Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1899 — No Disqualification. [ARTICLE]

No Disqualification.

Maj. Whipple, of the Second Massachusetts Regiment, had been a soldier and an officer in the civil war, and in the meantime had seen much service in the Massachusetts militia. When the Spanish war broke out, be wished to go to the front with his regiment. But all the officers, as well as men, had to undergo a physical examination at Worcester. Maj. Whipplewas a man of great bodily strength and perfect health and activity, but the lapse of time had left him a little deficient in the matter of teeth. An examining surgeon proposed to exclude him on that account. Then the major, who could not stand being shut out from the chance to serve his country in such an emergency, waxed wroth. “Look here,” he exclaimed, "I’m going down there to shoot Spaniards! I don’t propose to eat them!” We do not know what answer, by word of mouth, the surgeon made to this protest, but the fact is that the major went to the war and distinguished himself in it, even eating his share of hardtack with the rest, and escaping all the illnesses that fell to the lot of younger men.—Youth’s Companion.