Show president dashington taft has maj gen J franklin bell as 9 9 chief of the general staff united states anny gen bell has held this office tor some years and it is un der stood that at the end of another year of service in the position be will be succeeded by maj gen leonard wood some second kipling should write 0 one ot the deeds ot J franklin bell the general went over to the philippines as a first lieutenant 0 the seventh calavory he had not been in the islands long before be was put in command of a volunteer force composed almost wholly of regulars whose terms of enlistment had ex aired but who were willing to take on a short term of duty to help in the clearing up of the work which they aided in starting in one of the provinces was a band of Taga logs who had given the government forces all kinds of brou trou me one of their chief villages was located and gen bell with his fol lowing of old campaigners took the trail for its capture the command ing officer bad been through cam against the sioux the apaches and other tribes of the mountains and plains and taken more than one leaf from the book ot knowledge ot savage warfare guides led the force to the vicin aty of the village night fell and the Taga logs were all niclous of the approach of the white enemy at three in the morn teg when sleep always hangs heavy on tho eyes bell led his men toward the tillage the Taga logs had sentinels posted along an outlying line after the manner of the people of the plains the soldiers crept silently between the pickets only one of whom was bigl lant enough to detect the presence of ine enemy he was silenced before he had a chance to startle the air with a cry or a hot straight into the village went bell at the head ot bis men dawn streaks were beginning to chow in the sky but the warriors were asleep past the ordinary waking for were not the sen dinels posted and were they not bound by every tradition of tribal honor to be awake and watch lul aleut bell had given his men orders the all lage was condoned cordoned cordo ned with troops and there a mousehole of escape bell has a whimsical humor in the very heart of the village was an old muzzle loading brass cannon a trophy taken by the Taga logs from the spaniards of an other day and which the native were hoping to use against the equally hated americana bell detailed a loading party of three men the three became boys again and they rammed the piece full of powder and grass wadding after the man ner of loading a fourth of july cannon on the tillage green in the home land the light of coming day was strong enough for the conducting of operations A lanyard waa pulled and the brazen piece roared out its reveille me bound of it shook the foundations of the huts it roused the warrior sleepers as would the cracking of doomsday they came armed but naked to the tray the Taga logs looked on bayonet points and down fun barrels and sur ender came instanter gen J franklin bell 1 the youngest officer ho ever held the position of chief of staff he is a genial general and he la willing to talk when ie properly may on the subjects touching bis profession As the joker put it he Is a bell who mows when to ring off he avoids the sins of silence and of speech wherein he shows that he Is leer in bis generation than some of his arede lessons lessors were in their generation when his promotion came the chief of staff bumped from a captaincy to a brigadier general ship and his tremendous rank stride did not bring orah one word of criticism from soldier or dal lan since then he has become a major gemeril army officers who were jumped aalde that bell earned his promotion and that it other promotions were like his based solely on service quality there would be no heart burnings under the blouses when the seventh cavalry la which gen bell was then a lieutenant reached the philippines ho spanish troops were still in pose eslon for bewey had reduced the fleet but not manila city ind its immediate defenses information was wanted concerning tho spanish earthworms earthworks earth works aleut bell volunteered to get it he dlin titell any one how he was going to get it his meth od was daring and novel under scover ot the darkness he went to the water front stripped off his clothes and plunged in he is a powerful swimmer on that night he swam the entire distance around the bay landing now and then to get a closer look at the enemy s water front fortifications he did this unseen of any sentinel it discovery had come it meant almost certain death to the swimmer he came back to his starting point with full knowledge of the strength ot the spaniards in heavy guns and when the time for the assault came the information was of priceless service gen bell was called on while in the philippines to end the war in Da tangas he ended it and in ending it he took the only course possible a course that the civilians at a distance from the fighting denounced as altogether too severe bell was called a second weyler and a second duke of alva but when full knowledge came of his operations and of the craft and horrid cruelty of the natives whom he was fighting criticism died of ahli experience and of the criticism ho said in a letter to a friend knowing my disposition and kindly feeling toward the natives full well you will have no dif faculty in understanding that he necessity tor se vere measures has been a source ot distress to me the only consolation I 1 can derive Is by keeping my thoughts on the end and koblect in view when one has worked faithfully conaci and unselfishly for als country tour years without relaxation or rest it Is somewhat discouraging not to eay distressing to find that even some ot his own countrymen appear to have no confidence in his motives judgment or integ rity there la no use in mincing words gen del Is one of the most daring and dashing officers in the american service he wears a medal of honor tor charging single handed and alone a body of armed he was shot at repeatedly from every quarter but in army parlance they dian didn t get him but he got seven of them not dead but alive and he led back to the american lines his septet of prisoners all cowering under his pointed pistol though every man jack of them was armed it war were to come there Is no army doubt although he Is tar from being the ranking officer of the service that gen bell would be given the amet command ot the field forces it needs neither the bearing nor the uniform of aleut gen adna R chaffee retired to show that he Is a soldier you can see it in bis face his expression Is at once mild and aggressive and the eye Is purposeful gen clatteea Chat teea name comes most readily to the imps when one Is asked to name a typical american soldier abo former chiet 0 stac of the army was once a arh ate in the ranks for two years he was an enlisted ma mai i serving in the regulars he joined in 1861 choosing the cavalry arm of tha service and to it he remained faithful through all the years of his duty he Is one of the finest riders that the army claims there hive been many stories of japanese spies who have been found taking notes ol 01 american army operations and equipment the japs got their first object lesson in the way american soldiers do things from gen chaffee that object lesson doubtless has had some influence in modifying the thought which tho orientals orient als held that they could whip the americans out of band gen chartee was in command of the expedition which went to the relief of the beleaguered ed embassies at peking japanese officers and men saw him there the general won a fame in china which is not confined to the american continent the generals of europe have div en testimony that adna R chartee Ch attee Is a great soldier orders to take command of the chinese expedition reached gen chartee while he was at nagasaki on board a steamer which was to take him to the phil the order was unexpected and the general had practically no chance for campaign preparations he was to go into a strange arnd to lead an expedition against a strange people and not only was it expected of him that he be successful but that success be won quickly for the lives of many americans were in danger within sight of the walls ot the forbidden city the general arrived at too late to take part in the battle in which the brave maj liscum of the ninth infantry lost his life not only was the american soldier spurred to quick marching action by the knowledge of the imminent peril of the americans at peking but he was spurred by the knowledge that the soldiers of in the relief ex other nations were to take part and he wished the men of his own coun try to show themselves worthy in the sight of the men of other countries they did show themselves worthy and they re spondee to the call of their commander with an alacrity that made the american leaders instead of followers in that march beset with difficulties and dangers almost unparalleled in modern war fare there are men in the army today to day who firmly believe that gen chartee did not sleep an hour during the march to peking the soldiers who made the march declare that the nights in china are black that it Is impossible to see anything at all without the aid of artificial light and these in the bivouacs of the eold lers were forbidden for precautionary reasons there was no definite knowledge of the forces that might be in the path of the expedition and no one knew what surprises the night might cover gen chaffee Chat fee his soldiers say constituted himself a sentinel who refused to be relieved from guard and through the nights he was alert and watching and through the days he was alert and marching there are stories by the scores of men who are supposed to bear charmed lives the hero of the book of fiction shed bullets as a slate root sheds rain and in the reading of it one finds it bard to believe that any truth could be stranger than thia fiction it gen chartee doean doesn t bear a charmed life he has the largest allowance of luck that has fallen to any one man gen chaffee has been four times brevet ted for bravery two of the brevet commissions came to him tor gallantry in the civil war service and two tor gallantry in battles with the indians he once led cavalry charge over rough and precipitous blumb where a cavalry charge was thought to be a teat well nigh impossible he rode at the head of his men straight into a body of armed indians scattering them but not until they had poured volley after volley into chat tees oncoming command that charge gave the soldier his brevet commission as a lieutenant colonel when the spanish american war broke out chaffee was made a brigadier general of volunteers he was in the very thick of the fighting in front of santiago capt arthur loe a british army officer detailed by his government to watch the field operations in cuba attached himself to the headquarters of gen chartee capt lee wrote a story about the campaign in which he paid to gen the highest tribute that it in possible tor we soldier to pay to another I 1 |