NLY seven officers of
the United States ar
my now living have re
ceived commissions,
other than brevets, for
specific distinguished
service, and have had
the facts concerning
the service for which
the honor was con
ferred set forth in the
commissions them
selves. One of these
I officers is Mai. Geo. John R. Brooke, who was
: given his rank as a brigadier general of volun
1 teers years ago “fa* distinguished services dur
ing the battles of (he Old Wilderness and
} Spottsylvania Coast House, Va.”
J Among the officers who bear Gen. Brooke
company la the matter of having been special
ly recognized hy gtfts of commissions for gal
Y Y Y
COPYRIGHT BY WA PATTCB60T1
enridge. We dnin i go back lar, only
to a little elevation where we took up
a position to re-form. Now if you
want to know anything else about the
battle, you'll have to ask some chap
who did not get poked in the abdomen
with a bunch of shrapnel as I did.”
Miles and Brooke made the charge
that morning together. Two officers
who rode with Brooke, Colonels Mor
ris and Byrnes, were killed at the gen
eral’s side by a part of the same
“bunch of shrapnel” that "poked"
Brooke In the abdomen. Gen. Miles
w'as a conspicuous figure on the field
during that fight, always in front and ^
in the thick of things, and yet escap- ^
ing without a scratch.
Possibly It was lucky for Gen. a
Brooke that the shrapnel found htm (
when it did. He was no nearer the ,
GJ57Y. cra&fJi BROQXl
and Theodore Roosevelt talked back
to Charles F. Humphrey.
Only recently the lieutenant colonel
of volunteers, who wanted transporta
tion for his troops, arid wanted it "bad
and quick," and who didn’t get it un
til the coolnel and quartermaster was
good and ready, was the commander
in-chief of the United States army and
the man who refused to give the
Rough Riders precedence was his
subordinate. It should be said right
here, however, that when the opportu
nity came Col. Humphrey was made a
brigadier general by order of Mr.
Roosevelt, who jumped the man who
once had come so close to swearing at
him that no one could tell the differ
ence, over the heads of seven other
officers, to give him the place.
As has been said, it was feared that
the president might retire Gen.
Humphrey, as he had a right to retire
him, because the genera) had seen 30
years of service, in order that another
officer might be promoted. The fear
passed. Probably there was never any
reason for its existence excepting the
thought held by some foolish ones
that the president had neither forgot
ten nor forgiven what the old cam
paigner once said to him.
From private to brigadier general i3
the promotion history, through the va
rious ranks, of course, of Charles F.
Humphrey. He showed not long aga
that the lessons of quick action taught
him on the battlefield have not been
lost to memory.
Gen. Humphrey did a bold thing
when the report of the insurrection in
Cuba reached Washington. Secretary
Taft ordered the troops to make ready
to go to the island. The sanction of
President Roosevelt was needed to
make the order effective. The presi
dent wras at sea on Admiral Evans'
battleship, watching the maneuvers
off Oyster Bay. Hours would elapse
before the president could be reached.
Meanwhile, Gen. Humphrey, as chiei
WAS AXWKfcS IN FRONT HKD IK mg
THICK CXF 77KHG<S
lant services, are Lieut. Gen. Nelson A. Miles
and Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt. ~
Gen. Brooke goes from Washington to Flor
ida in the fall. The cold of the northern win
ter strikes into his wounds, and as this old sol
j dier has more than his share of wounds he is
in pain all over his body when they begin hurt
ing in unison. At the battle of Gettysburg he
commanded the Fourth brigade of the Second
Army corps, and at an early stage of the fight
a ball struck him in the left leg, shattering the
bone. Brooke went through the battle with
only one good leg, but when asked afterward
how this was possible, he said that his horse
had four good legs, and that as a consequence
he could spare at least one of his own.
It was at Cold Harbor that the general re
ceived the injury of which it was thought he
would die, but his constitution came to his aid
and he pulled through, it is a curious coinci
dence that Gen. Miles and Gen. Brooke took
part together in three campaigns as general
officers. Their brigades were side by side at
Cold Harbor, and later, in the Sioux war which
was waged in the country about Pine Ridge
agency, Miles and Brooke, the one a major gen
eral and the other a brigadier general, led the
forces in the field against Kicking Bear, Short
Bull and their Ogallalla and Brule Sioux fol
lowing. In the Spanisb-American war Miles
and Brooke campaigned together in Porto
Rico.
It was at the Spottsylvania Court House fight
in which Gen. Brooke so distinguished himself
as to gain from his superior officers the com
mendation which resulted in adding a grade
to his rank. By a bit of hard, dashing work
he captured two batteries of field guns that
were playing havoc with one of the flanks of
the union army, and the general had a part
in the capture of nearly the whole of John
sons division of the confederate force.
, Gen. Brooke was an eyewitness at Spott
sylvania of the heroic bravery of Gen. Robert
E. Lee, who, as Gen. Brooke tells it, “seeing
disaster all along the line, rode out barehead
_ ed in front of his men and sat, dauntless, on
* his horse, setting an example of bravery to his
6 following. ‘Get back, Gen. Lee!’ his soldiers
■ shouted, and when finally the confederate chief
! tain turned slowly to the rear his men came on
to the charge with a gallantry and a force that
checked our advance and saved the remnant of
their army from destruction.”
I 1 At Cold Harbor, Lee was firmly intrenched
and Grant’s method of getting at him was by
direct assault from the front. Gen. Brooke
hasn't much te say about the battle of Gold
SHarbor. This Is what he does say: “My com
* maud took part In a direct assault on the
^works- We went at it, but as McDougall and
iByrnes did not get' up at once, we were
smashed back for our pains by Hill and Breck
grave with the awful
wound in his body, per
haps, than he would have
been if, unscatched at the
beginning of the fight, he
had been able with his
men to continue the rush
ing of the confederate
works all through that day
of death. As another has
written it: “Time and
again the federal troops
rushed the works at Cold
Harbor always to be re
pulsed with murderous
loss by the cool fire of the
southern soldiers. It is
reckoned that on this fa
tal day in the charges
alone, 5,000 union troop
ers went down.”
Honorable mention
came to John R. Brooke
<z£7vr
itmRjrr
*v/* baiiau>< oci vices at
Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and on
the fields of the battles already named He
was a volunteer officer, but the character of
his service had been such that at the close of
the war he was made a lieutenant colonel of
regulars.
During his western service Brooke fought
every tribe of Indians that had the heart to
take the warpath against the regulars. His
Indian fighting ended when on a winter morn
ing in the year 1891, 5,000 Sioux, after warring
for a month, were driven by the forces of
Miles and Brooke into Pine Ridge agency,
where they surrendered.
When the Spanish-American war broke out
Gen. Brooke was in command of the depart
ment of the Missouri, with headquarters in
Chicago. He was ordered to take charge of
the military camp at Chickamauga park. La
ter he led an army corps to Porto Rico, ea
pecting a fight but not getting it. There was
a skirmish or two, but the campaign practical
ly was bloodless. At one time it appeared that
a battle was imminent, but a courier reached
the army with the news of the signing of the
peace protocol. “I rather think,” Gen. Brooke
said recently, "that my men were a little hit
disappointed at being: called off, but if could
not be helped.”
Gen. Brooke was the first military governor
of the Island of Cuba under American occu
pation. Ha la)d the base upon the solid walls
of which others built, to the gaining credit' for
the superstructure when much of the praise
should have been given to the foundation. -■
There were men having the good of the
service at heart who feared: that Charles F.
Humphrey, until recently quartermaster gen
eral of the United States army, might he
quartermaster of the army, acting on
his own initiative, chartered the necessary transports foi
the troops and held them until word could be re
ceived from the president.
If the president had declined to sanction Secretary
Taft’s order, and as a result, the transports had not been
needed, the bill for their day’s service would have been
rendered to the government, which, in the way of gov
ernments, probably would have repudiated it, and il
would have taken some years of Gen. Hurohrey's pay tc
have satisfied the ship owners.
Many officers would have refused to telegraph orders
chartering the transports before it was known definitely
that they were to be used. Gen. Humphrey took the
chance. As a result the ships were ready when the
troops were ready, and there was not an hour’s delay in
the program of intervention in Cuba. In his message
sage the president speaks of the preparations for send
ing the army to Cuba as “faultless.” The chief word ol
praise belonged to the quartermaster general.
In the Cuban campaign of 1898, Col. Humphrey—he
was then a colonel—had troubles of his own. The quar
termaster’s department should not be confused with the
commissary department, as it frequently is confused in
the mind of the civilian. Col. Humphrey did not have
embalmed beef troubles, but he did have other troubles
He knew what was needed for the soldiers’ use in a sub
tropical climate in summer, and he did more effective
long-range directing than any other man in the service
The government wasn’t prepared for the Spanlsh-Amer
ican war, but Humphrey, by sheer force of hammering li
telegrams, succeeded in inducing the department authori
placed upon the retired list by order of Pres
dent Roosevelt before he had reached the age
at which retirement is compulsory. The men
who held this fear probably did not know ilr.
Roosevelt.
Quartermaster General Humphrey is in
Washington. In July, 11 years ago, he was a
colonel and quartermaster stationed at Santi
ago, Cuba. Humphrey is a veteran of the civ
il war and of the Indian wars. There came to
him a lieutenant colonel of the volunteer cav
alry, known as the “Rough Riders.” This lieu
tenant colonel wanted transportation for his
troops and wanted it “bad and quiek,” for the
battling war was over and the fever had laid
its grip cn the men. '•* s
Col. Humphrey knew his duty and he knew
ihat in transportation, matters as in other
matters, the troops must be considered in line
of precedence, and in( line of orders. There
were other officers ahead of the lieutenant col
onel of Hough Riders.
The fighting in the fieid was done. There
was another fight with words as the missiles
of warfare. The old colonel of regulars told
the young lieutenant colonel of volunteers a
few things in good old veteran language. The
young lieutenant colonel of volunteers retort
ed to the old colonel of regulars in, language in
, keeping with that' which is now called the life
strenuous. The veteran knew1 the service and
he knew his orders, and the recruit was given
bis transportation for his troops when it was
proper for him to have it, and not one minute
earlier. ‘■
There are persons who say that the warm
est five minutes of the whole campaign in Cu
ba were the five minutes in which Col. Charles
F. Humphrey talked to Theodore Roosevelt,
ues ai me capital 10 senu mm ngnt-weignt un
dershirts for the troops, instead of bearsklr
jackets and rabbit-skin caps, with a thousanc
or two woolen blankets thrown In. A vas
quantity of material sent to Cuba before th'
officers at the front could stop its shipment
was much better fitted for a polar expedltior
than for a campaign under a tropical sun.
Humphrey went into the civil war as a prt
vate of artillery, when he was a mere boy. H«
has been In a hundred battles and has beer
brevetted for conspicuous persona! gallantrj
on the field. He Is perhaps the bluffest sol
dler in the army, and he is also one of thi
best.
CAUSES OF TRUANCY.
Miss Mary Boyle O’Reilly, secretary of thi
children’s institutions department, is giving i
course of lectures on kindred subjects, such ai
truancy, the juvenile courts, and so on, in Bos
ton. She says that many homes are of sucl
character that weaklings are bred in them, and
that a large class of children think themselvei
justified In playing truant in order to ears
money, being too young to judge of the relative
value of money and education.
HUMAN NATURE THE SAME.
In 1827 the editor of a Brussels paper made
some invest'gations and found that there were
3,031 wfves in Belgium who had left their bus
bands that year; 5,042 couples were living ai
war under the same roof. In all Belgium just
three really happy couples were found and
1,022 comparatively happy couples. Evidentlj
the world does not change very much and hu
man nature is the same the whole world over
ILLOGICAL FEAR OF LEPROSY
_ -V___
Specialists Are Still Doubtful Whether
i One Person Can Transmit It
to Another.
There is possibly no disease the
presence of which inspires greater
fear in the public mind than does lep
rosy. This is perhaps in a measure
due to the loathsomeness of the dis
ease in itr later stages, but it is in
moat cases simply fear of a name.
The disease or diseases spoken of
as leprosy in the Uible are popularly
supposed to be the same as the lep
rosy of to-day, and the evident fear
the leper inspired in the people of old
is held to justify the dread with which
he is still regarded. The Biblical de
scriptions do not, however, fit modern
leprosy, so that whether the fear of
the “leper" of olden times was or was
not justified it should not be allowed
to color the view with which the leper
of to-day is regarded.
' Leprosy is Indeed an infections dis
ease, that,is to say, it is due to the
presence in the tissues of a bacillus,
known generally as Hansen’s bacillus,
after the Norwegian physician who
discovered but whether it is con
tagious, hades ;tbe ordinary conditions
of wMbsstUft to temperate climates,
at leak, is held by specialists in-dis
eases of tbie shin to he very doubtful.
Of tbe few Mpenr known to the phy
siciaas in. all the larger cities some
are cared for In hospitals, others live
at home and visit the clinics or the
doctor's office from time to time; yet
an instance in which another person
has acquired the disease from any of
these lepers is unknown.
There are many diseases more to be
dreaded than leprosy because more
rapidly fatal, more painful or more
contagious, yet none of them except
perhaps smallpox is more feared.
The illogical terror of leprosy may
be the cause of great cruelty to those
afflicted. There are thousands of peo
pie who show culpable indifference to
the enforcement of the laws against
spitting in public places, although
they know full well that the success
of the crusade against tuberculosis
hinges largely upon care in this re
gard. Yet these same persons would
fly in horror from any place that had
harbored a leper.—Youth’s Companion.
Good Advice.
Whatever you do, do wisely ant
think of the consequences.—Gesta Ro
manorum.
STILL THE WORLD’S CHAMPION WRESTLER.
Frank Gotch, the Iowa farmer boy found Giovanni Raicevich, the
Italian champion, the easiest of any of the recent foreign mat stars who
have tried to take the title across the ocean. Although heavier than
the champion Raicevich was like a baby in the hands of the Ameri
can, and Gotch put his shoulders to the mat twice in about 23 minutes
of wrestling.
GOTCH KEEPS TITLE
IN UNITED STATES
CHAMPION WRESTLER EASILY
DEFEATS ANOTHER FOREIGN
INVADER IN CHICAGO MATCH.
RAICEVICH IS EASIEST YET
Great Italian Loses in Two Straight
Fails—Brain, Not Brawn, Wins
Bouts, Says Iowa Farmer Boy,
Talking on Training Methods.
Another foreign wrestler has tried
in vain to take the championship title
from Frank Gotsch, the Iowa farmer
boy who has successfully defended it
against all comers. The latest to at
tempt the feat, which the great. Hack
enschmidt failed to accomplish, is Gio
vanni Raicevich, an Italian.
Though endowed with great
strength, and a figure that looks like
a piece of Greek statuary, Giovanni
didn't know enough about wrestling
to make any trouble for the Iowan.
He got only two holds during the en
tire bout and these Gotch easily avoid
ed. He broke the Iowan's famous toe
hold twice and showed that he pos
sesses gameness, but that was all.
The champion floored the Italian in
straigfht falls, the first being less
than 17 minutes and the last taking a
few seconds more than five minutes.
A crowd estimated at 15,000 persons
jammed the Chicago coliseum and
i saw Raicevich's vain attempts to win
the title and cheered the American
to the echo when he pinned the in
vader’s shouldrs to the mat the sec
ond time.
Gotch won the first fall with a
crotch and bar arm hold and the sec
ond with a cross leg, hammer and
wrist lock. The champion used the
toe hold as a preliminary to get the
final clutch on the big Italian.
Gotch's victory added another quar
ter section of Iowa land to his fortune,
which Is now estimated at more than
$200,000. It also boosted him as an
attraction with the Jeffries aggrega
tion which is to start a barnstorming
tour of the country in a few days.
Before he left Chicago, Gotch was
served with notice of a suit for $25,
000, which a young woman named
Sadie Currie wants for breach of prom
ise. Gotch says he doesn’t know the
girl and will fight the suit.
Gotch recently enunciated training
principles about as revolutionary
as it would be for a distiller
to declare in favor of prohibition,
and just as far from the beaten
track.
“In training it’s brain over brawn.”
he said. “The man who trains with
his brain can get more good out of
•twirling a match than an athlete can
out of a five-pound dumbbell who does
not use his brain. It’s systematic and
not mechanical training that counts.
“The man who tosses dirt and rock
from the street to the wagon eight
hours a day—he’s mechanical. The
trouble with the foreign athletes is
that they are mechanical.
“They do not use their brains in
training. They are taught all of the
known holds and how to avoid or
break them. But spring a new one
and they are gone. With them it’s
matter over mind. It should be the
reverse.
“When I run I watch every step. I
figure just where 1 shall place my foot.
That makes me think. And it also
makes every muscle employed • the
slave of my miad. -I get much more
out of it than the Marathon runn«*
who just wants to caver distance.
“Try to move a miwde in your arm
without moving the limb. You can's*
That’s because your brain is not mas
ter of your muscles. There isn't a
muscle in my body that I can't move
at the command of my brain. It's be
cause I think as I train.
“It’s speed the athlete must have,"
continued Gotch. “That’s where many
an athlete makes a mistake. He
thinks it is brawn. And it is a mis
take that many men exercise just for
the benefit of the exercise make. Men
who use dumbbells a few minutes a day
get heavy ones. I use dumbbells and
Indian clubs that weigh one and one
half pounds.
“It's because I can get speed out of
them.
“It's the failure of the foreign
wrestler to think as he trains, to make
the brain master of his muscles, that
makes him the inferior of the Ameri
can athlete.
"Graeco-Roman is the most popular
style of wrestling abroad. It admits
of fewer holds and there are fewer
variations to these holds.
“They know that the strength of an
opponent will come from a certain di
rection and the pressure will be
brought to bear at a certain .point
They train to resist with certain mus
cles. They do it mechanically. ,
“Their brains never master their
muscles.
“Hence they are easily surprised
and in the test certain muscled fail
them for the reason that they wer>
never brought under control." .
Cobb Honored fcy President.’
President Taft and Tyrus R. Cobb
of the Detroit ball team had a chat-at
the Country club in Augusta, Ga
When Mr. Taft learned that Cobb was
in Augusta he sent the famous player,
through Capt. Archibald Butt, his niiti
tary aide, a message that he would
like to talk to him.
MICHIGAN END HURT.
Borleslce, who has shown himself t«
be the best end produced at Ann At
bor in several years, suffered a broket
collar bone in the game with Notr*
Dame. His tackling has strengthened
the team wonderfully and the elevei
■went cast feeling his loss greatly.
: Cutting Out Annoyance*.
It is not selfish to cut out annoy
ance. Generally it means the highest
good of those who must live with us.
The woman who can be fretted and
not vent it on some one else, either
actively or unknowingly, Is so rare
that for the peace of her friends she
should cease to be annoyed if within
her power.
Noiseless Typewriter.
A noiseless typewriter has been in
vented by an Austrian.
Spectacles for a Bird.
Recently a raven In the London
zoological garden was operated upon
for cataract, and has actually been
provided with spectacles, which are
fltted to the eyes by means of a kind
of hood. The Improvement in the strhr
was obvious.
The Wisehelmer Says:
The man who can’t give a negative
answer when asked to have a drink
re**rded as having trou-!
hie with his no a.
