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Show Tramp, Trsmp, Trmp. In the prison cell I sit, Thinking, mother dear of you. And our bright and happy homo so far away; And the tears, they fill my eyes. Spite of all that I can do, Tho' I try to cheer my comrades and be gay. Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching, Cheer up, comrades, they will come; And beneath the starrr flap Wo shall breathe the air again Of the free-land In our own beloved home. In the battle-front we atood, When their fiercest charge they made. And they swept us off, a hundred men or more. But before we reach'd their lines. They were beaten back dismayed, And wo heard tho cry of vlct'ry o'er and o'er. So within the prison cell Wo aro waiting for the day That shall come to open wide tho Iron door. And tho hollow eyes grow bright, And the poor heart almost gay, As no think of teeing homo nnd friends once more. Poldl.r. on lh. March. The foot soldier Is an anachronism, as archaic as the man at arms with hla halberd or the archer with hit cloth-yard shaft Tho modern foot oliller la not only a fighting machine, ho la nlao a beast of burden, and no man can be both with success. The American Infantryman equipped for war la weighted down with rllto, bayonet, bayo-net, ammunition, clothing, shelter tent; water botllo and haversack, In all tome sixty poundt In weight It It a common belief that a soldier It to strong and hardy that ho docs not feel the burden; that bo can march ten or fifteen miles with sixty pounds about hit body and not mind It; that, like tho well-trained athlete, who thrlvet under vlolont exercise, be enjoys having hav-ing to transport nll'thlt paraphernalia. parapherna-lia. Now, at n mrftter of fact.thit It tho one thing of ill others which tho soldier dcsplset. I Ho doesn't mind tho fighting; ho can put up with the heat or cold, nnd, although ha may growl when hit rntlont aro short, ho accepts that as part of tho day's work, but to turn himself Into a porter, to bo a roollo and tho bearer of burdent It a thing ho abominates, There li rothlng mora depressing to Iho spirit. nothing moro dovltallxlng, nothing which makes a greater drain on a man than a march. There Is nothing picturesque, pic-turesque, nothing exhilarating, nothing noth-ing to break tho horrible, monotony of this seemingly Interminable plodding through baking dutt or clogged mud or chilling snow, tayt n writer In tho Forum. All tho color of war hat gone. Thero aro no bandt to mnko men forget for-get their fatigue; no wat Ing plumes and fluttering flags to excite tho Imagination, Im-agination, no spectators to ttlmuhto pride thero It no scenery een. War It now a monochrome; ovorynno droit-et droit-et tho tame, khaki loses Its semblance of color and tnkes on tho color of the I dirt or mud of tho country through 1 which tho army marches, and no man tecs more than tho man In front of him or the man on each tide of htm. Hour after hour this goes on; rifles become be-come heavier, ammunition belts chafo more galllngly, haversacks nnd water bottlea strike In a tender spot, thooi I get rilled with grit, which makes each ttep an agony. If, after a long march men aro thrown Into action, they hnte lost their vim and their power of resistance, re-sistance, and It Is only by shcor nervo that they aro ablo to etand up to tho rack, Nino timet out of ten Infantry are sent Into action with their nerves unstrung, simply because they have been broken down by the strain which bat been put upon them. To get tho best results out of men they should go Into action In a perfect physical condition, condi-tion, but they are generally weakened by the drain mads upon them. Tho remedy for thla, a remedy which will not only Incrcaso tho actual physical strength of an army but will alto glo It that mobility which la all-essential. It to give each man his own means of transport that Is, to mount him. The armies of the futuro will bo armies of mounted Infantry. AlLtxl Crtifltf 1.7 llusiUn Koldlrra. To ths Editor: Tho story of alleged al-leged Russian atrocltlea In China, at told In the name of tho wlfo or tho British commissioner of customs at Tientsin, which was published In Tho llecord of Aug. 8, could neither originate origin-ate from an American lady nor from n lady of any other nation, but only from a mean agent on ths Brltlth aide. I am turo X know that In tho military mili-tary doctrines of Ilusila oxlsted a rule, known to every former soldier, that If In tlmo of war or under warllko clr-cumstancct clr-cumstancct a soldier or an offtrer dared to avenge hlmaelf upon an unarmed un-armed man on the enemy'a tldo, and ir he would especially dare to offend a harmless woman or an Innocent child, he had to paas what waa tech- , nlcally called " atroy stroyu" to tho 1 extent of his misconduct and violation of military discipline "Btroy stroyu" meant two rows of soldiers facing each other at a ccr-tain ccr-tain distance nnd every one holding n knout read to whip the guilty. Tho Bullty one had then to paw between tho rows and ttisUIn the heavleat lathe of twenty-five or moro knouu from each side, m the rato might demand, ror Inhuman behavior In time of war. The tamo rule with greater rigor would then be applied for "pillaging, looting, torturing and murdering right and left." If tuch crimes were possible In he old timet, and which are now falsely false-ly ascribed to lluaalan toldlert. Hut. since tho above educational menauro hod been In existence, tho Iluaalan hla-lory hla-lory of battles knows not a alnxle In. tUnce of brutality on the part of Hut-elan Hut-elan toldlert agnlntt the Innocent, and there baa been no need for the former discipline. Consequently you may bo aure that tho Ilusslan toldlert of whatever rank etand far above tha Brltlah soldiers In this respect, and It It not difficult to provo this difference differ-ence betweon them. .. . It. A. Bouroff. University ot Chicago rnrr1 lh. llor. Ocorgo It Husby, a Kansas City man, who has traveled many land and teat for tho Armour Packing I Company and has had many adven- I tures of hla own. It now In South I Africa, and his letters homo contain I many good ttorlea of tho experiences I of tho Britishers during tho war down 9 there, says tho Kansis City Journal. Hla lateat one, contained In a letter that waa potted at Port Hlliabetb, telle how the Ilfo of a war correspond-cnt correspond-cnt who fell Into tho hands of tho Boers waa saved by a trick "kilting bug." tuch at wat used In Kansas City last yiar to frighten pcoplo out or their wltt. "You will no doubt be In-terestcd In-terestcd In reading ot an oxperlcnco which Mr. Swallow, war correspondent of tho Capo Argus, had during tho present war," Mr. Iluaby writes. "Whllo at work up country Swallow got wind of certain information regarding re-garding tho movement of tho Boers, hlch ho denlrcd to convey to 0110 of tho British generals, whom ho felt confident of reaching In safety, Hav-Irg Hav-Irg made notes of tho Information an t puUIng some of tho notes In his pock-ctsjjhe pock-ctsjjhe started away. Later on, unfortunately, un-fortunately, ho wat captured by n D'yty of Uocn, who proceeded to go f through hhj pockets. After emptying- Tm one pocket Ihey began to examine tho 4 papers. Among them was an cnvclopo H containing ono of tho 'kitting bugt' which tho Armour Packing Company H ' tent out In tho way of an advcrtlso- H ! ment, and which had been given tho H correspondent several montht before. Ono or tho Boers standing In tho con- R ter ot tho group unfolded tho paper H nnd tho 'kitting bug' shot nut, com- I pictely taking them by surprise, nnd creating such contternntlon among them that. In tho excitement, Mr. Swallow managed to destroy, without I being seen, tho notea which ho had In another pocket, thereby escaping what scracd certain death." rlh.rt r Writ I'nlnl IIj.. Thero hot of late been n great deal written nnd aald about tho parcntago of tho young men who have recently bi-cn nnd nro being trained as soldiers sol-diers of tho natlou at West Point tayt the New York Herald. Tho atato-ment atato-ment haa been made that favoritism haa controlled tho nominations, and ' that thero hao been frequent discriminations discrim-inations In favor or certain railings. To ascertain tho exact truth a recent examination of tho records of nbout COO candidates for tho last 10 years hat been made, and It thows that nlmott every calling It qulto well ropreecnted. Thero wero HO sons of farmers, 115 eont of merchants, 100 tons of lawyers, C5 sant at army officers, 37 sons of manufacturers, 32 torn of mechanics, 20 tons of Insurance- agents, 10 tons of real cetate agents. 14 torn of clorgy- men. 13 tons of editors, bankers nnd bookkeepers, 10 sons of drugglttt, 9 eont of traveling agents, g eont of school teachers nnd 0 sons of dcntltts. r.w.r HomlrliUs In lh. Army, Surgeon General Sternberg hat prepared pre-pared statistics making a comparison of coses of suicide and homlcldo which occurred In tho army during tho years , of 1698 and 1899 compared with tho 10 years between 1888 and 1897. It C shows that thero wore relatively fewor ! homicides during those two years than , during tho previous decade. Tho nver- 1 ogo number or suicides per year In nn J' ' 27'118 K tho 10 years wan l 17. Tho ratio per thousand was C3 5 P01",'.' T"e "'""Kin " tho army i In 1S9S Is glvon nt W.705, the aver- M age number or tulcldes 38, nnd tho V percontago per thousand 20. Tho ( strength of tho army In 1899 la given at I03.B1C, nnd tho number of tulcldoi at 30; ratio per thousand ,28 per cent Christmas l'rei.nta for Coldl.n. Chrlstmoa boxes for soldiers serving t In tbo Philippines wero sent freo thl I year by tho war department A circular cir-cular to thla effect was prepared In 1 tho war department and tho opportunity oppor-tunity thus presented was teiied by i hundreds who sent remembrances to friends to.-vlng their country In th ? Philippines. ' 1 |