CORRESPONDENCE. 
471 
is not permitted to join a mess in which there are officers ; he 
eats where he can, generally with the band or teamsters’ mess ; 
he pays for this, of course. He tents with some soldier of the 
regiment; he is not allowed a tent to himself. He has to come 
down to the discipline of the camp, although not a military man. 
He is not entitled to a pension for disability, neither can he re¬ 
tire ; his family is not entitled to consideration by the country 
if he gets killed. His views on sanitation are never asked, al¬ 
though he is educated along these lines. His ^‘suggestions” 
as to feeding, watering and salting are smiled at. 
He is simply without one particle of authority or influence 
among men or officers. If he gets sick in the field he pays 50 
cents a day to the hospital, for food, they say, when the soldier’s 
ration is valued at $7.25 a month, and he is not entitled to 
transportation to his home if he goes there to recuperate. He 
is not allowed the 20 per cent, increase of pay allowed the sol¬ 
dier during war, neither is he allowed the increase of pay given 
the officer during war, if he does more than the work of his 
rank. A man without position or prospects. 
A few things I know : 
I know of but one of His Nibs’ family who has been treated 
decently in the service. I know one of them who wears a ser¬ 
geant-major’s uniform, chevrons and all, and reinforced by a 
V S in yellow. I know two or three of them who salute officers 
when they meet them—not the civilian salute of equality, but 
the regular “ No. 4” of the service—the salute of the enlisted 
man. I know one who takes the part of a teamster occasionally, 
and has taken the part of a nigger servant on occasions. I know 
there isn’t one who is willing to stand from under and take an 
examination, so that the thing can be improved. I know two 
of over thirty years’ hard service that it is an outrage to allow 
them to be cast adrift without being provided for. I know of 
several with fifteen years’ service who are no better off now than 
the day they joined, but a deuced sight worse. I know some 
who have to get a pass to leave calnp. I know the authorities 
have persistently refused to do anything for His Nibs in the 
Army, through pure prejudice, and I know that Congress has 
been influenced by the action of the War Department. I know 
there are as good men in the army professionally as there are 
in civil life. And I think that Congress ought to do something 
for them. 
We didn’t go to Cuba or Porto Rico and “ go up against it,” 
but we “ held it down ” at Tampa and other bailiwicks of that 
