| Show SMELSERAEUfflSI SAYS TKE ROUGH RIDERS WATT WAT-T COM HOM Top 18 Condition Was Never Ieai ly Known HereHas No Word of Pre But Plenty of Condemnation Condemna-tion For Captain Young Curt Smelser one of the member of troop I of the Torrey Rough RIder who went awayfrom home at the time the men enlisted returned home yesterday terda having been discharged by reason rea-son of sickness which incapacitated him for further duty Smelser says the condltcn of the men in the regiment is one which mer regment its immediate atehton because they want to come home The officers are suppressIng the true condition of affairs af-fairs The men want theIr discharges and the officers or the most of them want to have the regiment sent to Cuba to do garrison duty Smelser says the most of the officers are getting better salaries now than they ever did in theIr lives and they are 10th to part with their positions He describes the camp conditions at Jacksonville as beIng too bad for humanity hu-manity to endure The water was war and mIneral water at that highly high-ly charged with sulphur and as a re suit the men have been ill I Concerning the conditions In troop I Smeler says the reports which have reached here have not been overdrawn He relates that when Captain Wash Young was promoted there was not entire en-tire satisfaction The discipline in the troop became such that several times the men were on the point of breaking out into actual mutiny when Lieutenant Lieuten-ant Burt by wise counsel saved any such acton During the six weeks which Colonel Torey was absent from the regiment the troop became per fecty demoralized The men sulked and receIved no encouragement at all The commanding officer remarked that lie was captain and would be such a long as the balance of the regIment had tiny cartridges a statement which did tot improve the condition at all Then Torrey came back and grasped the situation at a glance He took Captain Young away from the troop and detailed hIm in charge of the hos pial LIeutenant Burt was placed in command of the troop and from that time conditions began to improve But the men want to come home The rations ra-tions have been bad and the treatment accorded the rank and file has been such as to discourage them 1 am willing to back up ever assertion as-sertion which I have made said Smel s r I It had not been for Burt the troop would have gone to the devil He has treated the boys white Whenever a man was sick he was around and looked after hIs wants He got ice for the boys when ice was scarce and while he was as strict a man as anyone any-one would want to meet he was kInd to the men The troop became discouraged dis-couraged and nearly all of them asked for transfers AnythIng to get rid or the life we were leading Torrey caught on all right and helped us the UEt way he could Tore is a good fnn I am glad to be out of it and when the time comes for muster out the boys will all be glad for it is a dogs life they have been leading With smal rations bad accommodations was sand a burdEn mosquitoes and bad water life |
