July 29 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, this year a correspondent for the London Times during the Spanish-American War. On May 23 in Tampa, Florida, Bigelow wrote an article exposing the unpreparedness of American troops for combat which ran in Harper’s Weekly. He was denounced as unpatriotic. An excerpt of Bigelow’s article:

THE CONDITION OF THE ARMY

Who Is Responsible ?

Here we are thirty days after the declaration of war [Apr. 25 ], and not a regiment is yet equipped with uniforms suitable for hot weather. The United States troops sweat night and day in their cowhide boots, thick flannel shirts, and winter trousers. In addition to this they wear a tunic at inspections—a piece of torture. Who is responsible for this? No one knows.

The poor men have to sleep on the ground in the heavy, dirty sand. Their sweaty clothing picks it up, and their food is full of it. Every whiff of hot air blows fine dust about, and every horse, cart, or even passing person adds discomfort to men already miserable. How little it would cost to have the camp sprinkled once or twice a day! Or at least the government might have provided rough boards from which the men could have sawed themselves a few feet of flooring. Who is responsible for this meanness which is seriously affecting the health of our men? In this hot climate we yearn for fresh fruit and vegetables, for anything that will quench thirst and at the same time cool the blood. Meat and all heating things we try to avoid by a wise instinct. The troops, however, are supplied with only that which is most unseasonable—greasy pork, and beans of that brown quality that makes one ready to spend the rest of the day in a watermelon-patch. I found officers with nothing but these rations, because the commissary had nothing else, and they could not afford to send for other things from the town. Who is responsible? No one can tell. [Harper’s Weekly reprinted in Public Opinion Vol. 24 June 9, 1898 p. 709]. Note: the Secretary of War criticized Bigelow in a N.Y. Times article on June 2.

Sam’s reaction:

I want to congratulate you. I read your famous letter with great satisfaction, and it seemed to me that you deserved the thanks of the country for it. I never saw any of the comments on it, but there were suggestions in the atmosphere that it had stirred up protest and bitterness. I could not definitely make out where. By the latest “Weekly” I perceive that it was in the bosom of (Richard) Harding Davis; also that he has now gone and (unintentionally) covered you with glory and himself (unintentionally) with the cap and bells. It is a curious and interesting case of a man hilariously kicking his own southern exposure in public—unconsciously [MTP].