but it is said that
the place did not have another case
until three years after he had left.
!: x X *
CANTO DOMINGO and Haiti were
~ the scenes of Mai. Buffers next
exploits. The former republic was
infested with '1adrones," country
bandits who robbed Of cash all farm
ers who might have sold their produce
at market towns, and then retreated
into the hills. When the marines
went out after them they had to
wallow through the tangled tropical
bush, and their quarry, who knew
every bypath, simply laughed at them.
Nor could the marines stay out for
any length of time, because they were
able to take only what supplies they
could carry on their backs.
Mai. Butler soon changed all that.
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