Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1916 — MAJ. HEALEY TELLS RF BORDER SITUATION [ARTICLE]

MAJ. HEALEY TELLS RF BORDER SITUATION

Believes That American Troops Will Not Soon Return to U. S.—Need Of Training Imperative.

Llano Grande, Tex., Aug. 22, 1916. The Republican: This is the second effort I have made to write since the publication of my last letter. The first attempt was not completed, owing to the fact that I was kept too busy to finish it for several days and after that it seemed to lack connection and so I waited until I had a chance to start over again. It seems that there is not much of a personal nature to write. Our boys seem to be getting along-nicely and I am sure Company M is in every respect making as good a company as there is in this regiment. Capta'n Tuteur and his lieutenants, Garland and Watson, are always on the job and the discipline of the company is excellent. The same can be said of Company C, ably commanded by Capt, A. B. Cray. He has but one lieutenant, namely, Floyd O. Tharp, who is a son of Oscar Tharp, a former resident of Rensselaer. There are others now on the border who have formerly lived in Rensselaer. Among them is First Lieut. Frank Dexter, of Bat- ? tery -B, of Purdue. He is a son of George Dexter, who many years ago ran the old Nowels hotel, and is a nephew of H. J. Dexter, of Union township. George Peters, son of A 1 Peters, and Roy Kupke, son of Chris. Kupke, are both members of Battery C, of Lafayette. Peteis has an application in for discharge. He is married and has dependents. Some of these, discharges seem slow in coming. The third regiment baseball team continues to win. The official schedule was not started until last Sunday, and we defeated the second Minnesota by the score of 10 to 9. The game was played on poor grounds and was not as good as we are capable of. Jimmie Eldridge played a good game at second and hit the ball safely four times out of five that he was up. Elder was off at the bat and fanned four times, but played a good fielding game. At the field events last Wednesday Elder made a standing .broad jump of 9 feet, 10 inches, just a foot further than any other soldier in the regiment was able to make. He won $5 in canteen checks. It is probable there will be a number of other entries in the field events on Aug. 30th. Last Friday we had a memorable bike. We walked to Donna, 6V2 miles in the early morning. It sprinkled a little on the way over. After we had arrived there it rained more and we had scarcely started back until a driving rain began and we marched the six and a half miles in a soaking rain. Fortunately our road paralleled the railroad and most of the soldiers found walking there less tiresome than plodding down the muddy roads. We arrived in camp at about 11:15, soaking wet, frightfully muddy and a little tired but all as game as could be and it demonstrates the fact that the hardening process has had its effect. Not a man failed to make the round trip and not a one suffered any from the march. In fact, the next day two auto loads of soldiers from Company M had a joy ride to Donna, Ebenezer, McAllen and Mission, Tex., and encountered roads that made it necessary for them to get out and push in order to extricate the cars from mudholes on severel occasions. Saturday I had my first leave from the camp, and in company with Lieut. C. E. Johnson and Lieut. Arthur Tuteur and Capts. Herman Tuteur afld A. B. Cray, I visited Brownsville. There had been a severe storm the afternoon and night before and therefore Brownsville was not seen under the most favorable circumstances but I was liberal in forming my estimate of the city and will say that it is about the poorest specimen of I ever saw. The streets are narrow, many buildings are dilapidated, the streets are unimproved, except right in the center of the business district, and sanitation is the worst I ever saw. Dr. Johnson, who has been having some trouble since his arrival here with an inflamed eye, wanted to gc to the base hospital to have it lookec after and we started out to the camp in a jitney and were stuck in the mu: right in a streets only a few blocks from the postoffice. Dr. Johnson was forced to abandon his visit to the hospital. The name “jitney” is a misnomer in Brownsville, for the fare is 25 cents per passenger even thougft you get stuck in the mud. Later in the day another driver proved move successful in another part of the city, taking us to the international bridge over the Rio Grande. The bridge is probably a quarter of a mile from Brownsville and the same or a little greater distance from the Mexican town of Matamoros. The cities are not directly acres? the river from each

other. The bridge does not seem to be extensively used and most of the travel between the towns seems to be by ferry boat and a point near the business part of Brownsville. The Rio Grande is hardly as large a river as I had expected it to be and does not seem large enough to mark the boundary between two such very different countries as the United States and Mexico. Brownsville is mostly a Mexican town and we found it interesting just to watch the Mexicans. They are not adorned quite so picturesquely .is are aften shown in photo films except for a few of the better educated and the wealthier classes. Most of them appeqr to be a very low type of humanity, some with negro blood, others with Indian blood, some apparently pure Spanish, but mostly a very mongrel type. I did not see a single straw sombrero. Practically every Mexican wore a light colored Stetson of the broad brimmed sort. I was told, by a clerk in a hat store that the average Mexican would go without clothes on his back or shoes on his feet in order to buy himself a fine quality hat and that he always insisted that it be a “Stetson,” and that he frequently would pay as high as sls to $25 for a hat and have very old clothes and shoes. The Mexican stores are untidy and ill-smelling. The Mexican market is a very queer place and on almost every corner were lazy-looking Mexicans with baskets filled with pomegranits or other fruits. Crouched in stairways were old Mexican women offering for sale various articles of their own making. They speak very little l English. If you cannot talk their language you can not trade with them. The consequence is that it Is up to Americans to learn their language or enough of it to understand phrases in common use. In the evening and late into night the Mexicans lounged in languid groups about the restaurants, markets, saloons and corners. There were several little groups of musicians and we decided that the music was very soft and sweet, although the musicians did not look capable of producing it. For some little time we watched four musicians and a half dozen listeners in front of a restaurant. Each musician and each listener was posed in a manner that formed a picture that beats anything I have ever seen. The Mexicans have a habit of standing with a strong lean, bracing their shoulders on something and having their feet some 18 inches away from the base of thesr lean.

I purchased a few little pieces, of Mexican drawn work, and while negotiating for them, the shop keepers showing some disposition to barter, several Mexican women came in witn articles to sell. They had the most exquisite pieces of linen drawn woib and laces. The lady who ran the shop said that they would pay as high as 90 cents for a piece of linen and work for two days in making of it a dain'y shirt waist or an apron or a dress skirt and then sell it for $1.30. Most of the articles arc made by the Mexicans in the U. S., as there is considerable duty on those made across the river. I did not get. much of a view of Mataffioros. It is said to have been a city of 60,000 people a half centui y ago and now to have only about 5,000. It is expected that the population will increase rapidly if all matters of difficulty are adjusted so that peace and safety will be assured foreign residents there. The tops of buildings and the steeples of a church were about all that could be seetn from the bridge. Sunday Lieuts. Garland and Healev rode horseback to the'river at Progresso about 11 miles away, and had a very pleasant day’s experience. Four companies from the Ist Minnesota regiment and two from the 2nd Indiana are soon to leave to occupy posts along the river that have been occupied by the 26th infantry. Our camp now looks like a cantonment. The mess shacks are nearing completion. Each company has one 24 feet wide and 72 feet long. The lumber for the tent floors is on hand and the fire-brick incinerators are being Constructed. Apparently all this expense and carefully planned arrangement is not to terminate in the return of the troops at any near day and I am inclined to the belief that we will not be sent home until we are much better trained and urit.l the Mexican situation is such that raids are very improbable. You know as much about that as any man on the border. They do not trust the Mexicans. Mexico is poverty stricken, its people are willing to become bandits rather than engage in peaceful pursuits and I still believe that actual aimed protection will be necessary, ip order to furnish the inspiration to establish a peaceful, prosperous and happy country and ;o open the door of hope to the poor devils who seem so near the bottom round of humanity. While this will call for sacrifices I have not changed my mind in the belief that the rescue of Mexico will be a step in civilization of such vast importance that it will be worth all the sacrifice it calls for. Today I saw as one of three judges

two militia companies engage in a little problem of combat. Simulated conditions do not furnish quite the situation that combat would in order to inspire an officer and those under him to grasp the full atcion he would in meeting an enemy, but I want to say that had these two companies that were suddenly called upon to assume a- situation been actually meeting an enemy I am afraid they would have been annihilated before they fired a shot. The reason is the need of training, the need is one of greater preparedness. Whether this can b 3 secured through the calling to the colors occasionally of the national guard or whether some other method must be ■ evolved-1 do not know. But: I do know that we were worse off than any of us dreamed. War is a science the schooled soldier is a professional man and his profession has no equal in the estates of the time. The army is based upon a knowledge of history, of science, of law, of medicine, and embraces a knowledge of men and a training of them that no other business in the world ha?. And while the army man is devoting his time in an effort to furnish the weapon*for our defense it is hoping and planning to accomplish the needs of a great nation without ever firing a shot. Thoroug/i preparedness is the certain solution. We have not had it and no sane man who has spent, the past month or two along the border would say that we were or are fit to meet an enemy on the firing line. That wc hwVe not had to fight is a blessing, that w© may never have to fight is a hope, but safety to our institutions, permanence to our independence argues for the training that will make our reasonable demands respected throughout the world. Those of us who are here will be better prepared for the highest duty and sacrifice of citizenship if ever called upon. But I believe that the sacrifice should be a universal one and that every citizen shouldriJe required to take training and I am reminded here of a Biblical injunction that “a strong man well armed shall fear no evil.”

Since I began to write this an order discharging Corporal Adolph Hess has been received. He will probably reach home about as soon as my letter does. I shall be glad to have letters from friends at any time and will try to answer them if time permits. Earl Qhamberlain, who was principal of the intermediate department or the Rensselaer schools last year, will probably be unable to retiyn home to take bis old position. He is a member of Company C, of Monticeflo, and my orderly. MAJOR GEO. H. HEALEY.